A 4 year old French bulldog named Bella was referred to the Northwest Referrals with a recent history of acute neck pain and screaming in pain. Its very difficult to predict how painful an animal is because they simply cant tell us, but based on clinical examination, history of the owners and tests we can say what is actually wrong and how painful it could be. A suspicion of a disc disease in space C1-C5( neck) was raised and CT scan was performed showing a massive disc extrusion in space C2-C3 ( this is the most common disc which causes problems in the neck of a small breed dog). The owners of Bella were motified when they have heard what the problem was, but they were happy that this is something that can be treated. We performed a procedure called “ ventral slot” – this is when we approach from the bottom of the neck going close to oesophagus, nerves, vessels and trachea – to the vertebral body. Then we make a hole in the vertebrate which allows us to remove the disc material from vertebral canal. Bella stayed with us for a very short time postoperatively and imagine what? 3 days later she was completely normal! Owners were so happy with the outcome because they got their dog back.
