A Boykin's Bout with Disc Disease
Kona Bell's Journey
BSS Magazine January 2015
By Teresa Bell & Dr. Fred J. Wright DVM
With Boykin Nationals only a away and Joe traveling for work, I head ed to Augusta, Georgia for some training prior to the Friday's competition. After driving most of the day and late into the evening,I arrived in Augusta at about 10:00pm. Kona and Bailey were pretty restless after the long drive and spent the next half hour running around the front yard , stretching their legs and blowing off some steam. I was staying with a family friend for the week, and they were outside in the yard with me while the dogs played. Our friend made a comment that she thought Kona looked like he was limping a lit tle bit. We thought maybe he was just stiff from the 9 hour drive and didn't think too much of it. Then, my heart sunk, Kona immediately fell to the ground. He started to try to walk and was dragging his hind legs... We quickly picked him up and took him into the house and laid him on the bed, not sure what had happened, as we have not seen anything like this before. In complete pan ic, I called Joe and started looking for a 24 hour emergency vet. Of course I was scared and 9 hours from home, I finally found a clinic and got Kona to them at about 1:00am. This is a classic example of a Hansen type I disc, where the disc herniated acutely into the spinal cord.
They gave Kona medicine, took x-ra ys and had me leave him to rest and see how the medicine worked. At about 3:30a m when I got a call from the clinic, probably one of the worst calls of my life... I needed to come pick him up and get him to a referral surgical hospital, immediately. Kona had only gotten worse and they feared he may never recover without immediate surgery. Surgery done within the first 6-12 hours after a herniated disc takes place has the best chance for success. So I made two calls, one to my husband and one to my vet back home. Joe and I talked for quite a while going through our options, decisions would have to be made quickly and we needed to be on the same page. Finally, our vet called at 4:00am, she was a calm steady voice of reason in an otherwise frantic night. She knows how much we love Kona , so she called the clinic, went over all the information with them, then called the University of Georgia Animal Hospital, and had them ready to receive Kona early that morning. She told me to "put my big girl pants on", I know you are tired and I know you are scared, but you need to go right now and drive Kana to Athens, Georgia. It's hard to explain how important that call was, three hours later I arrived at the hospital in Athens and they were waiting to get started.So now it was decision time, the hospital staff was very nice and walked me through my options. The cost of the tests, surgery, and recovery time in Athens and approximate cost of therapy we were looking at $5,000 to $8,000. This price includes surgery, after care, MRI or other radio-graphical diagnostic tools, and plenty of medications for pain and to prevent infection. Our other option was euthanasia, which no owner ever wants to hear. I can say now, I am a real cheerleader for pet insurance, which we did not have. (We do now on all our LBDs) Joe and I had already agreed if th e surgeon felt confident , we would go forward, so we put the $ 2000.00 deposit down so they could get started . The results of the preliminary tests would determine the severity and our chances for a full recovery. Most specialists use MRI's rather than plain x-rays or myelogram to pinpoint which disc has gone bad. Joe changed his travel schedule and headed my way and found me a hotel room so I could get some sleep while I waited for the call from the hospital. After not hearing from the hospital by mid-afternoon, I decided to call and get an update, to my surprise, they had done the tests and decided not to wait to begin the surgery. When dealing with herniated discs, the quicker surgery is done, the better the chance for recovery. They found five herniated discs in this back, one of the worst the surgeon had seen. They were confident if they did surgery immediately, he could walk again. It was a seven hour procedure with two surgeons and neurosurgeon. Now that the surgery was complete it was up to Kona, we would be at the hospital for the next week as he started recovery.
That Saturday night our life changed forever, we got many calls:
• One helped us with a hotel room for the week.
• Many offering us a place to stay.
• Stevie Clarke set up site for people to donate money to help defray out costs.
• Wes Chester offered to pick up Bailey, work with her and run her at BSS nationals for us.
The Boykin Spaniel community is one of a kind, and I could go on forever with examples of people who touched our life through this experience. Kona spent the next six days at the hospital. We were able to visit twice a day for about an hour at a time. The first few days were the hardest... Seeing Kona with such a huge incision on his back and consistently crying . Not as much pain, as scared and not sure why he could not move his back end. As the week progressed , he started to calm down and the doctors walked us through the recovery process and what we could expect over the next few weeks and months. Even thought there was not guarantee of success, Kona started to show some signs on progress by day four. He had a small amount of feeling in this left leg and could slightly move his nubby tail. On day six, it was finally time for him to go home for the remainder his recovery. At this point, it seemed this was going to be a full-time job; He still had to have a catheter, could not control bowel movements , and still heavily medicated. The doctors did a great job explaining everything for his care, as well as, showing me exercises to help in his rehabilitation. Now started the long road of rehabilitation... We found a great rehab center in Tampa, Florida, only about hour and 15 minutes from our home. Kona started a ten week schedule of two visits weekly. Water therapy, cold laser treatments, and acupuncture were all used in the recovery process. This was a difficult time for our family; we were dealing with the catheter, bowel movement issues, rehab visits, and a new home exercise routine. But over the next ten weeks, amazing things started to happen. After only a few weeks, Kona could stand, a little wobbly at first, but he could stand! Then after only a few weeks more, Kona was starting to walk. The rehab doctor could not believe how quickly he had progressed in such a short time, which was even more motivation to work with him every single day. Now, four months later, Kona is again an active member of our family. He cannot jump and still stumbles from time to time, but he is walking, playing, and enjoying life once again.
