The Good, The Bad & The Hugo

Poor little guy.  He ate something (we think it was stuffing from a duck dog toy) that caused some issues with his GI tract.  The good news was we did not have to open him up to fix it!

However, as a side line, we discovered via the x-rays, that he has a congenital spinal issue.  His T12 vertebra is malformed and could cause some issues in the future.  Certainly arthritis down the road and at worst, he could break his back.  The good news here is it does not seem to bother him for now.

As you can see from the x-rays, around his mid back, there is a crook caused by the bad disc...

Kinda cool to see the pooches bones, just wish his spine was in better shape.

The vet said he should curtail his jumping and if anyone knows Hugo, this is what he does best (next to snuggling of course).  It would be way hard to keep him from launching off the back deck.  She is also looking into possible proactive treatments we could possibly do (fuse the disc in question) to solve the issue and reduce the worst potential effects.  We shall see.

Here is a more random picture of an animal mouth visual device...

Possible lesson here is keep your teeth clean!