Jani

Our gorgeous 11month old German Shepherd puppy has had a rough start to life. We noticed when taking him on short walks (500m) he would lie down and rest a few times. Then suddenly 4 months ago he went lame.

We took him for X-ray at the vet and he was diagnosed with bilateral tibial crest avulsion in his back legs. This means bone is flaking away from bone. The vet prescribed pain and anti inflammatory medication and advised we must keep him off his feet for 6 weeks to give him the best chance of healing and to try and avoid surgery.

He started swimming however after much rest from walking or playing like puppies do he was no better so we went to an orthopaedic specialist who did a CT scan of Jani's spine. It turns out he was misdiagnosed and has nothing wrong with his back legs but has a birth defect which is severe scoliosis of the spine with spinal cord compression at 7 levels.

Surgery is not an option because of the amount of lesions compressing his spine so he is currently trialling chronic pain medication. We have regular reviews at the specialist and medication to fund. If he can manage to significantly reduce his nerve pain through medication he may have a life. If not then we will have to make the heartbreaking decision to euthanase our gorgeous boy.