Marley goes down in the back!

Spine injuries can happen quickly and can go down hill in a very bad way very quickly. Two of our Frenchies have had spine issues in the past 15 months.

Sammi was first. He woke up one day wobbling like a drunken sailor. He IMMEDIATELY went to the emergency hospital and was seen. In his case we were given Pred and strict crate rest. He also received numerous TTouch sessions and was fine 2 weeks later. No further treatment was warranted and no PT required.

Marley's path started off similar but had a very different result.

Our first indication that something was wrong with Marley was Tuesday morning when Steve rolled over in bed and bumped Marley. (red flag #1) Marley let out a sharp cry. Immediately we felt him all over and tried to repeat the problem...we got nothing. Chalking it up to Marley's tendency toward the dramatic we figured he got scared and left it at that.

Tuesday evening when we got home he has trembling a little and seemed "off". We took his temp and it was a little low so we put a towel in the dryer to get hot and I did TTouch on him through the towel and he and I hung out alone in the bedroom where he slept (red flag #2 Marley does not rest voluntarily).

After a restless night of Marley not being comfortable and keeping all of us awake I took him to ER at 5:30 am. He endured a very detailed exam of physical manipulation and a rectal exam since impacted anal glands can also result in hind end discomfort. Marley passed these tests with flying colors. Only one time did he actually flinch a little. While at the doc he started to favor his right hind leg EVERY SO SLIGHTLY. We decided on an Anti-Inflammatory and pain med with crate rest. I was to call the doc with an update after supper.

I dropped Marley off at home, gave him his meds and went to work.

When Steve got home Marley didn't want to play and would only chew a bone (red flag #3). When I got home and greeted the dogs I picked up Marley and he let out a blood curdling scream and I put him on the couch. He was very upset with me for causing him pain and jumped off the couch with no pain reaction and went about his business.

The after dinner call to the vet resulted in us increasing his pain med since he was walking fine with no signs of neurological impairment.

Marley woke up about 12:30 am and again jumped off the bed with no pain reaction. I did notice his back feet were knuckling under ever so slightly. I called the same vet from that morning was just starting another night shift and he made me a 10 am apt with the Neurologist but said to call him at 3am and let him know how he was doing. The entire family slept down stairs on the couch so Marley may be more comfortable.

Marley was so uncomfortable he could not lay down but would rather sit. Finally at 2:30 Marley found a position where he could lay comfortably and he fell asleep......we all did. We slept through his 3am foot check. In all honesty if I hadn't fallen asleep I doubt I would have woke him up 30 min in to the first sleep he had in almost 24 hours.

At 6:00 am we got up and Marley was paralyzed from the waist down.

Back to the Emergency Room and one look at him and the same poor vet from the day before was on duty again and he said lets plan his surgery. His Neurologist was called in early and a team assembled.

I had really hoped that if he needed surgery I'd have time to transport him to a teaching hospital in Los Angeles because they can do the Spine Surgery for about $2,000 or so. There was no way we had time for any of that. If we wanted Marley to have a chance of walking again we had to move quickly.

By 11 am Marley had his Myliogram to find the rupture and was in surgery from 12 noon until 4:30 pm! The rupture was severe, on the back side of the disk. The rupture was so violent that it hit the spinal column and threw that into something else that caused deep bruising on the opposite of the spinal column.

We won't know his prognosis for a while yet. We've had some good signs in that he has regained deep pain sensation to his back leg that didn't have it before and he may have urinated on his own during the night. Or, it may have been an over full bladder leaking. Time will tell.