Rare tumor surgery helps dog walk again

Late last October, Bessie, a 2-year-old chihuahua mix, was brought to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine by her owners Tammy Wright and Wendy Chartier because she lost the ability to move her back legs, going from a mild limp to total paralysis in only 12 days.

During her neurological exam, Richard Shinn, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Neurology), pinched Bessie’s toes with a hemostat and there was no flinch or reaction, which marked a devastating milestone for the dog. According to Shinn, for a tumor when deep pain is gone usually has a 10-20% prognosis, and the team was not expecting her to walk again.

Bessie received an MRI where it was revealed something Shinn had only seen one other time in his career: a nephroblastoma embedded in the patient’s spinal cord. Nephroblastoma is a tumor born from kidney cels that was trapped in the wrong place during fetal development and is more common in German shepherds and Great Danes.¹

"It’s weird," Shinn said. "A little piece of kidney gets stuck where the spinal cord is formed, and it grows with the spinal cord."

In Bessie’s case, the tumor compressed her spinal cord so if the team were to remove it, it would mean destroying functional nerve tissue. Surgery would help ease Bessie’s pain, but the team thought her ever walking again was “wishful thinking.”

RELATED: Case report: canine spinal cord nephroblastoma²

Wright and Chartier had stretched their finances to a breaking point on diagnostic imaging, but since Bessie’s case was rare, hospital teaching funds and compassionate care assistance made surgery possible. Along with surgery, Bessie joined an ongoing clinical trial that was examining whether nerve signal testing can predict which patients will regain function.¹

Shinn and Bryanna Mischler, BSc, DVM, a first-year neurology resident, and a fourth-year veterinary student, worked over 3 hours drilling through Bessie’s vertebral bone to reach the spinal canal to carefully remove as much of the tumor as they could. When they were done, the team noted that her spinal cord looked bruised, frayed, and ‘not healthy.’

The morning after the surgery, Shinn returned to check on Bessie and pinched her toes. This time, Bessie pulled away.

"The very next day, she could feel her toes, and that was quite remarkable," Shinn said.¹

Three days later, Bessie was discharged since she could stand unassisted and her right back leg stepped properly. Her left back leg showed intermittent movement, and she was nearly able to walk.

Once home, Wright provided intensive care from Wright, including holding her up when she needed to go to the bathroom, spoon fed her baby food, and administered pain medication every few hours. Weeks later Bessie walked into the hospital for her recheck appointment. Even though one back leg remained weaker than the other, she was mobile.

Without radiation therapy, most nephroblastoma’s recur within a year or two, and Shinn made sure that Bessie’s owners understand this and the goal all along was never false hope, but quality of life and time.

"A year for a dog is different than a year for us," Shinn concluded.¹ "Now they have time to prepare themselves, either mentally or financially, for when that time comes."

Since Bessie’s surgery was recorded, it is now going to be used as a teaching resource that did not exist before, and Mischler gained hands-on experience for a condition she may never see again. The clinical study Bessie was involved in also added another data point to help predict outcomes for future paralyzed patients.

As for Bessie and her family, they are happy the surgery gave Bessie the chance to be a dog, and they would do it all over again.

Reference

1. Mann A. Paralyzed chihuahua walks again after rare tumor surgery. Virginia Tech. Published January 7, 2026. Accessed January 14, 2026. https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/01/vetmed-vth-success-story-bessie.html
2. Meiman E, Glass E, Kent M, Silver G, Song R. Case report: canine spinal cord nephroblastoma. dvm360. Published November 10, 2021. Accessed January 14, 2026. https://www.dvm360.com/view/case-report-canine-spinal-cord-nephroblastoma