Our Poor Puppy!!!

Well our little Frank is sick, sick, sick...much worse than we thought possible.

On Melbourne Cup Day he just wasn't himself, mopping about just sitting against the fence, even not taking the opportunity to come inside when offered. He was doing funny things with his mouth so we thought that perhaps he had a bone stuck in his throat, but on Johns inspection he couldn't see or feel anything. Well as the day went on he got more lethargic and not really moving so at about 7pm John decided to take him to the Animal Emergency Centre...he rang first to make an appointment but at that time of night it was worst served first and as we thought there was really nothing major wrong with him he was told he would probably have a 2 hour wait...so off Frank and John went - John taking a book to read...lol

Well when they got to the vet Frank was quite wobbly on his feet and he was rushed into Emergency - his temp was 40 degrees and he wasn't really using his back left leg at all. They thought it could be poison or a snake bite, but all these test came back negative....all John could do was leave him there the night while they did tests and they would call us in the morning.

Well at 2.45am ( I hate calls at that hour!!!) the Vet called to say that his temp had come down but he was paralysed in both back legs and if it was OK with us they wanted to send him over to the Surgery Dept for a surgery consult and MRI later in the morning.

Wednesday Frank had an MRI of his spine, some dye testing of the spinal cord and lots of other tests. The Surgeon said that there is a Spinal Disease that British Bulldogs can get where fluid compresses against the spinal cord and causes paralysis - but it usually occurs in older dogs he had never seen a case in a 7 month old puppy.

So Thursday night he had an operation to remove the excess fluid from his spine and Friday he stayed the night in the Hospital under observation.

Finally today we were able to pick our little puppy up - sadly he still has no use of his back legs and 'if' the operation has been a success (we only were given a 50/50 chance) it takes 4-6 weeks to see the results. So we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

So Georgie was over the moon to have her brother home but the poor thing doesn't understand why he is penned off inside and she is outside and not allowed to play with him. So we have to help him with everything but towel lifting his abdomen and allowing him to walk on his front legs for toilet time ect, give him massages of his back legs and keep him medicated...but he is home.

So here is our poor little Frank penned up in the rumpus room. With the staples in his back which we have to get removed next week.