Joe and I could not put into words, the love and support we received from so many friends, family, and veterinary staffs...
I. The middle of the night call and visits from our local vet
2. The amazing care at University of Georgia
3. The outpouring oflove from the Boykin community
4. The support of our family.
My final thoughts... We made a difficult decision. Kona proved he wanted to walk again. And there are some amazing people in this world that supported us in making a dream come true. This story shows what can happen if a dog with severe disc disease is treated early, and has the support of a great family to get the proper rehab.
Kona's story demonstrates several things:
I. The quicker you get a dog examined for disc disease the better the outcome.
2. Recovering from disc disease is not a quick process.
3. It is also not without a lot of work from very dedicated owners
4. Proper after care makes a huge difference.
It is also important to understand that some times there is so much damage to the spinal cord that recovery does not happen. MRI only tells which disc or discs are herniated, it cannot tell how much the spinal cord has been damaged. Kona was lucky that the damage was not permanent. If your Boykin has had a back injury and youwould like to share your dog's pedigree with Dr. Wright for his research database, please contact him at [email protected].
Story PostScript:
September 2020 - Kona #miracleboy is living his BEST life at 10 years old! He lives fulltime with our parents, being a comfort especially to my father who has terminal Hodgkins Lymphoma. He has saved our Dad’s life three times alerting him to Diabetic shock - with no training. We truly believe he and God had a plan! He goes monthly to a wonderful local vet for acupuncture, cold laser therapy and chiropractic adjustments. We do x-rays every six months to keep an eye on the calcification praying he doesn’t have another injury. We covered the wood floors with carpets and have ramps everywhere and wouldn’t change a thing! He did the IVDD test and showed 2 copies of the mutation. We have also sent off tests for the other three of the “Bell Pack” and await our results.
To see the album of Kona’s Journey click here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203649616709776&type=3
We promised that fateful weekend we would ‘pay it forward’ and have dedicated the last 6 years to helping people who have had this devastating injury happen to their dog and trying to educate people of 1) the timeliness of getting your dog seen by a neurologist is CRITICAL to saving the life of your dog and 2) GETTING PET INSURANCE is highly recommended! If not to help cover the expenses for this type of an injury but any other accident/illness they may encounter! You NEVER know!
By Teresa Bell & Dr. Fred J. Wright DVM
With Boykin Nationals only a away and Joe traveling for work, I head ed to Augusta, Georgia for some training prior to the Friday's competition. After driving most of the day and late into the evening,I arrived in Augusta at about 10:00pm. Kona and Bailey were pretty restless after the long drive and spent the next half hour running around the front yard , stretching their legs and blowing off some steam. I was staying with a family friend for the week, and they were outside in the yard with me while the dogs played. Our friend made a comment that she thought Kona looked like he was limping a lit tle bit. We thought maybe he was just stiff from the 9 hour drive and didn't think too much of it. Then, my heart sunk, Kona immediately fell to the ground. He started to try to walk and was dragging his hind legs... We quickly picked him up and took him into the house and laid him on the bed, not sure what had happened, as we have not seen anything like this before. In complete pan ic, I called Joe and started looking for a 24 hour emergency vet. Of course I was scared and 9 hours from home, I finally found a clinic and got Kona to them at about 1:00am. This is a classic example of a Hansen type I disc, where the disc herniated acutely into the spinal cord.
They gave Kona medicine, took x-ra ys and had me leave him to rest and see how the medicine worked. At about 3:30a m when I got a call from the clinic, probably one of the worst calls of my life... I needed to come pick him up and get him to a referral surgical hospital, immediately. Kona had only gotten worse and they feared he may never recover without immediate surgery. Surgery done within the first 6-12 hours after a herniated disc takes place has the best chance for success. So I made two calls, one to my husband and one to my vet back home. Joe and I talked for quite a while going through our options, decisions would have to be made quickly and we needed to be on the same page. Finally, our vet called at 4:00am, she was a calm steady voice of reason in an otherwise frantic night. She knows how much we love Kona , so she called the clinic, went over all the information with them, then called the University of Georgia Animal Hospital, and had them ready to receive Kona early that morning. She told me to "put my big girl pants on", I know you are tired and I know you are scared, but you need to go right now and drive Kana to Athens, Georgia. It's hard to explain how important that call was, three hours later I arrived at the hospital in Athens and they were waiting to get started.So now it was decision time, the hospital staff was very nice and walked me through my options. The cost of the tests, surgery, and recovery time in Athens and approximate cost of therapy we were looking at $5,000 to $8,000. This price includes surgery, after care, MRI or other radio-graphical diagnostic tools, and plenty of medications for pain and to prevent infection. Our other option was euthanasia, which no owner ever wants to hear. I can say now, I am a real cheerleader for pet insurance, which we did not have. (We do now on all our LBDs) Joe and I had already agreed if th e surgeon felt confident , we would go forward, so we put the $ 2000.00 deposit down so they could get started . The results of the preliminary tests would determine the severity and our chances for a full recovery. Most specialists use MRI's rather than plain x-rays or myelogram to pinpoint which disc has gone bad. Joe changed his travel schedule and headed my way and found me a hotel room so I could get some sleep while I waited for the call from the hospital. After not hearing from the hospital by mid-afternoon, I decided to call and get an update, to my surprise, they had done the tests and decided not to wait to begin the surgery. When dealing with herniated discs, the quicker surgery is done, the better the chance for recovery. They found five herniated discs in this back, one of the worst the surgeon had seen. They were confident if they did surgery immediately, he could walk again. It was a seven hour procedure with two surgeons and neurosurgeon. Now that the surgery was complete it was up to Kona, we would be at the hospital for the next week as he started recovery.
