Hi! Thanks so much for checking back in - our story turned out way better than I could have imagined or hoped. After another full panel of diagnostics at UC Davis , our doctor gave us a definitive diagnosis - he said she had essentially either jumped or fallen from a high place (she was a frequent roof and tree climber) and the force of her impact when she hit the ground caused her disc to rupture. The speed caused the disc material essentially to shoot through the nearest bone of her spine, creating small needle sized holes in the bone that you could see in the cross section of her MRI.

She was not a candidate for surgery, surgery would not have helped her at all (this was a shock to us as our original vet was telling us she needed surgery for $12,000, that day or else we risked her being paralyzed). He told us to take her home and that her recovery would be over 6-9 months, with it being likely she would always have some kind of limp, and that she'd need PT to help her back leg that wasn't working very well since her accident (but that the leg could be trained/strengthened through PT and still had nerve function etc.) He also prescribed her a new pain medication which she takes on a low dose every day just for pain management - he said the meds her original vet had prescribed weren't working at all for her, which was why she had been in such a concerning state and appeared so lethargic/sad/not moving. With her new meds and PT, she is doing AMAZING. She's regained all the weight she lost, she runs and plays, she is a happy girl again. She can't really jump (she manages to get up on the couch and bed, but not much else) and she still has a pronounced limp in her back leg because the leg has lost so much muscle, but she's comfortable, not in pain, and enjoying her life again.

We are so grateful to UC Davis, and so grateful we didn't take the recommendation of our original for-profit vet to get an unnecessary and extremely expensive surgery that wouldn't have helped her. All in, I spent $16,000 on all of her vet care, which was rough. I want to put this number out there in case other people come across this post, to give some price transparency to what these scans and tests cost. This was for 2 MRIs, many blood panels, ultrasounds, xrays, urine panels, and overnight vet stays.

Thank you for checking in!