Mars Update

Today Mars had an appointment with a neurologist (Dr. Cudden) at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Ft. Collins. Poor guy wasn't allowed to eat breakfast this morning in case they ran tests that needed him to fast. Since we didn't have to leave until 10:45 I thought it best to feed Juno or she'd be barking at me all morning. Mars sure looked confused when Juno got the food and he didn't. I then wanted to take her for a walk since she'd be home alone all day, so again, he trotted his wobbly trot to the door as I quickly got Juno out. He was still by the door when we got back. But, I think he felt a lot better when he got a 2+ hour car ride all by himself!

At the hopsital, two senior vet students Molly and Dana, did an initial exam. Then they returned with Dr. Cudden for a more complete neurological examination. Mars did a great job letting them bend and pull and hammer away (reflex tests) on him. The end result being that he is definitely neurologically abnormal and the symptoms indicated something in the mid to low neck region. This could be a compressed disc or something called wobbler syndrome, where the spinal cord gets compressed. Or it could be something else. The docs were concerned with his weight loss that has been taking place with no change to his eating habits. He was down to about 95 pounds today. This could potentially add cancer to the mix of problems.

What we decided to do was leave him there overnight so they could take chest and abdominal x-rays. This would let them know if there was anything suspicious away from his neck area. If those turn out clean (and they did- I got a call after I returned to the Springs) they will do an MRI. So we'll have to wait until tomorrow to really have a better idea of what is going on. He is in good hands at the hospital, but it will be really nice to know what has been causing Mars' issues. I'll post again tomorrow.