HELP!!!

Okay, Laika's always been our sickly child. Especially a couple months ago, she went through a growth spurt and apparently had really bad growing pains on her back legs. She would just start freaking out every once in awhile, it looked like she was having a seizure, because she'd scream and her entire body would go stiff. We took her to the vet several times, and to three different vets, and they all did x-rays on her and complete exams and could never find anything wrong. They just said that she was having growing pains, and they were scaring her, so that she was having panic attacks. Then they'd send me home with a mild antibiotic and painkiller and call it good. Thankfully, she grew out of that, or so I thought.

Yesterday she started acting like her back right hip was hurting again. She's acting the exact same way as she used to, except she's doing it way more often. This morning she started whining in her crate, so I got her out, gave her some aspirin, and after she walked around a bit, she started to act better, so I thought she was just a bit stiff or something. But a couple seconds ago she walked by and I absent-mindedly put my hand down and it BRUSHED her backside, seriously, I barely felt it, and she FREAKED out. Started whining again, retreated to the living room, and is still whining.

Is she hurt? She only acts like it hurts every once in awhile. She had been doing fine. Ugh! It's kinda one of those situations where if we take her to the ER, a few bills are going to have to wait. She already has an appointment tomorrow to get spayed, but I just don't know if she can wait that long. All the vets always told me she acted fine when I wasn't around. They said she was just trying to get attention and I was worried and encouraging it. But I've been trying my best to act normal and not encourage it....I just don't know!! Help!!

She has an appointment at 5 tonight. It's the soonest I could find. Turns out there's only like 2 vet clinics open today!!

I'm sure I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on x-rays again, only for the vet to say "false alarm!"

We just got back from the vet. News is not good. It's not hip dysplasia, which is awesome, but she's definitely not having a panic attack, either. The vet thinks she has diskospondylit is. Basically, her spine is hurt, and has been for a long long while. There's a really bad infection between two of her disks. It's so bad that her body has formed a bridge over the infection, which made it really hard for the vet to read the x-rays. He said the infection is really obvious, but the infection is so bad he can't tell if there's a fracture under there, which he thinks there is, but he's sending the x-rays off to a specialist. He said that good case scenario, it'll be a few months of pain killers and antibiotics. Worst case scenario, surgery. Also, the antibiotics have a one in four chance of making her very sick.

They gave her a shot of morphine before we left so she's sleeping in her crate right now.

I'm so upset right now. This is all my fault. I should've gotten a second opinion a long time ago. I should've known these weren't panic attacks or cries for attention. Three times previously we've had x-rays done and they never noticed a thing.

Also, since we're completely broke, we took out a credit card for this. Bank of America gave it to us a few months ago when we opened our bank account, so we called and activated it today. Then we got online to check the credit limit, and hey, there were already $300 worth of charges done a week ago!! From the UK! So another fun thing to deal with tomorrow.

So yeah, send some major good thoughts my way, because I really need them right now.

Yikes 

I'm so sorry you're going through this 

Zoey and I will cross our fingers and paws for a speedy recovery