Originally Posted by Maximo (Post 4396351)

Crystal, I am praying the meds will pull Ellie May through this and that you won't have to make any hard decisions for a long time to come.

Sending lots of love and gentle hugs to you both.

Originally Posted by Ellie May (Post 4396090)

I typed a long post up but think I lost it.

I wish I could say there is no reason to worry, but I'd be lying. There are major concerns about how Ellie would do under anesthesia for hours at a time, esp. cutting on her spine. These concerns don't even take into a account that she is now losing a bit of protein in her urine. We are fairly certain that one disc is affected, but there may be several others in addition. Then we have to consider that there is stenosis (narrowing) all throughout her spine along with arthritis. So fixing a disc does not make Ellie's problems magically disappear.

Her best chance is that a blast of steroids works. If it doesn't and keeping her alive in the current condition is deemed to be unfair to her then obviously the risk of imaging and surgery becomes worth it. Depending on what is seen on imaging it may be unfair and unwise to even attempt surgery. We could take the small risk and image now, but the last thing the neurologist wants to do is put her under and lose her when the results will probably tell him to give pred anyway.

He would like to see what the drugs do this week and go from there. Right now we have a sore pup with clear neurological deficits. She is still happy, telling her brother off, eating, barking her brains out, and sometimes wanting to play.