Today's post is not a happy one, for those of you that follow us on twitter you'll know that as well as Lily we own two cocker spaniels Toby an 8y/o working cocker and 6y/o Daisy who we used to show. We've been lucky to have dogs that have always been fit and healthy and have never been overweight. Toby, like all spaniels has always been incredibly full on; he would run at everything full of excitement with his tail wagging like mad! (He had even won a waggiest tail competition this summer!)
So when he yelped 3 weeks back we assumed he'd run into something or pulled a muscle as within minutes he'd forgotten all about it and carried on charging about like the lunatic he was. Over the past couple of weeks his yelps of pain became more frequent and turned into screams so we rushed him to the vet where he was referred to a chiropractor and given some pain relief after this his was back to normal for a day or two, so back to the vets we went and left after Toby had been given a Rymadil injection (a high dose anti-inflammatory) this cured him of pain and he was fine once more, but as before it wore off leaving Toby in absolute agony, his screams being one of the most awful things I've ever heard.
He was rushed into the vets where he was put under and xray'd we'd been given 3 potential outcomes the first being that he'd fractured his neck, this was the one we wanted as it can be cured easily without surgery. The second was that they would find tumours in his neck/back which where putting pressure on his spinal chord and consequently causing him pain. And the third was that they'd find nothing meaning that he would have to be transferred to the mainland for MRI's and future tests.
The outcome was something none of us had ever expected Toby's xrays had shown he had calcification in the three vertebrates under his shoulders which had been pushed upwards causing him immense pain, further down his spine the vets also found that some of his disks had fused - he even had it at the base of his tail which is incredibly rare. My biggest fear since owning Lily had come true, but not in my dachshund but in my beautiful, healthy cocker - IVDD
We where given numerous options of things that where unlikely to work as well as a four day course of Rymadil injections which had worked previously in the hope that his disks would contract and release the pressure on his spinal canal. We got to day 2 of Toby having them and he was responding well and acting like his normal bouncy self but on the evening of the second day we could all tell something wasn't right as he failed to get comfortable and his breathing became panicky and rough. That next morning Toby woke up in horrendous pain and couldn't walk or put his paws on the ground so we made the heartbreaking decision to have him put to sleep. My beautiful boy didn't try to fight the injection and simply fell asleep free from anymore pain and suffering.
I wouldn't wish this on anyone and felt the need to write this to hopefully raise awareness of this awful disease that not only affects our lovely little sausages but other breeds such as Cockers, Beagles and many others.
Rest in peace my beautiful boy 25-6-2006 - 24-8-2014 <3
The bottom picture is Lil's wearing her scarf and coat - doesn't she look cute?!
