Noah

Noah

Anne travels all the way from Guernsey with her well-dressed English Springer Spaniel Noah. Sadly, despite his good looks, Noah is suffering from severe pain, caused Anne believes by a fall. After seeing a string of vets, Anne is hoping Noel can help her beloved dog. Spinal surgery and extensive physiotherapy will be needed to get Noah back to swimming with Anne on his favourite beaches again.

Their Story

Anne lives with her dogs in Guernsey. An absolute dog fanatic, Anne is totally in love with her dogs and would do anything for them. She is known in Guernsey for being the eccentric lady who swims with her dogs! She has had Noah since he was a just a tiny puppy of 8 weeks old.

The Problem

Anne was worried that a fall had caused Noah to suffer with back pain. After a number of visits to vets across the UK the source of his pain was still unresolved, so Anne brought Noah to Fitzpatricks as her last hope to find the cause of Noah’s pain and treat the issue. Looking at the MRI imaging, Noel suspected that the fall was not the cause of the pain, but rather a degenerative problem that will have occurred anyway. Noah’s considerable lumbosacral pain is caused by his nerves being compressed, meaning that they are inflamed, painful and may not conduct electrical impulses properly. Noah would need a unique spacer implant device placed in a surgery called Lumbosacral distraction fusion (LSDF). https://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk/orthopaedic/lumbosacral-disease

Treatment

In surgery, Noel removed the roof of the vertebrae and carefully slid the end of the spinal cord, called the cauda equina, out of his way. Next, he removed the bulging disc material and inserted a special spiral spacer to push the vertebrae apart and release the pressure from the nerves. The vertebrae was stabilised using screws, clamps and rods. This combined treatment immediately relieves the compression on the nerves, stabilises the lumbosacral junction and encourages the lumbosacral joint to fuse, halting lumbosacral disease progression.

Noah is a prince of dogs

Outcome

Six weeks later Anne brought Noah back for Noel to check on how the implants were doing, and to her delight they looked great. Noah would need to continue to have intensive physiotherapy and hydrotherapy to ensure a complete and total recovery.
After years of unexplained pain, Noah is finally on the road to recovery and Anne couldn’t be happier. Anne was dedicated to ensuring her boy received the very best care, and didn’t cut any corners to do so.