Worst Nightmare Come True
On Wednesday, March 10th, Surf and I were working sheep at a lesson. She had a good lesson, and we were at the very end, working on a specific flanking skills, in a tight space, with lots of pressure. Surf was working very tight to the sheep, about 15 of them, against the fence line. We gave her a flank and I saw her little head from behind the sheep and her tongue was covered in blood and I assumed she bit her tongue. But then we gave her the opposite flank, and instead of turning towards the sheep, she turned away from them, screamed and went down. She was unable to walk. I still don't know if she was avoiding being kicked, got kicked or what happened. What I do know is that my girl sustained serious spinal trauma and we immediately headed to the ER. Thank goodness one of my vets from Virginia practices down here in NC now (and does rehab, yay!), and was able to guide me to the best place for Surf to be. She even pulled some strings with the neurologist to get Surf seen quickly.
She spent Wednesday night being stabilized and had a neuro exam and MRI on Thursday, March 12th. Her MRI revealed that Surf sustained an acute non compressive nucleus pulposus extrusion. During an ANNPE, also known as missile disc, a portion of healthy intervertebral disc suddenly shoots though its encasement and collides with the spinal cord at a high velocity. This causes bruising and sometimes bleeding within the spinal cord.
Dogs that suffer from an ANNPE often have been exercising, playing or have had some mild trauma. They may initially yelp and cry out in pain when the incident occurs, but shortly afterward become non painful. The onset of signs is very sudden and many are not able to walk immediately after the incident. In some cases only one hind leg may be affected or one hind leg may seem worse than the other. Both of Surf's back legs were initially affected, but her right leg is almost back to normal now. Her left leg is severely affected.
The primary treatment ANNPE is physical rehabilitation. Since the primary cause of the neurologic dysfunction is due to lack of blood flow or bruising, surgery does not improve the condition. Additionally, no medications have been shown to improve or speed recovery. Most dog with ANNPE will start to show improvement with a few days if the incident and most regain the ability to walk within 2 weeks. Physical rehabilitation can improve the chances of a full and timely recovery.
Her spine looks absolutely perfect other than this tiny bit of disc material that came flying out--she has zero narrowing or compression which is fantastic. The neurologist expects Surf to make a full recovery, go back to any activity she wants to do and for it to never happen again---she has never seen it happen twice in the same dog, as it's just a freaky traumatic thing where all the wrong forces are at play. It's going to take a few months of rehab, but she will get to live a normal life and do the things she loves.
The neurologist has not seen any genetic component to this, and just said it was basically freaky bad luck. There are a few interesting ironies here. First, Jaime and I had already been discussing our concerns about how hard agility is on the dogs spine, in light of another dog we know having had a similar issue. And then I had just had a discussion with Mako's breeder about spine health, as I worry about Mako's lack of self preservation. Never would I have thought it would be Surf who would get hurt---Gypsy and Mako are FAR more likely candidates. But sometimes, it's just really bad luck.
There are good things in play here too---first I have an amazing rehab vet which is huge. I also had a sling, harness and ramp that I used for Chance as he started failing---I still have no idea why I kept the sling! Surf is strong, her spine looks good and she's young---all super positive. I also have the time and energy to devote to her care. But mostly, Surf is just one tough girl, and she's not going to let anything stop her from running fast in life!
I will use this blog to track her progress as we go through her rehab, so we can see just how far we've come one day!
Here is video from her first day home on 3.11.21:
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