Spinal Fusion

Good grief! I seem to keep taking photos for posts I never get around to writing! I thought I would put a few up during this tax time / writing lull.

Mabel Lou was terribly ill in January; I touched on her illness in this post. When she went in for xrays, her doctor was quite impressed with her spine. Mabel has a condition known as spondylosis where her vertebra are fusing together. While this can be painful while the vertebra are fusing, as she gets older, she may very well suffer less joint pain than other dogs her age. But it will also affect her mobility.

Mabel had one joint with so much calcification, the doctor was certain this has been going on since she was a pup. I do remember a very severe growth spurt where she would cry if you looked at her harshly. She was in constant pain at about 10 months. Here is one of her xrays:

The pink is her largest fusion. The purple points to vertebra in the process of fusing. And the red... was why we were at the vet. She had an infection and severe gas.

Hey, no laughing...she's not the first dog I've had xrayed to find gas! I'm really happy she fully mended and eating way too well. That was a frightening few weeks and I'm glad it's behind us.

For those wondering about me... I'm still dealing with the spider bite; still on cipro. When I saw the doctor after my trip, she wanted me to do EIGHT more days of IV cipro. These cost me $110 / per dose out of pocket! I begged her to give me the pills instead as I had had two of the loading doses in Baton Rouge. She acquiesced and I was thrilled... the pills are 7.43 a week! I'm healing oh so slowly.