Surgical conditions of the canine spine

Abstract

There are various types of pathological change which can affect the spine of the dog. The approach to neurological diagnosis and localization of the lesion has been discussed previously ( Wheeler, 1985). Certain conditions are not considered to be ‘surgical’ in nature, for example, canine distemper encephalomyelitis ischaemic myelopathy and chronic degenerative radiculo myelopathy, and are thus not discussed here. However, their importance in differential diagnosis must not be ignored. Surgical treatments are described where applicable. The reader is referred to the list of further texts for details of technique.