What a week!

Our week went very pear shaped...

On Saturday a week ago we noticed little Percy was dragging his back left leg a bit, but when we took him out for a walk on his own in the evening he seemed okay and managed to jump up on the settee as usual, although was a bit reluctant and had been for a few days, but I just thought it was because I had changed the type of cover for it and thought he must have sensed the change (being blind) and thus was a little unsure.

On Sunday he was walking very oddly, weaving and definitely not being able to put much weight on his left leg.  We phoned the vet on Monday and booked an appointment for Wednesday - the delay due to wanting him to see his normal vet due to his blindness, and because he didn't seem to be in any real pain as such.  He was just a bit irritable with Stanley when he bothered him.

By Wednesday though he could hardly walk, his left foot was 'knuckling' and I said to my husband it was almost like he had MS.  His right side was weaker as well.  We were very worried.  We took him to the vet and she immediately referred him to the neurological department at the Royal Vet Hospital which is fortunately local to us.  He thought he may have a degenerative disc disease and would require spinal surgery so ordered an immediate MRI and sent us home to wait to hear...if it was as he suspected they would check with us first but operate while he was still under anaesthesia.  We got a call later to tell us it wasn't that, but he his spinal cord showed inflammation and that they had taken a spinal tap from  just below his skull and from his lower spine where it seemed he had some pain.  The result was through early evening and it was confirmed he had meningeal myelitis (fortunately it wasn't a tumour) and would need to start aggressive therapy straight away as it was an autoimmune disease.  He started on steriods and the next morning had a 7 hour intravenous chemotherapy treatment. He would then stay another night and we could pick him up on Friday morning.  

Wouldn't it be amazing if the NHS could work as quickly!  Consultation, Imaging, Blood Tests, Spinal Tap, all done in one day WITH results!  None of this still waiting four months later for blood test results despite constant requests!)

Anyway I diverted...

We picked him up yesterday and he was bright and cheerful and they said they had never had such a lovely friendly little dog that was also blind (as most can be a bit snappy when blind if they are unsure) and I think he had won their hearts!  He had responded well to his first treatment and was walking a little bit better although his feet do knuckle a bit if he does too much.  He has to undergo chemo and have an overnight stay every three weeks for a while, and gradually it will increase to every four, then five, then six etc... as he improves.  The same applies to his steroid treatment, currently I have to give him a tablet twice a day.   The vet was very hopeful which was good.  As you can imagine we were delighted to take him home and even more delighted to see him want to play with his ball immediately upon getting home!  

We are  still having to keep him separate from Stanley as he doesn't really understand (still being a young dog) and wants to play with Percy and he is a bit too boisterous.  But as Percy continues to improve this should change too.

On top of all this we have had the decorator in doing the hallway (it had already been booked) and the 8.5 doors in our hallway mean that it has been a big job, and no doors can be closed at the moment!

So this week, no bird photography, no nature, and no walk.  Hopefully I might be able to go for a nice long walk this coming week.  Perhaps towards the end of it. My back has been particularly bad this week, probably due to more sitting down that usual due to decorating and a poorly dog that just wants to sit on my lap and snuggle!  Which means I have been knitting more, so my arm hurts more!  Ha ha.  The one gorgeous day we did have, as is per usual, I was stuck on a train going into London for my physio session, which will now of course have to be stopped for sure after my last pre-booked appointment in February due to the ongoing expenses for Percy.