Max

After a rollicking trip to the bark park last night Max came home and suddenly, with no warning or prior symptoms, went limp in his back legs, with a lot of accompaning pain. We rushed him to the emergency hospital where he spent the night on high amounts of pain killers while they took xrays and evaluated him. I am writing on my blackberry from the offices of the veterinary surgeon, where we transported him this morning. The doctor, who is driving in from across town, is preparing to conduct a test of his spinal cord.

There are two possible causes of the issue, both of which seem to be treatable with likely sucess, albeit at great time and cost, which, of course, we will undertake. The first likely scenario, which is being tested for now, is a slipped or ruptured disc. If that is the case, he will go immediately into surgery, which, as I mentioned, usually does have sucessful outcomes.

If the test shows no ruptured disc then we take him on Monday for another test to determine if the second scenario, a stroke of his spinal cord, is the cause of the pain and paralysis. While that sounds really bad, and it is, in dogs these things almost always resolve on their own with a couple of months of bed rest.

I will keep everyone up to date! In the meantime,please send your positive thoughts to Max!