Step 2

After a blip with Air Canada (don't get me started), Romeo and I (Holly) arrived in Saskatoon last night and we went straight to the Vet College at 11:00 p.m.  The vet checked him out and said he had a good chance of success for the surgery.  They kept him overnight to put an IV line in and hydrate him.

The vet called me this morning to say Romeo was doing well (albeit stressed) and I went to see him.  The plan of action was to put him under anesthetic and do a myelogram (injecting dye into the spine and x-raying) then go straight into surgery.  After the myelogram was completed, I spoke to the vet, Dr. Su, who showed me the x-rays.  There were a number of calcium/mineral deposits but she said most of the time they leave them in if they aren't causing problems.  The one that was causing the problems was pushing on the left side of Romeo's spinal cord which makes sense because his back left leg was the first to go (i.e. buckle under him).  After our discussion, she went straight into surgery which took a few hours. 

Dr. Su called me mid-afternoon to let me know how the surgery went.  They ended up removing more calcification than initially planned because she wasn't comfortable leaving it in.  I should have written everything down that she said, but you know how medical mumbo jumbo sounds to us laymen.  She said his spinal cord was a bit inflamed but that's not surprising given the circumstances.  She's going to test Romeo's paws in the morning to make sure he still has pain reaction and then I'll be going to see him.  She has warned us that while the chances of him walking again are 80-95%, it could be that he'll walk funny perhaps just for a couple of months, perhaps permanently.  We just have to wait and see.

The plan is for Romeo to stay a week in Saskatoon for recuperation.  They'll do physiotherapy and acupuncture as part of his rehabilitation.  It'll be hard to be away from him for so long, but we know it's for the best.  He's been such a good boy through all this (from travel to vet visits and everything else) so we'll be so happy when he's up again. 

Thank you all again so much for your love, support, and donations.  Some people have asked and yes, we are still accepting donations to help with the cost of surgery and for post-op care as he may need physiotherapy and acupuncture treatments for sometime afterward.