By: Bronson Woodruff
KOSSUTH, Miss. (Take 30 News) --- Meet Pixie, a sweet, fun-loving pup with quite a personality and a wealth of love to share. Her owner Bronson Woodruff said she loves chasing frogs and barking at just about anything that moves. A warm, sunny day always perks up her spirits, and enables her to go off on another adventure around the yard. However, Pixie has one characteristic that makes her far different from most other dogs: She’s handicapped. A little wheelchair has taken the place of her motionless back legs, a way of life that took some time to get adapted to. Woodruff said she used to be able to run, jump, and hunt like a normal dog.
“I remember the day it happened like it was just yesterday. We went outside and Pixie just started screaming. It was scary,” Woodruff said. “We rushed her to the vet, and we brought her home that night. Well, the next morning, she had no use of her back legs. That was the last day she was able to walk on her own. “
Dr. Gil Green is pixie’s vet. He says this is not uncommon in smaller dogs, such as smaller breed terriers.
“So what she suffers from is intervertebral disc disease. We call it IVDD,” Green said. “The way the dog’s spinal column works, where those discs sit, when they like to extrude, they like to go up, like towards their back, and that’s where their spinal cord is, it’s sitting right above those discs. So what happened with her is you have the extrusion of disc material, and it went up into her spine, and that causes compression.”
Green says genes play a role in this happening. He says sudden knocks such as jumping off furniture can cause a disc to give as well.
“We thought we were gonna have to put her down. I mean she was ready to go,” Woodruff said. “It was really bad. She wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t move around, she would just lay in one place and stay.”
Just when all hope seemed lost, a miracle happened.
“So at the Vet Center at Mississippi State University, I waited in the lobby, and they took her in the back and put her in a little cart, which is essentially a wheelchair,” Woodruff said. “She came wheeling up around the corner, and she perked up from that day forward.”
It’s been a long and emotional journey, but Pixie is still kicking. This past October marked two years, and the family hopes for many more to come.