We had Willey euthanized about 2 weeks ago. The poor guy ended up having something called Wobbler’s Syndrome, or spinal instability. Basically, he was born with some deformities in his cervical spine (neck area) which called spine stenosis and cut off the signals flowing through his nerves at this area. It went subclinical for years. Most dogs who have this will show symptoms at 1-2 years old. Willey was 7. We felt it was the best choice for him because he was so far progressed that surgery wouldn’t have even helped most likely. He was really having difficulty walking and fell easily. We buried him at the cabin in Montana, his favorite place. This was hard for our family and we sure miss him, but we know he’s doing much better now.
This is what a normal cervical spine in a dog should look like. You can see space between the vertebrae. That is good.
This is Willey’s cervical spine. Willey’s neck was fused and it compressed his nerves. This is bad!
Bert has done surprisingly well. He got to say goodbye to Willey before we buried him, so that helped. It took him about a week to perk up but since then has been great.
Best buddies forever!
RIP Willey. We miss you!
William Williams
January 23, 2007 – June 18, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment