April 20, 2003

SND received the following note from Joyce, Annie's foster mom!

Annie saw Dr. Durkes on April 11th for the Gold Bead Treatment; and, is doing great. I brought her in at 8am & she was able to leave at 1pm. She came home with a gigantic neck wrap on wiggling her little butt all the time. She is one happy little girl. She seems to have very little discomfort with the wrap, but, does shake her head as though she would like it to come off. According to Dr. Durkes it will probably be on for 3 weeks. I talked to him after 1 week; giving him an update on her progress and how she was doing. Her walk is much better; and, the Wobbling is not as noticable. When she is outside she will get all 4 legs moving correctly. Dr. Durkes was pleased with her progress & believes she will have a full recovery. He did say that clinically the Wobblers Dogs will look Ok; but, it will take 2 years for the neck to fully stabilize. He also said they will always be Wobblers Dogs; and, that care should be taken with them; because of this. I can relate to this since I had Cervical Spondylosis myself; and, even though I had surgery & my neck has been fused I still have to be careful of what I do.

I am going to send Steve some pictures of Annie with the neck wrap on & an update on how she is doing.

Joyce