Prayers for Livie please
 

Something is wrong with my little girl. Last night I heard a commotion between her, Teddy and London. I heard Teddy barking and thought they were all playing, then noticed London & Livie were fighting over something one of them had found. I was running to go break it up and before i did Livie was screaming with her head back. She finally stopped screaming and returned to normal..i thought London had hurt her or something. I watched her after that for a while and she had returned to herself, walking, eating, etc but was a little skiddish. Well this morning, Livie was on the bed with me and when i woke up she let out a loud scream, peed on the bed and got super stiff on her side. She is stable now and we are on our way to the vet but her appointment is not until another hour. Was wondering if anyone has any inout on what it can be. It appears to be something with her neck. She is very stiff, doesn't want to walk around, is just laying down and doesn't seem to want to move her head. I hate seeing her like this. I'm sure we are going to get x-rays done, i just have no idea how she could have gotten hurt like that in 2 seconds. I'm in pain when she is in pain..I'm sure you all know how it goes when your little one is hurt. Any input on what i should ask the vet would be great. I don't know if it's her neck or back or something else. :(

Keeping you and your sweet Livie in my thoughts and prayers. Hope all goes well at the vet.

Sending good thoughts and prayers for your little Livie.

Wow must be the day. What did your vet say or do ?

I hope Livie is ok and just sore. Look forward to an update.

It is not looking good. Am on my phone so its harder to write, ill explain the rest at home but its looking like she will need surgery which is super expensive, thousands of dollars, almost 10 here in ny. She has atlantoaxial luxation on the neck. I am beside myself, dont know what to do

So sorry sending prayers and hugs

It should not cost $10,000!!! There are members here who have dealt with this.. I am going to PM a couple of them.
I'm sorry....so stressful. :(

Oh my gosh! I am so sorry to hear this. You must be going out of your mind.. Im sending prayers for you and your baby.. I hope something can be worked out

Thanks ladyjane, if you know of anyone that went through this that would help a lot. I would like to speak to them. The surgery itself-they gave me an estimate of about $5,000-$6,000. Today at the vets it cost me $2500. We went to our regular vet which they did xrays, pain medication, blood work etc and that was $500. They referred us to a neurologist, which is where the other $2000 went. They are keeping her overnight and she is going to get steroids, pain med., and a neck brace. They said that can help the situation possibly temporarily but not completely and eventually surgery would be needed. An mri is about $2000 plus the surgery of $6000 i would be shelling out a total of about $10,000. I do not have that. On top of that they told me the surgery has about a 60% success rate, and its harder on small dogs. i am so stressed out, don't know what to do and i hate to see my baby in pain.

Oh, please...please call me I would like to talk with you about this and I can help with alot of your concerns and questions. My Zhoie just had surgery at NCSU on Dec 1st and she is wonderful...her surgery was a hugh success. The total cost was $3682. If you want to talk about your options, I would be glad to hear from you.

Oh honey, I KNOW exactly what you are going through. My Zhoie was diagnosed with AAI the end of Nov. We took her to NCSU on Dec. 1st and they did a successful sugery on Dec. 4th. I found out from a Neuro in Leesburg Va (who ripped me off for an MRI at $1800) it was AAI on Thurs., I did intense research over the weekend and we took off for North Carolina State Vet school on Tues. We went in through the ER so she would be referred to the Neuro team ASAP. We arrived there at 3:00 AM they kept her stable in the ER the rest of the night. At 8:00 AM we were referred over ther Neuro. It was a whirlwind of tests, spinal tap..all was clear and she underwent the surgery on Thurs. She stayed in 24hrs care until Sunday and we were able to travel back to WV with her (8hrs one way), but I'm here to tell you....Vet Schools cannot be beat. The surgeons skill and technology is amazing.

Here is a list of the top vet schools, please consider one of them.
Best Veterinary Medicine Programs | Top Veterinary Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools

I sent you a message, please call me to talk. I can help you through this.
Hugs to you and your baby.

How old is your girl? NCSU had never worked on one as old as Zhoie, she was going to turn 3 yrs Jan. 25th, so almost 3. It's generally found by a year old in puppies.

When I was such a mess, not knowing anything about this horrible diagnosis, LadyJane and 107Barney were my life line. They both worked endless hours researching facilities/surgeons and talking with me to best arm me with knowledge in making the best informed decision.

Zhoie & I owe both of them more than words could ever express:thumbup:

Oh, there is an AAI forum on FaceBook too. Anne on FB is absolutely wonderful and will give you so much support and encouragement pre & post surgery. I'm so indebted to Anne and so very grateful to have such wonderful friends on YT, they helped save my girls life.
Anne is also on YT, user Anaic.

I sent her a PM, too. :)

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your sweet baby.

You can not top the vet schools....I always recommend tearing up a path to a vet school when one of our babies gets "iffy" and things start looking bleak....and you have at least two POWERFUL sources of information on here.....you need to contact ladyjane and Perrella....they seem confident they have the answers you need! Jump on it immediately! Meanwhile, I add my prayers for your precious Livie and yourself.....

OMG my heart breaks for you, I have not heard of this until seeing your thread. I guess I joined after Tena went through this with her pup. All I can say is thank God for YT it seems like there are so many kind hearted people here that will help you sort through these medical challenges and not second guess how much money you are willing to spend to heal your yorkie and your heart. Hopefully knowing so many are here for you will make you feel less alone. I wish I had advice, but I can only offer you and little Livie my prayers.

