Pearl Surgery - 05/22/2021

Everything was fine on Monday 05/17/21 … we were visiting neighbors, and she was playing and running circles around the couch, then reversing course, and do it again. It was refreshing to see her express herself like that, which she rarely does. On our way home, she was running and playing some more, and just having a good time. Everything seemed ok.

Until the next morning …

We get up for her usual morning walk, and she could barely walk. Her back feet were dragging as she walked, and I knew something wasn’t right … I had seem this years before with Flash. I called the vet that day, and brought her in. I didn’t like their diagnosis, so I went to another vet the following day. The new vet said that she definitely had a lower disk issue. By this time, she could barely use her back legs at all, and she had no feeling when the vet pinched her toes. Surgery was decided, and with the help of the Basset Hound Rescue of SoCal, I was able to locate a 24hr vet hospital (up in Irvine, CA) that had a neurologist available to check her out. So, on Saturday 05/22, I dropped Pearl off at the aptly named Blue Pearl Animal Hospital, and she had successful lower back surgery that afternoon.

Diagnosis: she had “an acute disk rupture at T13/L1, and “a chronic disk issue at L4/L5”.

I got regular updates on recovery progress, and the doctor was a very surprised as to how well she was doing the next day, given how difficult the surgery went. There was “hardened disk material attached to her spinal cord”, and the doctor had to use a drill to remove it … YEESH.
FYI: A drill should never be near spinal cord surgery :-)

For the next 3 days, Pearl continued to recover well.
I was able to bring her home on Tuesday 05/25.

I had a 2 piece harness for lifting her (since she was not allowed to go up and down stairs), and no jumping. During the day, she was confined to a pen in my office so she wouldn’t try to get up and walk around, which she loves to do. This was difficult, because she likes to go “explore” my neighbor’s backyard.

Now, not even 2 weeks post-surgery, she walks with little or no assistance from me, and she can keep herself standing up while she is eating and drinking. Every day she keeps getting better !!

She’ll be back to normal very soon.

Here is what 71 staples look like on a basset hound …