A MINIATURE dog who was barely able to walk due to serious spinal damage is back on his feet, thanks to Runcorn experts.

Scans revealed that Tyson, a Chihuahua cross, suffered a subluxation of his first two cervical vertebrae which compressed his spinal cord – leaving him in ‘massive discomfort’.

The two-year-old, who weighed just 1.7kg posed a challenge for experts at Linnnaeus-owned North West Veterinary Specialists (NWVS) in Sutton Weaver.

NWVS’s head of neurology Luca Motta, who carried out the ‘painstaking’ operation, said that precision and patience were key to a successful outcome.

Runcorn and Widnes World:

He said: “Tyson is a tiny dog who was in huge discomfort when he came to see us. We carried out MRI and CT scans to see the extent of the problem and to accurately plan for surgery on his spine.

“Five screws were inserted into the vertebrae and held firm by bone cement to try to keep the two vertebrae aligned and stable.

“The difficulty of the surgery was that Tyson is really small and we had just 1cm to 2cm of space to place the screws into his tiny bones.”

A post-operative CT scan showed good alignment and positioning of the screws, which has helped Tyson experience an ‘excellent’ improvement in his movement and mobility.

Runcorn and Widnes World:

“Tyson is doing very well and his owners are very pleased, so I guess you could say it was a knock-out result for everyone involved,” added Luca.

Tyson is now back home with his owners, Ed and Sarah Stojanovic, from St Helens.

Ed said: “We were really apprehensive about how or if Tyson would recover after such a traumatic experience, however we honestly cannot thank everyone at the practice enough.

“Every day we have seen improvements and he is back to his cheeky self in terms of his personality. After only a few days of doing his physio exercises, he can now walk or try to run in a straight line for about 15m. We’re really pleased with his progress.”