AtlantoaxialInstabilitypups : AtlantoaxialInstabilitypups

Please come over to our yahoo group to help you. We are a group of mom's with AAI fur babies supporting each other and through surgery we have surviving babies! That is untrue of 60% success rate.

First get her stabilized with pain meds, steroids to decrease inflammation, and neck brace for stability. Then we go forward, there is Care Credit to help with the surgery bills, yes MRI is around $2600 Here and surgery varies where you live 3k sounds about right, total around 6k.

This is doable , you are in a panic right now please join our group so that we can help you with questions, there we can chat by phone also to guide you through.

AAI is congenital defect it surfaces any time post birth to several years later but they do survive! My name is Anne please contact us to help you

I'm sorry your little one is going through this.
I'll keep her in my prayers.
Please keep us posted.

I PM'ed you please message me back I know exactly how you feel. Georgie had the same condition it cost us 6k for everything follow ups etc.... at one of the best facilities in the country. I sent you my cell # please call me if you need anything. I will pray for you and your baby I know this is so hard.

Anne I saw your post on our AAI group this morning. I agree with everything you said it can be fixed Georgie is living proof of that. His surgery was 6k and that included all the follow-up visits ect...Please call me there are a few of us here with experience with the condition (Perella and her sweet Zhoie too!). My husband and I can totally relate to how you feel.

I apologize if my 2 previous posts sounded frantic but I opened your thread at 6am and wanted to post some information for you right away as I can totally relate to how you feel. Georgie's AAI was found by doing an x-ray no MRI was needed. The specialist said there was an 80% chance that he would recover and be better than he was before. Basically they are putting pins and bone cement in the top 2 vertebrae which our babies were born without. Georgie is only 4lbs and I can tell you the results are nothing short of miraculous. My sweet boy went in not being able to walk and came out wanting to stand and after a week wanting to run (we didn't allow it). After 7 months he has the mobility of any other furbaby but we do limit him a little more than we normally would. Please know there is hope for you and Livvie. I would love to provide you some information about the specialist we went to (VOSM) and Tena has had great results from the vet school at NC State which is one of the top 2 in the country. I pm'ed you all my information so please don't hesitate to call me day or night. I am so sorry for you and Livvie but wanted to provide you the assurance that she can get better. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Woke up thinking of you and your sweet girl. Sending prayers and thoughts to you both.

I so agree with Morgan and Anne, there is hope and successful recoveries. Please reached out to any of us or all, we want to help.

keeping you and your baby in my thoughts and prayers.

Mizzwanned! Glory be!! You have unleashed a virtual TIDAL WAVE of CONCERNED PEOPLE THAT have a wealth of knowledge and experience WITH THIS VERY ISSUE!!! How blessed we all are to be involved with some of the kindest, sweetest, most concerned and pro-active, "patient advocates" to be found, not only from our own sea to shining sea, border to border, but in other countries all over the world!!! A frantic cry for help goes out and WHAM BAM!!! You are surrounded by not only the best answers to your baby's problem, you have the emotional support and genuine love and concern of all of us, even those of us who have NO idea or NO experience in THIS particular issue! I am so moved by the outpouring from all the YT'rs who have been where you are with this issue,that can effectively guide and direct you for the best outcome for your baby! I can see a wonderful happy future for you and your precious Levie! GOD SPEED!!!

Just checkin' back in to see if any of the offers for help have been jumped on yet!!! Wondering when we can anticipate a trip to NC State vet school, or some super input and game plan from that "yahoo group' who are all mommas of AAI pups....or any one of the other generous enthusiastic offers of support and guidance that flooded this thread!! Please let us know where you are going, and what you are doing....your "game plan" so to speak!!!

I was just popping back in too...checking for an update. Hope we get some news soon.

Oh, I noticed you are in NY and Cornell Univ. is in NY too:thumbup:. Perhaps you could check into them. Morgan's little Georgie was cared for in MD, maybe that would work.

I can say, the one thing I like about NSCU, they don't put a cast on...but it it strict small confinement after surgery. Anne was wonderful and ordered a stroller for us while we were in NC for the surgery. I hear to tell you, it was a lifesaver, I stroller Zhoie room to room with me. :thumbup:

Please let us know how you and Livvie are doing. Georgie didn't have a cast either he was confined and did fine in allowing himself time to recover.

That's great Morgan, I definitely like the idea of no casts. From what I understand a cast in it's self can be an issue. When we went to NC, I didn't know if they would use one, but I'm so thankful they didn't.

Georgie is a little doll, how much does he weigh. Zhoie was about 4.5 lbs, when they weighed her a NCSU, she was weighing in at 4 lbs. However, I really have to watch that girl now, she is picking up weight & muscle:thumbup: I'm thrilled to watch the changes in her with her steady recovery!! But the surgeon did stressed to me not let her get overweight, so it's time to start watching that now too. :)

So sorry to hear about this, I know GeorgiesMomma and Perrella will be able to give you lots of information on this. Have you told Livie’s breeder about this? Many breeders are willing to refund your money with a genetic condition such as this. She definitely should be informed, so that she stops breeding the pair who produced this dog and also tell others who bought breeding dogs from her. I’m sending prayers for you and Livie and hope you look into Credit Care. Good dog, bad bill: Veterinary care financing options Here's a list from the ASPCA: ASPCA | Financial Help With My Vet Bills

Also, this thead may be helpful. http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/eme...vet-bills.html