[Dailydrool] Spinal infection

[Menzie Campbell]

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I was glad to read that Duke is doing a bit better by now, but thought
I would share my experience with this FWIW.

Two years ago, April 2009, husband and I went on vacation out of
country.  Had a petsitter.  On our 4th day of 5, petsitter sent me a
text (how I got it in Guatemala, I'll never know, but I'm grateful).
Hector (then 9) was dragging his back legs.  She took him to our
wonderful vet.  So at first the vet thought it was a regular thing -
compressed disc- and started him  steroids and pain meds.  But he
actually got worse.  The vet knew that sometimes - rarely - a spinal
problem can be caused by an infection in the spine.  So he started
Hector on antibiotics instead.  Within 3 days, he was able to come
home, though he was very wobbly, and we walked him outside with a
towel under his hips.  Our vet mentioned toxoplasmosis as a
possibility, but it's very hard to get a culture on a spinal infection
(you essentially have to do a spinal tap, I gather), so we never did
find the specific source of the infection.  My PERSONAL theory is that
Hector got toxoplasmosis from eating cat poop - we had a feral cat in
our previous neighborhood that used to come over our fence and poop in
our flowerbed, just to taunt the dogs.

Anyway, he was on antibiotics for four weeks, and he had to do
physical therapy for several months after that.  But within six
months, he had regained 90%+ of his function.  He's almost 12 now, and
has recently started to get a bit weak in the hind end again, but he
has hip dysplasia as well, so this is pretty much just old age.

I am very grateful to my petsitter for being there, and my vet, for
being a good diagnostician and caregiver.

--Menzie Campbell

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Wendie Prince" <houndsabound at cfl.rr.com>
To: "'An internet mail list designed to entertain and inform
basset	hounds and their people.'" <dailydrool at lists.dailydrool.org>
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:52:12 -0400
Subject: [Dailydrool] Duke needs drool
Hi all,

We have an old guy here at Senior Houndsabound who went down in his
hind end last night.

He is at the vet today and more x-rays were done to compare with some
taken a while back and they have determined that he has an infection
in his spine,  lower spine.

-- 
Menzie Campbell, President, OMBR, Inc.
Save a Life - Don't Shop, ADOPT!
www.ombr.org
Owned by Pw. Annabelle ATB, Hector TVL, Barney, Bozlee, Millie and now
Pippa and Bonnie (the sisters)