MRI results

T13/L1 Type 2 Protrusion. VERY obvious on MRI and possibly some spinal cord atrophy.

Good things are that the rest of the spine looks fab and unusually good for her age. She also handled the GA and hospitalisation very very well.

Options.

1. Do nothing other than supportive care and let her enjoy life accepting that she will deteriorate physically and her life will bbe good but short. At current rate of deterioration I'd guess we'd be talking 6 months ish
2. Cage rest 4-6 weeks and see if her condition stabilises. If it does continue to treat her as an old dog with lots of rest and short 10 min walks. If it isnt going to respond to rest it will continue to deteriorate despite rest. If rest stops the deterioration is it worth the lack of quality of her life going forward as a trade off against quantity of life? Downside of rest is that she will lose muscle tone and fitness which she will need if she goes for surgery/ or even if she doesnt and we want to give her quality of life. Will use Muscle Stim and massage, need to ask if standing on the pool ramp in water for massage is allowed - the warmth really helps her OA and mobility
3. Surgery. Lateral (moderate) corpectomy This gives an idea
Gives much better results than a hemilamenectomy.
60%-70% chance of an improvement, 30-40% chance of no improvement through to worse to paralysed.
pros - if successful disc will not cause further problems. despite OA of the R elbow she is generally in good condtition for her age and is a perfect weight with good muscle. She lives with me so would get bags of rehab and physio/hydro. Could mean she lives another 3 or so years.
cons - it is major surgery and hospitalisation, with extensive rehab, success isnt a given and she could go through it all for nothing, worst case she would have to be PTS is surgery fails completely

He was quite honest on the options and didnt push us towards any solution. He did say that for the majority of 10yo labradors he would not consider surgery as an option as they are not usually in good ebough physical shape. Even though Poppy has OA of one elbow she is otherwise very healthy and fit and active and her terprement makes her a perfect candidate.

Anyway - I have decided that for the next couple of weeks we will cage rest (well utility room rest) and I will keep detailed records/videos and we will see if she stabilises or deteriorates. If she deteriorates at the same rate then we need to decide. In any case she will go back again in 4 weeks for assessment.