I wrote this as a comment to on of Bill in Portland Maine’s Cheers and Jeers diaries, but I thought it deserved its own diary entry.
Christmas Eve, our 3½-year-old beagle Charlie woke up at 6 in the morning in horrible pain and with his hind legs paralyzed. We rushed him to a nearby animal hospital, and they could do nothing and diagnose nothing. We called the Colorado State University Veterinary Hospital up in Fort Collins while waiting for the local ER doctor to reach their veterinary neurologist. We then rushed Charlie up to the CSU veterinary ER. They took him in immediately and diagnosed a ruptured disc at the vertebrae right at the base of the ribcage. They had him in surgery within the hour.
The surgery took two and a half hours. It is still far too early to predict how complete his recovery will be, but the prognosis is very good.
The CSU Veterinary Hospital is a teaching hospital. I cannot say enough about the staff and the students there. First and foremost, they know their stuff. Secondly, they were excellent at communicating with us and making sure we understood what was going on with Charlie and what exactly to expect. Thirdly and most importantly, they are caring and compassionate! While he was in the hospital, they called us twice a day with detailed updates. After three days, when we came to bring him home, they spent an hour and a half training us on his aftercare and how to use the wheelchair.
He came home a week ago today. He will be in the wheelchair for at least the next few weeks, as the nerves to the rear legs recover, but he is eager to move about in it when we get him all harnessed in.
And just today, there was a very visible sign of recovery: He stretched his back legs out behind him and tried to stand up on them!! He could support his weight (but no balance) for about 3 full seconds!