Wobbler's Surgery Part 2

Today Zane is scheduled for the second part of his cervical surgery. This procedure is called a lateral laminectomy and involves shaving down a portion of a vertebrae or two to allow easier movement of the spinal cord. The surgeon will go in through the top of the neck for this procedure. The last surgery was done on the underside of the neck.

We are back from the vet hospital. Yes, we, meaning Zane and I. I asked the doctor to take an xray of Zane's knee that he recently had surgery on. He has been limping on it more now than he was a couple of weeks ago. They take xrays of his neck after the surgery anyways so I didn't think it would be a big deal to do the knee then as well. Well, apparently Dr. Bergman was concerned about the knee as well and he chose to xray it before doing the spinal surgery. It turns out that Zane still has a lot of fluid in his knee surrounding one of the implants. They think this is a bone infection. So they biopsied the fluid and will culture it to see which antibiotics will be most effective in fighting the infection. Zane was on 3 different antibiotics for 3-4 weeks after his incision had opened up.
This is not good news. I will wait to hear from Dr. Clark (ortho surgeon) regarding the next steps in clearing up this lastest development. Dr. Bergman (neuro) noted that the implants sometimes need to be removed to allow the infection to clear. Yikes! Meanwhile, he is back on an antibiotic while we wait for the culture to grow.
The spinal surgery has now been postponed. Dr. Bergman did not want to risk having that infection move over to the new surgical site. He was very pleased at how well Zane is doing right now. He thinks that we possibly may not need to do the second surgery. We will wait and see how he does while the knee infection gets treated. So for now, everything is up in the air.

Gearing up for Round 2

Zane is having a great day. He woke up about 1:30am for some pain pills and breakfast. He then slept the rest of the way through the night. He has had several potty trips outside and is walking better all the time. On his second trip outside he decided to lay out in the grass for a while. I pulled up a chair and enjoyed some quite time in the sun surrounded by the pack.
Zane has even figured out how to roll onto his back again. This is his favorite sleeping pose. I can tell that he is really comfortable when he is on his back and his "happy" tail is wagging away.
I am hoping that I can get some food in him this evening. He won't be able to eat tomorrow morning since he has surgery in the afternoon. He hasn't eaten all day but I think it is in protest. He hates the taste of the Tramadol pills and I think he thinks I am sneaking them into everything he eats now! If he would just swallow his food whole like Zoe and Daizee he wouldn't have to worry about biting into those bitter pills! Not Zane, though, he has to chew everything thoroughly...so he can spit out those nasty little pills.
Tomorrow's surgery is called a lateral laminectomy/decompression. This will involve shaving out the inside of C6-7. It will open up the spinal canal in that area to allow more room for the spinal cord to move without impingement. This surgery could take a little more immediate recovery time for Zane. He may not walk right away if there is a lot of swelling following the surgery. He will still have 2 months of total bed rest ahead of him.