We know what's wrong with Gramercy!

What a whirlwind of a week. As you know, a week ago Gramercy was scheduled for leg surgery.  That was postponed due to the orthopedic surgeon exercising caution after he reviewed Gramercy's radio graphs.  His preliminary thoughts were that Gramercy was having issues on his lower spine, causing him pain. When the surgeon called to tell us this my heart sank.  The surgeon apologized knowing this wasn't good news and that we as rescue have limited funds.  But, he truly felt doing the leg surgery was not the most pressing issue and leg surgery may not even be necessary.  I give the surgeon so much credit for looking out for Gramercy's best interest. He could have very well just done the surgery, gotten paid for and and been on his merry way.  Not only was he thinking of Gramercy, he also donated all of his time and consultation which saved New Rattitude hundreds of dollars.

So his recommendation was to see a neurologist - there are only 2 in the Puget Sound area. I called both and decided to go with Dr. Jerry Demuth at Summit Veterinary Referral Center in Tacoma I'd heard great things about him for a number of people.

Ok so first off this clinic is awesome. If you ever need a specialized service go here!  The staff is wonderful, very helpful and extremely patient. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the front end staff and the neurology staff.  Each of them were kind, thoughtful and understanding of my questions and that we are a rescue (that brings up lots of other questions).  Once Gramercy and I met with Dr. Demuth it was amazing.  Dr. Demuth is a very kind, gentle and easy to talk to vet.  All of what was going on with Gramercy was a lot for me to take in - trying to think about Gramercy & knowing we are a rescue with limited funds.  Dr. Demuth moved at my pace of processing the information while I was also took lots of notes.  We sat and spoke for a good hour while also reviewing the radio graphs. It was pretty amazing and I left the consultation feeling stressed but not overwhelmed. 

The recommendation was for Gramercy to undergo a MRI so we would truly know what was going on with Gramercy's spine.  The vertebrae on his lower spine needed better imaging to verify Dr. Demuth's diagnosis.  So, I called New Rattitude's treasure - she was on standby despite her physical location in Michigan.  We spoke at length and she agreed the MRI needed to be completed and it was authorized for New Rattitude to pay for the MRI.  The MRI was $1700.00 and we had already spend $330.00 on the radio graphs and prep work for last Thursday's attempted surgery.  So while we did raise $1650.00 we had quickly exceeded Gramercy's raised funds.

The MRI was completed, Dr. Demuth spoke to me again for a good amount of time with the findings of the test.  So the initial concern of both surgeon were Gram's L6, L7 vertebrae and it turns out that while there is some degeneration with those discs (this is common) they were not the problem. The problem is higher around L-2, L-3, L-4.

It was discovered that Gramercy has an almond-sized fluid-filled sac from a herniated disc that is compressing his spinal cord, pinching nerves, and causing severe pain in his back and left rear leg. Other than a lifetime of painkillers, Gramercy's only option is to have a "simple and highly successful" surgery to remove the spinal lesion and thereby remove pressure on the nerves. Spinal surgery is not cheap, of course, but Gramercy's ability to live a happy, pain-free life is within reach!

The decision by New Rattitude is to have the surgery done for Gramercy so, we will now start fundraising for this sweet little boy and if you want to be a part of changing his life you can Sponsor Gramercy by clicking here We are expecting the cost of the surgery to cost $3000.00

What an amazing adventure and thanks to so many thoughtful people Gramercy, will be the pain free happy go lucky boy he's wanted to be!