Lexie and his worried owner visited the clinic on a Saturday morning after a disrupted night’s sleep night. Dr. Raewyn identified Lexie was suffering from terrible back pain but there was function loss of his legs so, she hoped rest and some good pain relief was all he needed. After work, Dr Raewyn called by Lexie’s house to drop off extra pain relief. To her dismay, Lexie was quickly deteriorating and was losing the use of his hind legs. Without proper treatment, Lexie could become permanently paralysed.

Lexie had developed intervertebral disc disease; an exploded disc in Lexie’s back was compressing the spinal cord and without the pressure being released, the damage to the spinal cord could be permanent. Time was ticking, and every second counted if the Omokoroa Pet Vets team was going to stop Lexie from losing the use of his legs. Once compression of the spinal cord occurs and their is loss of function, research has shown, there is a 48 hour window of time where spinal decompression surgery is most effective in returning function to the hind legs.

Desperate calls were made to veterinary specialists in Auckland and Hamilton to determine if emergency referral was possible. Even with cost estimates up to $20k for emergency treatment, a CT Scan could not be guaranteed until the Monday morning which meant with referral, spinal surgery would not be booked until Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

Dr Nick and Dr Raewyn both knew Lexie needed help sooner rather than later. And as it happens, with all the luck in the world, they were able to secure a local CT scan at short notice on Sunday morning. With Dr. Raewyn helping Lexie drift off into a peaceful sleep, and Dr. Nick performing a spinal release, that Sunday night, the entire Omokoroa Pet Vets team all crossed their fingers the spinal cord was decompressed in time.