Spinal Disease 101

This one day course will start with a focus on the diagnosis and management of diseases associated with intervertebral disc degeneration including feline intervertebral disc disease. It will also cover the diagnosis, surgical and non-surgical treatment of important differential diagnosis of intervertebral disc disease including degenerative myelopathies, spinal arachnoid diverticula and constrictive myelopathy of screw tail breeds.

Spinal disease is often accompanied by a neurogenic bladder, the resolution or management of which can be the deciding factor on whether treatment of the spinal disease continues, so can bear great importance in the management of these cases. The course will cover management strategies for this common feature of spinal disease.

Topics to be covered include:

• Intervertebral disc disease –chondrodystrophic disc extrusions, chronic disc protrusion, acute non-compressive disc extrusion, fibrocartilaginous embolism and feline intervertebral disc herniation.
• Caudal cervical spondyomyelopathy (wobbler’s syndrome)
• Degenerative lumbosacral stenosis
• Screw tail breed myelopathies – arachnoid diverticulae, caudal articular facet hypoplasia and hemivertebrae
• Neurogenic bladder – bladder neuroanatomy and management strategies
• Degenerative myelopathy (previously known as CDRM- chronic degenerative radiculomyelopathy)