Sarah update
Those of you who have talked to me in the last few weeks know Sarah has been in a lot of pain, especially when she gets up. In mid September she had to be anesthetized to get x-rayed. She has easy to detect moderate hip dypslasia.
Monday we pushed up her appointment with the surgeon because she was yelping. The surgeon put her on a new drug to help with the pain until she could have surgery, probably in January. The estimate on surgery is high enough that we could rescue over 45 dogs for the cost of surgery... just don't know what we would do with 45 dogs. :)
Wednesday we went to Dublin to get a second opinion, third if you count her normal vet, and Sarah finally got her cat... well actually she had a CAT scan. The surgeon there said he doesn't think her pain is actually caused by hip dypslasia. He noticed that her spine seemed irregular and thinks there she probably has a pinched nerve where a nerve bundle exits the spinal column on the left side between her last thorasic vertebrae and her sacrum. The cat scan showed her vertebrae near her hips are not symmetrical. You can't actually see the nerves without an MRI, which he would want before the surgery...
He pulled her off the NSAID since he didn't think her hips are causing the pain. He put her on prednisone. She was listless when we stopped the NSAID and she was only on the narcotic and nerve medication. After a day on the prednisone she started feeling better. She is doing better now... not 100%, but back to chasing cats.
Monday we pushed up her appointment with the surgeon because she was yelping. The surgeon put her on a new drug to help with the pain until she could have surgery, probably in January. The estimate on surgery is high enough that we could rescue over 45 dogs for the cost of surgery... just don't know what we would do with 45 dogs. :)
Wednesday we went to Dublin to get a second opinion, third if you count her normal vet, and Sarah finally got her cat... well actually she had a CAT scan. The surgeon there said he doesn't think her pain is actually caused by hip dypslasia. He noticed that her spine seemed irregular and thinks there she probably has a pinched nerve where a nerve bundle exits the spinal column on the left side between her last thorasic vertebrae and her sacrum. The cat scan showed her vertebrae near her hips are not symmetrical. You can't actually see the nerves without an MRI, which he would want before the surgery...
He pulled her off the NSAID since he didn't think her hips are causing the pain. He put her on prednisone. She was listless when we stopped the NSAID and she was only on the narcotic and nerve medication. After a day on the prednisone she started feeling better. She is doing better now... not 100%, but back to chasing cats.