Milo is your typical lovable Labrador. There is nothing he loves more than going for walks, getting his belly rubbed and of course, eating lots of food.
One evening, after his owner Sherman bought him back from a walk, Milo struggled to walk up the stairs to go to bed. He slept well that night but the next day things took a turn for the worse.
“He couldn’t stand and he was yelping and crying. He just refused to walk and was in a lot of pain,” says Sherman. He thought Milo had hurt himself during the previous day’s walk but couldn’t pinpoint exactly where or when it happened. “I was actually quite nervous because I didn’t know what had happened.”
He took Milo to the vet who did an X-ray. The vet was concerned that Milo had an issue with his spine and recommended that Sherman take him to see Dr Andrew Levien, who is a well-known orthopaedic specialist in Sydney.
Dr Levien diagnosed on an MRI that Milo had a prolapsed disc that was pinching the nerves supplying the back legs. “I tried non-surgical management with him first to try to calm the nerves down using cortisone injections and tablets”, said Dr Levien. “And it helped to some extent, but Milo still wasn’t perfect.”
Because of recurrent issues and Milo’s failure to reach 100%, Dr Levien discussed the option of foraminotomy surgery with Sherman. This surgery frees up pinched nerves from the bone that is constricting as a result of arthritis. The prolapsed disc that was pushing on the nerves had to be removed and finally the spine stabilised with two metal plates. “Because what you want is to reduce the motion and fuse the spine at that vertebral segment that was pinching the nerves,” says Dr Levien.
The surgery required special plates that are called the ‘string of pearls plates’. “They’re really amazing plates that have six degrees of freedom, meaning you can twist, turn, bend and flex the plate in whatever direction you need”. This flexibility is important when dealing with a spinal cord because you want to avoid hitting nerves or the spinal cord.
“It’s a complicated procedure because it takes a lot of time to drill out the nerve roots, remove the prolapsed disc and then apply two plates to the spine,” says Dr Levien. “It requires a lot of time and energy. The other thing we did was spinal fusion by applying the plates and a dorsal laminectomy with a discectomy meaning we removed the disc.”
Sherman felt relieved after the surgery. “He went into the hospital for surgery on Thursday morning. And we took him home on Sunday night,” he said. “Dr Levien is really happy with Milo’s recovery.”
“Its early days but Milo was able to walk 24 hours after surgery. And 48 hours later he walked out of the hospital,” says Dr Levien. In fact, Milo is walking so well without any post-operative issues that Dr Levien remains optimistic about having resolved the limping issue. “Only time will tell but I think we can be confident that the surgery went really well.”
Seeing Milo go through the surgery was difficult for Sherman. “The hard part is that you can’t explain to a dog what’s going on”, says Sherman. “With humans, you can tell them what’s happening and they understand but dogs don’t know what’s going on.”
“The hard part is that you can’t explain to a dog what’s going on.”
— Sherman
What made it easier was the care and dedication from everyone at Dr Levien’s. “We got updates every day on how Milo was going”, says Sherman. “The care is just incredible. Every day we’d hear from Dr Levien, by phone or when we came to visit Milo”.
“The care is just incredible. Every day we’d hear from Dr Levien, by phone or when we came to visit Milo.”
— Sherman
Sherman couldn’t be happier about the outcome. “I can say he’s completely back to his normal self”, he says. “He just wants to go out and go for walks and is just so happy to see everyone. His tail is wagging every day. I have to keep him calm at home. It’s actually not as difficult as I thought it would be”.
And most importantly, Milo is always wanting food. “If someone opens the fridge, he’s always there, drooling.”
