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Brave Bruce who was left paralysed by a sudden and rare life-threatening illness but has made an amazing recovery – thanks to fourteen days of round-the-clock veterinary care from our Manchester Hospital team and the incredible love of his family.
Four-year-old Border collie Bruce was struck out of nowhere by Tetanus – a highly unusual condition where toxins released by bacteria attack the nervous system, leading to widespread muscle rigidity.
First Bruce’s face began to look slightly different. Then he lost the ability to catch his ball, his cheeks sank inwards, and his ears began standing upright. The muscles around his head began to feel unusually solid.
While on the morning school walk with owner Sonja Junge and her children Lucy, aged 15, and seven-year-old twins Lottie and Jack he bumped into a lamppost for no obvious reason.
Just 48 hours after that he had deteriorated so badly that he was in total paralysis and couldn’t move a single muscle, with his life gravely in danger.
By that stage, stricken Bruce was in 24/7 intensive care at our Vets Now 24/7 pet hospital in Manchester – seventy miles from Sonja’s home in Kendal, Cumbria.
For nine days Bruce was unable to move and needed constant expert physiotherapy every two hours, as well as needing a feeding tube and urinary catheter inserted alongside another tube to administer medication and fluid therapy.
The prognosis for him was desperately bleak but Sonja and her partner Sarah were determined to keep going with the treatment because of Bruce’s incredible bond with the children.
Lottie, Jack and Lucy made touching get well cards for Bruce in multi-coloured felt tip pen and used their pocket money to organise a Halloween cake sale to raise money for his treatment.
Sonja said: “The kids were so determined to help it actually made the decision about whether or not to pursue treatment for Bruce very easy indeed – we just thought we owed it to them, as well as Bruce, to try everything to save him.
“Until all this I just thought Tetanus was an injection for humans in case you tread on a nail.
“I had no idea that animals could get it or that it was something that would put their life at risk – and I think most dog owners would be the same because it is so rare. When we took Bruce down to Vets Now, the team said they’d only seen three cases of Tetanus in four years.
“It’s the speed of decline that’s one of the most frightening things – one minute your dog is totally fine, then they seem a little bit out of sorts and the next thing you know they’re in intensive care and awfully close to death.
“When he went into the hospital even though he wasn’t right, his tail was wagging as usual and he was able to walk in without us having to carry him. Then two days later he’s completely paralysed.
“The other very alarming thing is that, as we’ve discovered, there can be no obvious cause. In other words, as with Bruce, there was no visible wound for the infection to get in, no bleeding anywhere that would make you think there’s anything wrong.
“We’ll never know for sure but in Bruce’s case we think in hindsight it was caused when he had a very slightly swollen paw a couple of weeks before he got ill.
“When we went to collect Bruce to bring him home, his ears were still stuck pointing upwards, his eyes were pointed in opposite directions, he was very stiff on his legs, and he looked really scrawny – he’d lost about a third of his usual weight.
“The kids were understandably quite upset to see him like that. They made him a huge welcome home banner which would melt your heart, and they were so excited.”
Happily, it wasn’t long before his appearance began to improve – helped by intensive twice-daily physio from Sonja and Sarah, who cleverly borrowed the children’s microwaveable teddies to warm up Bruce’s muscles.
And a month later he was back to normal.
Tetanus can sometimes be difficult to diagnose in dogs because it is uncommon and the bacteria that causes it can be challenging to identify.
As a result, a diagnosis is often based on a vet’s professional judgement – taking all the various circumstances into account of course – rather than a specific test to confirm it.
In Bruce’s case it was correctly spotted – and early – by Sonja’s daytime vets who she contacted after his lamppost collision left her convinced that something was seriously wrong. They administered a Tetanus antidote before arranging for Bruce to be transferred for specialist care.
David Owen, a vet surgeon, who was part of our Manchester team which looked after Bruce, said: “Sonja did absolutely the right thing in seeking help very early – and that’s undoubtedly one of the things that helped saved Bruce’s life. Tetanus can progress rapidly, leading not only to rigidity of the muscles affecting the limbs, but also those that control vital functions, such as swallowing and breathing.
“Without supportive care, animals cannot eat or go to the toilet for themselves and can develop major, life-threatening complications, such as pneumonia.”
David added: “Bruce is quite a character; we all became very fond of him, and we’re delighted by his return to full health and by the way Sonja and her family are now helping raise awareness of this condition.
Bruce is a very brave dog – but he’s also a very lucky one to have a family like Sonja, Sarah and their kids who put their faith in us even though they knew there was no guarantee of a recovery.”
Sonja said: “It was nine days from Bruce deteriorating into total paralysis to when we got the call to tell us the team thought they’d seen the first very small sign of improvement.
“Those nine days felt like an eternity – and there were tears and emotion at every stage. But it was all worth it to see him back to his joyous self – chasing round after the hose pipe sprinkler and running after the kids’ matchbox toys.”
“As a family we really have been through the mill with all of this – but there’s something so special about the bond between Bruce and the children and to see the joy they’ve shared at his recovery has been very humbling indeed.”