September Pet of the Month

Congratulations to Lupe, our September Pet of the Month! Lupe is a 4 year old Pitbull

mix whose journey with Rock Bridge Animal Hospital began very early in her life. When Lupe was just 6 weeks old, her and her 8 siblings were dropped off on the front porch of the hospital in a Rubbermaid tub in the middle of winter. The puppies were taken in by the hospital staff that fostered them until they were old enough to go to their new homes. All of the puppies were adopted out, and Lupe’s owners continued to bring her to our hospital.
 

On June 20th, 2014, Lupe was brought in because her owners had come home to find that she had no use of her back legs. They were uncertain what had caused the sudden paralysis as Lupe was perfectly fine when they left for work that morning. Dr. Sappington examined Lupe and found that Lupe did have sensation in her hind legs and was painful in her spine, but was unable to determine exactly what had caused the paralysis. The most likely cause was intervertebral disk disease (slipped disk), which would require surgery in order to repair it. Intervertebral disk disease is when an intervertebral disk, which acts as a cushion between the vertebrae of the spine, slips out of place and painfully presses against the spinal cord. Another possibility was a spinal fracture

which is when a section of the vertebrae break or dislocate and press into the spinal cord causing nerve damage. This type of fracture could only be confirmed by x-ray. A third and less likely cause was a fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE) which is essentially when cartilage material is carried to the spinal cord and causes a blood vessel obstruction (embolism). There is typically no pain associated with this injury. Though this could be a possible explanation for Lupe’s loss of rear leg function, it seemed the least likely culprit since Lupe was painful in her spine.
 
Dr. Sappington gave Lupe an injection for pain management, and the owners decided to take Lupe to the University to further assess her condition. After performing spinal x-rays and ruling out a spinal fracture, the veterinarians at the University also suspected that Lupe’s paralysis was caused by a slipped disc, but could not confirm this diagnosis without an MRI. Lupe’s owners decided to take her home on pain medications and anti-inflammatory steroids.
 

On June 21st, Lupe was brought back into our hospital to reassess her condition. Lupe had not urinated since her bladder had been expressed the previous day and it didn’t seem that she was able to go on her own. This put her at risk for chronic urinary tract infections and urine scald. The loss of motor function in her back legs had also not improved. On June 24th, Lupe returned to the University who still believed that Lupe most likely had intervertebral disk disease, but was unsure of how successful the surgery to repair the disk would be. The best post-operative results for a slipped disc are seen if the surgery is performed 24-48 hours after injury, and it had now been 4 days since Lupe lost her ability to walk. There was also less than a 5% chance that Lupe would regain function without the surgery. Due to the poor prognosis and potential poor quality of life, Lupe’s owners felt that their best option was to say goodbye to Lupe and scheduled an appointment to have her euthanized.
 
On June 25th, the day that the appointment was scheduled, Lupe’s owners called and said that they were seeing improvement in Lupe’s condition and that she had even wagged her tail. They wanted to give Lupe more time before they made a decision. At this time, we refilled Lupe’s pain medications to ensure that she was remaining comfortable through her recovery. On July 7th, Dr. Sappington called to check on Lupe and was informed that Lupe was getting stronger each day and was now able to support herself and even walk on her own, although her walk was somewhat of a stagger. She was also urinating on her own more frequently. On July 9th, Lupe came in for another recheck and a urinalysis to make sure that she hadn’t developed a urinary tract infection from not being able to express her bladder on her own as frequently as

she normally would. Lupe did indeed have a UTI and was given antibiotics to treat it. Her strength had greatly improved from her initial visit and she seemed to be on her way to a recovery. It was a miracle! On August 25th, we received a message from Lupe’s owners saying that her recovery has been amazing. She is now almost 100% back to normal, and has even started running again. Her owners take her on frequent walks in order to improve her strength and conditioning. Lupe also loves to swim and “will literally swim and play fetch in the pool for hours”. We congratulate Lupe on her progress and praise her owners for their dedication to Lupe’s recovery.