I had never heard of a fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE) also known as "spinal cord stroke" until this evening. I let my dogs out this evening for their last potty break before bed, only to hear very loud yelping about 15 seconds later. Assuming a bear or mountain lion was after one of my dogs, I grabbed the bear spray by the door and headed out. No, it was just my German Shorthair Pointer yelping like he was being stabbed while flopping around the grass in pain trying to stand up. Up he went into my arms and into the SUV and off to the emergency vet. Never heard my dog yelp that loudly for anything before.
By the time we got to the vet he couldn't stand on his rear left leg. Was worried he broke a hip or something. Nope. X-rays came out normal. Vet is convinced it is FCE, and the symptoms align. It can be triggered simply by a dog jumping or landing awkwardly, which given how much my GSP loves chasing bunnies around my property I can see that happening. Just a freak injury. If it turns out it's not FCE and is a bulging disc or other injury then it would mean surgery to prevent permanent paralysis. We have to wait until the morning. Won't be much sleeping in our house tonight.
Long story short, my little buddy is in the vet hospital overnight and basically FCE is a permanent issue. Apparently with steroids and physical therapy he can learn to re-use that back left leg and walk again. The first 12 hours are critical to get vet help to administer steroids and start physical therapy immediately to try to get the body to recover use of the leg, assuming the spine isn't damaged beyond repair. But the poor boy will never recover completely to normal, and his hunting days are over. Poor guy, he lives to hunt. Am really hoping he can make a recovery and live a reasonably happy remainder of his life. But it was quite the traumatic experience for him and us.
Hopefully nobody else has to see their dogs go through this. Mainly posting this as a public service announcement in case you see a similar behavior in your dogs....getting to a vet within 12 hours is critical.
