Rolling Dog Farm Blog

I talked with Dr. Howard Lawrence, our board-certified veterinary surgeon in Spokane, today about Bailey and what Dr. Bostwick found during his exam yesterday.  Dr. Lawrence said that Bailey is most likely NOT a candidate for surgery because the injury is old.  He said they generally don’t like operating on the spine if an injury is more than a couple of months old because it’s usually too late at that point, and there’s a risk of making things worse rather than better.  That would be particularly true in Bailey’s case since he can still walk on his own.  Add to this the fact that Bailey doesn’t seem to be in any pain, and Dr. Lawrence said there would be far more downside than upside in trying to operate.  However, he said he would still be glad to examine Bailey for us.

Dr. Lawrence said spinal cases respond best to immediate treatment, and the older the injury, the less they as surgeons can help.  Bailey’s injury is old enough that he has lost muscle mass in his back and he’s atrophied along his lower spine, suggesting the slipped disk occurred a long time ago.  (This is why his lower spine is so sharp and bony … the surrounding muscle and tissue have atrophied away.)

Literally 10 minutes after I got off the phone with Dr. Lawrence, I received an e-mail from a lady in Great Falls who read our blog posting on Bailey’s medical exam yesterday.  Gloria L. knew some of Bailey’s history, and said Bailey had back surgery about two years ago, but his then-owner did not do the follow-up therapy and this little guy’s problem re-developed.  Not wanting to care for a dog with this issue, the owner gave Bailey to Gloria, but took Bailey back after two weeks because Gloria was going to have him neutered.  The owner then turned around and gave Bailey to the animal hoarder who was finally convicted of animal cruelty two weeks ago.  (Can you imagine?)

Gloria gave me the name of the vet in Great Falls who did the surgery, and I have a call in to him to find out more.  Hopefully I’ll be able to give a complete picture now to Dr. Lawrence.  It sounds like it won’t change the assessment, but at least we’ll know the full story.  (Thank you, Gloria!)

Meanwhile, here are photos I took of Bailey in my office this afternoon.  The first one is his "I’m Sheik Bailey" routine, pretending to be a Saudi royal prince.  You can see old Pappy looking on from the other dog bed.  (Pappy’s been wondering, "Where do they get all these short-legs from?)

Then, minutes later, the dog completely disappears under the towel.  It starts moving around on the bed as if it were, um, Dachshund-powered.  There really IS a dog inside there.

Pappy is not impressed by the disappearing-Dachshund act.  He’s seen it before.  Nothin’ to it.

(Click on photos for larger image.)