VEC - Hope for Charles

Charles and I met with Dr. Greg Kilburn, a veterinary neurologist at VEC. He took a look at Charles and his X-rays. He could tell right away that Charles indeed was suffering from a ruptured disc and explained intervertebral disc disease to me. I think I probably only heard about half the words he was saying. Basically, the stuff inbetween the individual vertebrae had gotten hard (this was genetic), and pressure made it rupture and put pressure on his spinal cord. Dachshunds are at the top of the list for this to happen. It is not because they have long backs, it is just that with that gene also comes this condition.

Dr. Kilburn then told me that Charles was a candidate for a Hemilaminectomy – removal of one wall of the vertebrae to extract the disc material from the spinal canal – and Fenestration – extraction of calcified disc material – on some of the other discs. I asked the question I was thinking about since I left my normal vet:

Will this surgery make Charles better or is it just going to make me feel better?

He told me that Charles can get better. His normal would be a little different than his old normal, but that we were lucky because he had not suffered paralysis of his back legs. Even with paralysis, the surgery may be able to help dogs regain use of their legs. That this would be a long road to recovery but that Charles could have his life back. And with that I was sold. When finding out about the price - I said that I would have to speak to my family about it, but I knew that this had to be done.

Dr. Kilburn told me to think about it but to call him as soon as possible. Charles would need a CT scan in order to determine that surgery was in fact an option, and exactly what needed to be done.

While waiting in the waiting area, I met a man whose dog had had the same surgery about six weeks prior. He told me that his dog had just been out walking, yelped, then lost the use of its back legs. The dog was there in the waiting room and was walking around no problem. It was very helpful to witness that while I was there.