Chewie's Story
By Deborah Lyublanovits
In May of this year (2020) my heart was broken by IVDD. One morning I awoke to take my three dogs out and Chewie my beautiful Boykin refused to get out of bed. This was highly unusual because she was normally the first to jump down from our bed. Little did I know at this point that in a few hours I would be crying my eyes out as I watched her go from being able to walk, to dragging her back feet, to not being able to move her back legs at all. As soon as we realized that she was having problems we called our vet and they said they could get us in the next day but that was the earliest we could be seen. They acted like it was not a big deal. So my husband and I were extremely confused as to what to do. We didn’t want to over react but when it got to the point that she could not move her back legs we knew something had to be done “now”. I was working from home so my husband said he would find an emergency vet and take her in. While the emergency vet was encouraging because they said she still had core feelings in her back legs they were not really helpful. They did an x-ray which did not show any problems with her back but did show that her bladder was extremely full and they could not catheterize her. They said we could check with our normal vet or take her to the University of Florida’s Small Animal Clinic (UF) to have this done. They also told us based on the x-ray that we could probably put Chewie on medication and crate rest and things would probably be okay. So off we went to Gainesville hoping they could help relieve Chewie’s bladder and give us medications. The whole way there, which takes about two hours, I kept thinking she’s only four years old it can’t be that bad. My thoughts were she’s so active and she’s never had any problems before. When we got to UF we parked, called the number that was provided and waited for someone to call us back. Because of Covid we couldn’t go into the building. After what seemed an eternity and actually was only about 10 minutes they said they were coming out to get her and that we could wait in the car while they assessed her. My husband and I were so upset that we could not go in with her – we really wanted to be with her. When the vet called us she said that Chewie did not appear to have any core feeling in her back legs and she wanted to know if Chewie was normally a stoic dog. I really did not know how to answer this. Chewie was my happy, crazy Boykin. The vet told us the only way we would really know what was going on was to do an MRI – they wouldn’t be able to tell if the paralysis was due to disc extrusion, inflammatory disease or cancer. At this point we were so confused – we didn’t understand that going from being able to walk to having no core feelings in such a short period of time was extremely serious. We were still hoping that it was something that could be corrected with medication and rest. When they told us how much the MRI was going to be – there was that split second when we questioned if we should do it. What if it was something minor - she had an x-ray and it didn’t show anything. But we both knew we would do whatever it took to help this crazy, sweet dog that had stolen our hearts. We gave the go ahead and they told us we might as well go home because regardless of what the MRI showed they wanted to keep Chewie there. Several hours later we received a phone call stating that Chewie had acute paraplegia, absent deep pain: secondary to intervertebral disc extrusion at T10-T11 and that she was being diagnosed with intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). We were asked then what we wanted to do since Chewie only had a 50/ 50 chance of ever walking again. While euthanasia was not mentioned it was obvious that without surgery it was probably our only other option because myelomalacia would probably set in. The vet let us know that we could not wait - the longer we waited the greater the chance Chewie would never walk again or she would die. While we didn’t have the money we knew in our heart that surgery was the right thing to do and that we had to believe that we would figure it out. We learned a lesson that day that pet insurance is as important as human health insurance – just wish I would have known that sooner.
The first month after surgery was tough because we had to keep Chewie still, we initially had to express her bladder, she couldn’t stand on her back legs, and she had no control over her bowels. We are now five months after surgery and Chewie is walking, most days has control over her bladder and bowels, and is a happy Boykin. Unfortunately, for the rest of her life there are things we can’t allow her to do such as jumping up and down on furniture. Chewie is still receiving physical therapy through UF but she is now only going one time a month. Every day I give thanks that Chewie’s bladder was so full that we were sent to UF to have her catheterized because if we had not been sent there I do not think that my beautiful girl would still be here.
By Deborah Lyublanovits
In May of this year (2020) my heart was broken by IVDD. One morning I awoke to take my three dogs out and Chewie my beautiful Boykin refused to get out of bed. This was highly unusual because she was normally the first to jump down from our bed. Little did I know at this point that in a few hours I would be crying my eyes out as I watched her go from being able to walk, to dragging her back feet, to not being able to move her back legs at all. As soon as we realized that she was having problems we called our vet and they said they could get us in the next day but that was the earliest we could be seen. They acted like it was not a big deal. So my husband and I were extremely confused as to what to do. We didn’t want to over react but when it got to the point that she could not move her back legs we knew something had to be done “now”. I was working from home so my husband said he would find an emergency vet and take her in. While the emergency vet was encouraging because they said she still had core feelings in her back legs they were not really helpful. They did an x-ray which did not show any problems with her back but did show that her bladder was extremely full and they could not catheterize her. They said we could check with our normal vet or take her to the University of Florida’s Small Animal Clinic (UF) to have this done. They also told us based on the x-ray that we could probably put Chewie on medication and crate rest and things would probably be okay. So off we went to Gainesville hoping they could help relieve Chewie’s bladder and give us medications. The whole way there, which takes about two hours, I kept thinking she’s only four years old it can’t be that bad. My thoughts were she’s so active and she’s never had any problems before. When we got to UF we parked, called the number that was provided and waited for someone to call us back. Because of Covid we couldn’t go into the building. After what seemed an eternity and actually was only about 10 minutes they said they were coming out to get her and that we could wait in the car while they assessed her. My husband and I were so upset that we could not go in with her – we really wanted to be with her. When the vet called us she said that Chewie did not appear to have any core feeling in her back legs and she wanted to know if Chewie was normally a stoic dog. I really did not know how to answer this. Chewie was my happy, crazy Boykin. The vet told us the only way we would really know what was going on was to do an MRI – they wouldn’t be able to tell if the paralysis was due to disc extrusion, inflammatory disease or cancer. At this point we were so confused – we didn’t understand that going from being able to walk to having no core feelings in such a short period of time was extremely serious. We were still hoping that it was something that could be corrected with medication and rest. When they told us how much the MRI was going to be – there was that split second when we questioned if we should do it. What if it was something minor - she had an x-ray and it didn’t show anything. But we both knew we would do whatever it took to help this crazy, sweet dog that had stolen our hearts. We gave the go ahead and they told us we might as well go home because regardless of what the MRI showed they wanted to keep Chewie there. Several hours later we received a phone call stating that Chewie had acute paraplegia, absent deep pain: secondary to intervertebral disc extrusion at T10-T11 and that she was being diagnosed with intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). We were asked then what we wanted to do since Chewie only had a 50/ 50 chance of ever walking again. While euthanasia was not mentioned it was obvious that without surgery it was probably our only other option because myelomalacia would probably set in. The vet let us know that we could not wait - the longer we waited the greater the chance Chewie would never walk again or she would die. While we didn’t have the money we knew in our heart that surgery was the right thing to do and that we had to believe that we would figure it out. We learned a lesson that day that pet insurance is as important as human health insurance – just wish I would have known that sooner.
The first month after surgery was tough because we had to keep Chewie still, we initially had to express her bladder, she couldn’t stand on her back legs, and she had no control over her bowels. We are now five months after surgery and Chewie is walking, most days has control over her bladder and bowels, and is a happy Boykin. Unfortunately, for the rest of her life there are things we can’t allow her to do such as jumping up and down on furniture. Chewie is still receiving physical therapy through UF but she is now only going one time a month. Every day I give thanks that Chewie’s bladder was so full that we were sent to UF to have her catheterized because if we had not been sent there I do not think that my beautiful girl would still be here.