That Saturday night our life changed forever, we got many calls:
• One helped us with a hotel room for the week.
• Many offering us a place to stay.
• Stevie Clarke set up site for people to donate money to help defray out costs.
• Wes Chester offered to pick up Bailey, work with her and run her at BSS nationals for us.
The Boykin Spaniel community is one of a kind, and I could go on forever with examples of people who touched our life through this experience. Kona spent the next six days at the hospital. We were able to visit twice a day for about an hour at a time. The first few days were the hardest... Seeing Kona with such a huge incision on his back and consistently crying . Not as much pain, as scared and not sure why he could not move his back end. As the week progressed , he started to calm down and the doctors walked us through the recovery process and what we could expect over the next few weeks and months. Even thought there was not guarantee of success, Kona started to show some signs on progress by day four. He had a small amount of feeling in this left leg and could slightly move his nubby tail. On day six, it was finally time for him to go home for the remainder his recovery. At this point, it seemed this was going to be a full-time job; He still had to have a catheter, could not control bowel movements , and still heavily medicated. The doctors did a great job explaining everything for his care, as well as, showing me exercises to help in his rehabilitation. Now started the long road of rehabilitation... We found a great rehab center in Tampa, Florida, only about hour and 15 minutes from our home. Kona started a ten week schedule of two visits weekly. Water therapy, cold laser treatments, and acupuncture were all used in the recovery process. This was a difficult time for our family; we were dealing with the catheter, bowel movement issues, rehab visits, and a new home exercise routine. But over the next ten weeks, amazing things started to happen. After only a few weeks, Kona could stand, a little wobbly at first, but he could stand! Then after only a few weeks more, Kona was starting to walk. The rehab doctor could not believe how quickly he had progressed in such a short time, which was even more motivation to work with him every single day. Now, four months later, Kona is again an active member of our family. He cannot jump and still stumbles from time to time, but he is walking, playing, and enjoying life once again.
Joe and I could not put into words, the love and support we received from so many friends, family, and veterinary staffs...
I. The middle of the night call and visits from our local vet
2. The amazing care at University of Georgia
3. The outpouring oflove from the Boykin community
4. The support of our family.
My final thoughts... We made a difficult decision. Kona proved he wanted to walk again. And there are some amazing people in this world that supported us in making a dream come true. This story shows what can happen if a dog with severe disc disease is treated early, and has the support of a great family to get the proper rehab.
Kona's story demonstrates several things:
I. The quicker you get a dog examined for disc disease the better the outcome.
2. Recovering from disc disease is not a quick process.
3. It is also not without a lot of work from very dedicated owners
4. Proper after care makes a huge difference.
It is also important to understand that some times there is so much damage to the spinal cord that recovery does not happen. MRI only tells which disc or discs are herniated, it cannot tell how much the spinal cord has been damaged. Kona was lucky that the damage was not permanent. If your Boykin has had a back injury and youwould like to share your dog's pedigree with Dr. Wright for his research database, please contact him at [email protected].
Story PostScript:
September 2020 - Kona #miracleboy is living his BEST life at 10 years old! He lives fulltime with our parents, being a comfort especially to my father who has terminal Hodgkins Lymphoma. He has saved our Dad’s life three times alerting him to Diabetic shock - with no training. We truly believe he and God had a plan! He goes monthly to a wonderful local vet for acupuncture, cold laser therapy and chiropractic adjustments. We do x-rays every six months to keep an eye on the calcification praying he doesn’t have another injury. We covered the wood floors with carpets and have ramps everywhere and wouldn’t change a thing! He did the IVDD test and showed 2 copies of the mutation. We have also sent off tests for the other three of the “Bell Pack” and await our results.
To see the album of Kona’s Journey click here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203649616709776&type=3
We promised that fateful weekend we would ‘pay it forward’ and have dedicated the last 6 years to helping people who have had this devastating injury happen to their dog and trying to educate people of 1) the timeliness of getting your dog seen by a neurologist is CRITICAL to saving the life of your dog and 2) GETTING PET INSURANCE is highly recommended! If not to help cover the expenses for this type of an injury but any other accident/illness they may encounter! You NEVER know!
