Ready for an inspiring dog story? It starts out sad, be warned, but it ends in triumph.
On February 10, I noticed our 11-year-old whippet Katie was limping and acting strangely. She yiped out in pain and was holding one of her front legs up in the air. I decided not to go to yoga class and sat with her in my lap, which she never really let me do before.
When Joe came home from work later, she jumped out of her bed to run to see him and fell flat on her face. Her other front leg wasn’t working either.
Now it seemed like this was a problem with her brain instead of just her bumping her leg into something. We canceled the appointment at the vet for the morning and went to the emergency after-hours vet, Southpaws.
When they tried to weigh her, her back legs gave out too and I just lost it. The attending doctor told us it could be anything from a brain aneurysm to a herniated disc to perhaps she got into rat poison, and if so, she’s about to die and there is nothing that we could do.
I know she is just a dog, but we were despondent. I understood that wow, loving something can bring you so much pain. We said goodbye to her as she struggled to get up in her little crate, not understanding why her legs didn’t work.
Every dog I see now, I look at it and think, you are just a little heartbreak vector.
The next day, the doggy neurologist examined her (I never even knew there were doggy neurologists, truly a Fairfax County career). Bless him! He said he was pretty sure she had a herniated disc and the spinal fluid was pressing on her front legs causing paralysis and if she had surgery, there was a good chance she could recover. Our friend is a vet too, and we called her during this whole process and she said she would do the surgery too, so that made us hopeful.
Now if you told me before or after that we would spend this amount of money on an animal, I would’ve said you were crazy. But in the moment it seemed like the only thing to do. (Whether that is right or wrong is debatable). My parents and I have spent so much money at this vet hospital they need to name a wing after us: The Chapin-O’Donnell Campus.
Here she is at the vet post-surgery on her 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae.
The day we took her home, they brought her out and she was basically like a sack of potatoes. We were going to have to keep her on four weeks of crate rest, carry her everywhere, give her a ton of pills twice a day, and clean up after her because she couldn’t stand up to do her business.
I wondered if I could do this: could I take care of her well enough to nurse her back to health? She was so fragile. She cried all night in the crate and we ended up having to give her anti-anxiety drugs. The nurse assured me Katie was feeling no pain and indeed, she seemed pretty zonked out. Her eyes almost pointed in different directions sometimes.
The most important thing for her was to rest, and so we did. She already slept 20 hours a day, so it wasn’t a huge change, but now she was way more cuddly. Again, that could be the drugs.
I worried that this was all a mistake and she wouldn’t be able to walk again because she was so unsteady on her feet. But here’s the moment her little steps turned into an actual walk! Encouraged by treats, of course. (Click to play).
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She’s really great now. She can’t do a lot of stairs yet but she can get around and jump on the couch, all the important stuff. Her expression has never changed through all of this, I swear. And it might take her a little longer to do things she used to do, but she won’t let that stop her.
I’m so incredibly happy she is still with us!! The doctor and nurses at Southpaws were so knowledgeable and compassionate. Katie’s been cleared for gentle 15-minute walks and she continues to be the best little doggy buddy around.
