Hi everyone...
I don't know why I'm writing this but I guess it's to look for reassurance or understanding or hope or something, because right now I feel at a loss.
Yesterday my five year old cocker was not herself. First meal of the day she was reluctant to eat at first, but then picked up and seemed fine. Saturday went on and she seemed a bit subdued but she has moments like that and we wondered if she was coming into season again. But she was struggling to jump up onto the sofa and as the day went on she stopped doing it all together.
By very late Saturday night/early this morning she was standing up but one or the other of her legs would pull to one side and she'd dump down/fall into a sitting position but she'd get back up again.
At that point I really started to panic, even though she was still doing her best to follow me around everywhere as usual. I searched for what it could be online and the advice seemed to be get her rested in her crate and get her to the vet.
So I put her in her cage for a couple of hours while waiting for the vets to open this morning. Cut to a few worrying hours later and I try to get her out of the crate to see if she needed the toilet but her back legs had totally gone. It was horrifying. She could barely even drag herself out of the cage and I had to pull her out myself. Needless to say, that instant I was calling all the vets in the area to get someone out to her as quickly as possible.
I currently have a slipped disc myself and I can't drive my car due to discomfort and the painkillers I'm on, but no vet could get out to see her until late afternoon. That wasn't good enough and so I scrambled and managed to get her in at another local vet who actually has an orthopedic specialist on staff.
I called a taxi (and unfortunately she pooped on the journey there -probably out of fear- and I think that was the first time she'd toileted in maybe half a day or more. Hard to tell as we let the dogs come and go in and out of the house/garden as they please.)
Anyway, we got there around 11am. The vet told me that it looked like a disk problem. They said she seemed to have feeling in her back legs still but it wasn't likely she'd recover without surgery. Around 11:30am I said goodbye to her and put her fate in the vets hands.
At home a little later I got a call to say the specialist was coming in especially at 2pm and would run some tests and then if there was a need for surgery they'd get her straight in and do the necessary right there and then to try and give her the best chance.
I just got a call from the surgeon with an update. He gave me so much info I don't even think I took ten percent of it on board. He said she'd been in surgery for three hours, and that she's alert but groggy currently. He said there was something up with her spinal cord and that he might need to do an MRI to see what's going on. The technicalities of it all went over my head completely as I'm absolutely distraught, but he said he thinks she's got a sixty percent chance (seventy at best) of recovery but it's going to take months and that she'll be in their care for up to ten days. They had to express her bladder and everything and he seemed to imply that's something that's going to be a long term thing, as will a lot of physio and further treatment to get her better.
I'm absolutely distraught. Switching between fits of sobbing and stoic numbness. I cannot believe this has happened to her, and so quickly too. If I'd know how bad she'd get from her early symptoms I would have had her in the vets yesterday afternoon.
She's never shown any problems at all, other than being a bit moody when she's in season and I just don't know how this could have happened to her. We never heard so much as a yelp out of her.
My heart is breaking because she's literally been the perfect dog. We had her from a six week old pup and I barely had to put any effort into training her because she just seemed to do everything instinctively. She's my right hand girl and such a happy little thing, and she's either cuddling on the sofa or lying close, and even sleeps in my room at night. There's already a gaping hole without her here and I just don't know what to think or do right now.
Has anyone else been through this and can offer some advice, or hope? Does anyone know how likely a FULL recovery is?
I'm reading up and it's saying she might never be back to her old self and that we could be looking at her having to have wheels and she may need to have her bladder expressed for the rest of her life and while I will do anything for that little sweetheart, I don't know what quality of life she's potentially going to have if recovery isn't full or how good I (and what little family I have) will be at supporting her due to my own health being so poor right now.
It's so bloody unfair. She's the sweetest dog and she's never had a day ill in her five years. It's come as such a shock and I'm so scared we might lose her in one way or another. I feel so hopeless at the moment. I'm trying hard to be positive by my stomach is in knots at the thought of everything that could go wrong.
Anyway, thanks guys. I'm sorry for the long venting, I'm just completely and utterly broken and I don't know what to do.
