A Freak Accident with Missy

So Johnny, me and our 3 dogs moved to Jackson on Thursday. My Dad's workers loaded the truck in Oxford, drove down I55, and arrived in Jackson with no problem. We put the dogs in their new backyard and they were having a blast. They ran and ran and ran! It was so great to see them play. Missy was having the most fun of all. She chased a couple squirrels, ran through some mud and chased Max. She was so dirty we had to bathe her Thursday night. Well, we thought everything was going great. We put Woody and Missy in the kennel and went to sleep; only to wake up to Missy being very whiny and limping on her right leg. I let her out to tee tee and I could tell it was getting noticable worse. I took her inside and put her on the couch. I couldn't decide if she had stepped on something or maybe sprained her little leg???? I just didn't know. She laid on the couch for about an hour. I then proceeded to take her outside again and to my horror, BOTH of her back legs were completely paralyzed. She couldn't walk or anything. I then proceeded to FREAK OUT. I jerked the phone up and started to call the vet, only to realize we didn't have a vet here yet. So I googled "brandon ms vets" and a few came up. I found one near our house and we flew to the vet. And this is when it got even worse. After an X-ray revealed no broken bones or tumors, the vet informed us that Missy had either slipped a disc or had a full herniated disc. She had no "superficial feeling" and VERY little "deep pain" (which meant when you pinched her little toes, she didn't feel it until you really beared down on them). We had two option:

1. try IV and high powered steroids to reduce the inflammation surrounding her spinal cord and see if the decrease in inflammation would give her some movement and control of her legs.
2. go straight to Starkville to the College of Veterinary Medicine for a CT scan and spinal surgery.

Johnny and I talked and we opted for option #1. She immediately administered her an IV steroid and put her in the doggy hospital. They said they would call us this morning and let us know her progress. Well, this morning at 10:15a.m. Dr. Jones called to tell us that there was VERY LITTLE improvement and that we should consider going to the CVM in Starkville. With me getting hysterical (for about the 100th time in 24 hours) we loaded up and took Missy to Starkville. We had a consult with one of the vets and the surgeon. They took her back and told us the best and worst case scenarios.

Worst case scenario: surgery does not work and she is still completely paralyzed in both back legs and cannot express her own bladder. This would result in us having to putting her down. I can't imagine this happening b/c it would be so hard. Her little personality is still very much there even though she can't walk or urinate. She was still barking and growling at other dogs at the vet in Jackson and she was very alert the whole drive to Starkville.

Best case scenario: surgery works, she regains the ability to walk and urinate. However, she will always have some weakness in her hind legs. But hey, I can deal with that.

The surgeon called us around 5:30p.m. and told us that Missy made it through surgery fine. Her spinal cord was 80% compressed but they were able to clear the entire canal and relieve the pressure. Her spinal cord looked good, there were no bruises or tears and it didn't seem "damaged". She is on a fentanyl drip (which is about 200x stronger than morphine) and she is resting. Her prognosis is more optimistic since her concussion to the spinal cord was not near as bad as they thought. Please, please pray that her nervous tissue surrounding her spinal cord will heal properly and quickly. She will be in ICU until late Sunday and we will not be able to pick her up until at least late Wednesday. Please keep our sweet Missy Prissy in your prayers. She is a fighter, but she could always use a few extra prayers! :)