This is my own dog, Daphne. We adopted her in February 2020 from Athens Canine Rescue as a 5 month old puppy. She had been a stray and seemed to have missed some crucial socialization windows as a puppy. She was extremely timid, but over the years she slowly relaxed and learned to (mostly) trust us. She is amazingly athletic; she runs like a gazelle, leaps over obstacles in her path, and obviously delights in movement.

Last Tuesday she suddenly showed signs of back pain. She yelped when she jumped on or off of the couch and stood trembling with her back hunched and her head down. She had had a similar episode last spring which resolved with crate rest and medication, so I got the crate out and started her on meds. (Sometimes it is convenient to be a vet.) For 2 days she seemed painful, then for a day she seemed almost back to normal. Unfortunately on Friday she took a turn for the worse and acted very painful again. Saturday morning she began knuckling over on her hind feet, and being unsteady on her hind legs (which we call ataxia). These are signs that spinal injury is progressing from pain to actual neurologic impairment. By the evening she could barely move her hindlimbs and we took her to the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine teaching hospital on emergency. She was admitted and watched on Sunday. She continued to worsen, and on Monday she had an MRI which showed extensive degenerative disk disease and, at L4-L5, disk extrusion with spinal cord compression. She had decompressive surgery Monday afternoon, started rehab on Tuesday, and came home on Wednesday. Here she is on Thursday (aka Day 1):