Serendipity The Pug: Spinal Tap Blues

With my blogging client now working, I will compress five posts into one.

Subject: Serendipity
Breed: Pug
Diagnosis: Arachnoid Cyst
Symptoms: Abnormal Gait

Since my last report, Serendipity received a conclusive diagnosis of an arachnoid cyst. This is some kind of pooling of spinal fluid located around the first and second vertebrae. This collection of fluid has put pressure on her spinal cord and results in her not being able to walk properly and have a loss of balance. She is scheduled for surgery and will go "under the knife" to relieve the pressure and - hopefully - allow her to walk normally. There is a danger of paralysis and other such nasty things but we try not to talk about those. Your positive vibes are needed now more than ever. Below is a shot of her MRI. Some of the white areas in the middle are not supposed to be there.

Serendipity has been subjected to a variety of tests, the most upsetting were the six spinal taps she had to endure. We woke up one morning (roughly two weeks ago) and Seri wasn't able to walk. She stumbled about and, after thirty minutes, seemed to recover. This made us more than a little upset and we made a frantic call to the vet hospital. Away we went and Seri was again admitted to the hospital for additional testing. Her condition was a mystery and the specialist, Dr. Sharpe, was surprised she had experienced such an event. He concluded there may be an infection in her spinal cord. In order to rule this possibility out, Seri required a day visit and a bunch of needles in her spine.

No infection was found but, when we arrived to pick her up, Seri was obviously upset from this experience. She was shaking and whining - something she had not done before. Understandably, she was unhappy for the rest of the day. Some side effects of spinal taps are headaches and general lack of energy. We gave her a lot of love on the way home. We were told she may not eat for the rest of the day. In the morning, she still didn't want to eat and had developed an incredible gas. She was fragrant and unhappy looking. Nothing we did seemed to perk her appetite.

We called our personal vet (not the neurospecialists from the vet hospital) and brought her in. The vet, a very nice man by the name of Shura, took a look at her and instantly gave our pup a hug and some love. It turned out she had a little bug in her tummy (brought on by stress, no doubt) and we received new pills to give her to clear it up. After a few days, she was feeling a lot better and eating again.

Yesterday, we got "the call". Serendipity had been scheduled for surgery for tomorrow morning. I will update everyone tomorrow night after she has left the operating room.

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about me

Shane Birley is a blogger, huge geeky nerd, web developer, poet, and creative writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is a partner at Left Right Minds, a web development, arts management, business blogging and on line marketing company.

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What else do I do? I talk out loud, record it, and post it on line. I chatter about all kinds of things. Some of the things are nerdy, some professional, and some of them are very much NSFW. Why? Because do them for myself and my non-work life. You can be the judge.