Winston's Spinal Surgery

Hi everyone!

My name is Jordan and I own a HUGE lap puppy named Winston. He is a 2-year-old 130 pound great dane full of energy.

About 2 months ago I noticed Winnie was favoring his left shoulder- almost like a faint limp. I took him to the vet and after an eval from my vet, his blood work came back positive for anaplasma, which is from ticks. Side effects from the illness are muscle and joint soreness so he was put on doxycycline for 30 days in hopes that this was the reason he was demonstrating a "limp" when walking. Fast forward to a month later and the limp had gotten noticeably worse, ALL muscle mass was completely gone off his left shoulder, and a tremble started occurring in his leg- so back to the vet we went. My vet informed me that he felt this was a neurological issue and we were referred to Virginia Tech.

We were able to see the neurologist and a CT, MRI, and EMG were performed and they were finally able to diagnose him. Winston has a disease known as Wobblers Disease. It is common in large dogs, and results from the bones not having a fast enough time to catch up with their growing rate. With Winston's case, the bones in his neck have overgrown on top of his nerves and that is what is causing the muscle mass loss, the limp, and the trembling. There is not a cure for Wobblers, but there is a surgical option that would potentially give me 4 more happy years with him until the disease takes over his system. The neurologist is confident that we were able to catch this early enough that this will be a very good treatment and long term prognosis. The option of acupuncture or any type of medical management is out of the question due to the fact that it simply won't help, due to where these compressions are. His only option is surgery. The surgery consists of the vet going in and placing spacers in between the bones to help alleviate the pressure off his spinal cord/nerves.

I am asking for your help in covering the surgical costs because this has gotten very expensive just in his tests to diagnose his condition. I have spent $5,000 of my own money just on tests for the big guy. His surgery will be another $5,000 in order to fix this issue. I have a hard time accepting that I cannot handle this all on my own, because I want to be able to, and need assistance in covering these vet bills in order for Winnie to keep going through life with me.

If you know Winston, you will know just how silly and goofy he is, and I want to be able to take a chance on him and know that I am doing EVERYTHING I possibly can because he has given me some of the best memories over the last 2 years.

Win and I want to say a thank you to anyone who donates to his surgery in advance, and we are hoping for this process to begin in the next week!