Crunchie was surrendered to us at 18 months old as he needed an operation to stabilise his atlas and axis joint – without the operation his spinal cord could have been severed at any point. The Red Foundation funded this surgery and although it appeared everything had gone well, it was just the start of this little boys journey…
Crunchie had a scan 3 months post op to ensure that the implant was stable. It was evident from the scan that at least one of the screws holding the implant in place had become loose, and a further operation would be needed. Crunchie had this operation at the beginning of February where the amazing vets put some additional screws in place to secure the implant. Unfortunately 10 days after the operation Crunchie went downhill very rapidly. He was admitted to ICU and we were told that if he didn’t respond to treatment within the next hour then there was really nothing more that could be done. Remarkably in that hour his temperature rose by .5 degrees. This was the sign we all needed that he was fighting and deserved us to fight for him too. Remarkably Crunchie continued to respond exceptionally well to treatment and was discharged a few days later.
In any usual update on a poorly dog this would be the part where the happy ending starts unfortunately this was not the case….. 4 days later after eating his breakfast and being relatively normal Crunchie suddenly suffered a seizure. The vets were consulted which ultimately resulted in Crunchie being referred to Davies who are a specialist vets. Again Crunchie was very very poorly and every hour he survived was a blessing. It really was touch and go, and we were all hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Due to his implant the vets were unable to MRI and so carried out a CT scan with Ink which showed that Crunchie had a large abscess at the point of the operation scanning four discs. The abscess had also tracked along his spine and to his cerebellum, resulting in a large pocket of fluid along his spine. Crunchie was suffering from sepsis and again was a very poorly boy. It also became apparent that due to the infection there was a very strong likelihood that the implants would have to be removed as they would never be clear of bacteria.
We were unsure of what the options were going forward with regards to replacement of the implant or other alternative options. The costs for Crunchie were rising with every blink of an eye and his bills were already adding up to way into 5 figures. As a team we had to make the decision whether to continue with treatment and commit thousands of pounds more to what was quite literally an unknown outcome. The team was unanimous in their view that whilst Crunchie was fighting so would we.
Crunchie remained in the Vets for 6 days receiving antibiotics and fluids. He responded well to the medication and was discharged back to his fosterers. Since then he has been officially adopted and has made such good progress the specialist have been astounded and he is currently discharged from their care. We are hopeful that Crunchie won’t need any further surgery but if he does and is willing to fight then we will fight with him.
His pawrents are smitten with him, and hes fitted in so well to their pack. He loves his walks and muddy puddles and apart from a very slight limp on one leg, you would never know what hes been through in his life so far. He celebrated his 4th Birthday in February 2025 and was spoilt rotten – as any dachshund should be!
