Dog owner from Morpeth grateful to vets who got her paralysed pet running again

A team at Linnaeus-owned small animal hospital Wear Referrals operated late into the night to save five-year-old Dexter whose life, and mobility, had been left hanging in the balance.

The successful operation was followed by intense rehabilitation by Wear’s veterinary nursing team and Dexter’s owner Danielle MacGill, who lives in Morpeth and is herself a vet.

Danielle, whose other dog Albus was on the walk with her when the accident happened, said: “It was a very long and stressful evening and I was so relieved when they called me to say Dexter had made it through the operation.

“He was allowed home after about a week, although at this stage he was not able to walk. It was a long, hard process, but seeing him start to do things that I hadn’t been sure would ever be possible again was awe inspiring.

“Dexter is now almost completely back to his old self and is living his best life. I honestly never thought we would get back to this stage, but he has surprised me every step of the way with his determination and resilience.

“All the team at Wear have also been amazing and I am so grateful to them.”

It is thought Dexter sustained the potentially life-threatening and life-changing injuries when he hit a stationary object at speed, or tumbled head over heels, while out running on his daily exercise. It was only after a frantic two-hour search that he was found by his devastated owner.

He was rushed to the referral centre in County Durham with a broken and dislocated neck. The injury was so serious that any further movement would affect his ability to breathe.

The highly complex and lengthy surgery at Wear to fix Dexter’s spine was led by the world-renowned Clare Rusbridge, senior neurologist and professor in veterinary neurology, and Francisco Silveira, a European specialist in small animal surgery.

Clare said: “It was a real team effort to save his life and get him moving again, calling on the skills of our nursing team together with our neurology and orthopaedic experts.

“It’s fantastic to see his recovery has literally come on leaps and bounds and that he’s running again.”