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Kevin and
Sarah Smith don’t know how their 7-year-old chocolate Labrador, Daisey, was injured. Sarah, studying to become a
physical therapist assistant, was not at home. Kevin, a paramedic and
firefighter, had been mowing the yard at their Pocahontas, Ark., home
that Monday when a friend dropped by. Kevin and his friend went inside
the house, leaving Daisey to romp in the yard
with the visitor’s dog.
Kevin
said he heard a loud yelp and bolted out the door in time to see Daisey try to run toward him, only to stumble and
roll under his truck. It took him a few minutes to get the dog out from
under the truck, and while she had no visible injuries to explain the
yelp or fall, she could not hold her head up. Concerned, he took Daisey to a local veterinarian who suspected a
pinched nerve and prescribed steroids and pain
management therapy.
For a
couple of days, the Smiths observed their dog. Daisey
could walk, but her neck continued to droop, and any kind of jolting
movement, such as when she tried to leap into a vehicle, would elicit
yelps of pain. After two days of treatment had yielded no improvement, Daisey was returned to the veterinarian’s office.
This time radiographs revealed a far more serious issue than a pinched
nerve: Daisey had sustained a fracture to her
C-2 vertebra, the bone in the spinal column that is second closest to the
skull.
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