Vertebral Canal Stenosis in Pug Puppy

Guest

Hi All,

We have a beautiful pug puppy, five months old, who has, over the
course of
the past two-and-a-half months lost almost all control of her back
legs.

A while back (around a month-and-a-half ago) we had an MRI performed,
which
showed a serious spinal deformity - her spine bends down at an almost
60
degree angle around her shoulder blades - where she has three
hemi-vertebrae.

We have been told by the animal hospital that we have two choices -
either
she is operated upon or she undergoes physiotherapy, neither of which
(as
have been explained to us) have a great chance of working. We've been
told
that if we just leave her as she is, she will probably be dead within a

couple of months, although the reasoning behind this has not been
explained
(and I have to say it sounds odd to me). Our plan was (if we _could_
just
leave her as she is) to get her a canine cart for her back legs (her
front
legs work brilliantly, thank heaven for small wonders!).

Any thoughts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many, many thanks.

Will.

Guest

My apologies for the bad formatting - this is my first time posting
using a new mail server client - hope you can understand what I'm
saying!

buglady · Guest

<ggroups@crazy-pug.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1145740575.058742.149260@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Guest

Thanks buglady - I just fear we won't get a straight answer out of the
vet - they have been rather difficult to get information from thus far.

I probably need to get second and third opinions!

She's been seen by a specialist, and they're the one who's advised
either the physio or the surgery.

Thanks again - I hope this all works out for the best!

josh · Guest

<ggroups@crazy-pug.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1145804678.397061.94480@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Guest

Yes - a specialist, but he's not very forthcoming in figures you'd have
expected him to know, such as potentially mortatlity rates / success
rates from surgery, nor have they explained what'll happen if we just
leave things to take their course. Sad