• Disk disease

An 8-year-old male border collie presented at West Midlands Referrals with ever-worsening use of his back legs. This had progressed over a few weeks. A needle was inserted into the fluid sac surrounding his spinal cord just before his pelvis.

A 7-year-old female Jack Russell terrier, who lives on a farm and loves nothing more than to catch rats, was riding in the front seat of a car when it was involved in a road traffic accident.

• Disk disease

Gizmo presented to us suffering from an acute paralysis of the hind limbs. He was completely off his back legs and the referring vet suspected that one of the intervertebral discs, the soft tissue spacers that sit between the bones of the spinal column, had ruptured. One of our nurses recognised this dog and its owners. She had actually been at his birth (by caesarean) five years before in a previous employment!

A young pomeranian was referred to us at West Midlands Referrals and could not stand. The referring vet had already diagnosed atlantoaxial subluxation from xrays of the head and neck, viewing the neck from the side with the head in various degrees of flexion.