Hi all,
back from the specialist today. He wasn't overly concerned by her current state. She wagged her tail and plodded around the office happily and actually pulled me along when we were walking up and down to show him her movement
He gave us 2 options;
1) go home, strict rest for 4 weeks and come back for a check up. Come back sooner if she goes worse again. The risks being that if she's blown / blowing a disc and she could end up paralysed / in pain etc.
2) General anaesthetic and an MRI, followed by whatever they think they need to do as a result. Having the MRI has it's own issues; she reacts badly to anaesthetic, the MRI might not show anything or it might show something but not enough to warrant surgery right now and by the time whatever it is needs surgery we'll be looking at a second MRI to determine state of things at that point, which is another £1600.
His opinion was that an MRI would be interesting, as he sees cockers that have fully blown discs but display little or no symptoms (yes I have experienced that!); however given how well she's doing keeping her rested for a further 4 weeks, keep going with the meds I have until they run out, and then seeing how she does off them is equally a good option.
We opted for bringing her home and resting her for another 4 weeks whilst keeping a close eye on her. The robaxin she started taking on Friday has done wonders, and once the meds are all done we'll see if she has recovered or if it's just meds masking problem.
However the specialist did say that it could as easily be the extra bone she's got 'growing' on her vertebrae pressing down on the equivalent of her sciatic nerve, rather than her discs, but obviously only an mri would tell that.
So she's home, she's eaten and she's now sleeping, she was very pleased to be home.
I just hope she continues to feel better. Fingers crossed.
