"Our reason for being here is to maintain the health of your pet."
Preventative
Health Topics:
Spinal
Surgery is a specialist
part of orthopaedics which
is performed at the practice. It involves delicate surgery to the
main nerve which carries all the information from the brain to the
legs, bladder etc- called the spinal
cord.
The spinal cord is encased for its protection in a bony canal- the
spinal
column or spine-
from when it leaves the brain at the back of the skull, passes down
the neck & back until it reaches below the pelvis. The spinal
nerves exit out of
the spinal cord at each bone (vertebral) joint along the spine-
these nerves supply the instructions from the brain to the muscle
of the body (e.g. for walking), and also conduct information from
the body back to the brain (e.g. pain, heat sensation in the toes)
a little
like a computer cable.
So you can see any disruption in the nerves ability to conduct will
have major consequences- the
most common reason the nerves stop functioning is because something
is
pressing on them and causing compression--
for example- disc prolapse, spinal cord swelling, tumour, fractures
of the spine, and growth/ developmental defects.
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Our Services:
"Sooty"
6 days post surgery for compete hind leg paralysis- making good
progress
The symptoms: These include back pain in most cases, difficulty walking, to poor balance, through to total paralysis and no feeling in the legs.
Myleography.
In order to locate the
site of spinal cord compression we perform a specialist x-ray technique
called myelography
which is carried
out under general anaesthesia- this involves carefully injecting
a clear sterile solution into the space along side the spinal cord.
This solution runs by gravity along the spinal cord and stops or
deviates at the site of the problem, allowing us to know where exactly
to surgically relieve the compression on the spinal cord.
This dog "Lucky" had 3 sites of spinal cord compression
(at arrow heads) due to the prolapse of 3 seperate discs in his
neck. The cord compression at the middle arrow was causing paralysis
of his limbs so he was unable to walk. He made a good recovery following
surgery when we operated on the 3 sites during one operation.
The Operation: Because the spinal cord is encased in bone we have to use specialist
equipment
to burr a window through the spinal bone to reach the compressed
portion of cord without damaging the cord itself which lies immediately
below the inner surface of the bone. The cord is inspected and any
material pressing on it is removed. Most
cases make good improvement after surgery
provided the cord has
not be
severed during a road traffic accident or permanently damaged by
severe pressure.
"Sooty":
1 month post surgery, and fully recovered
Surgery however
MUST
be carried out quickly if the dog or cat is paralysed, if a return
to walking again is to be expected. Due to the specialist nature
of this surgery and the expense of the equipment required, spinal
surgery is expensive, and is again why we recommend pet
health insurance for these unexpected events.
This dog "Lucky" had 3 sites of spinal cord compression
(at arrow heads) due to the prolapse of 3 seperate discs in his
neck. The cord compression at the middle arrow was causing paralysis
of his limbs so he was unable to walk. He made a good recovery following
surgery when we operated on the 3 sites during one operation. 