An island dog is making a ‘miraculous’ recovery after undergoing specialist spinal treatment at one of the UK’s leading animal hospitals.

The nine-year-old whippet, Moses, was jumping around outside back in November when he suddenly collapsed and was paralysed, unable to use any of his legs.

Moses’ owner, Janetta Taylor, feared that Moses would never walk again.

She said: ‘It all happened in the blink of an eye.

‘One moment he was jumping up and down with the other dogs, and then I turned away to put the bowl of biscuits [I was holding] down and when I turned back around, he was on the floor and could not move at all.

‘My first reaction was “Can he be saved and will he ever walk again?” I was extremely concerned, particularly as Moses was my late husband Paul’s dog.’

She added: ‘I took him to Jane Callow’s [the vet], where they were very concerned about him, because obviously he wasn’t moving, so he was in overnight, and then they referred him to Kentdale for specialist treatment.

‘The next thing I knew I was on the ferry taking him to their hospital in Cumbria.’

Kentdale Referrals is a specialist practice offering services in diagnostic imaging, arthroscopy, laparoscopy, anaesthesia, infection control, orthopaedic surgery, spinal surgery, soft tissue surgery and physiotherapy.

Moses was admitted for two weeks to undergo spinal surgery, followed by intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

Kentdale’s Graham Hayes said: ‘When Moses arrived, he was unable to use any of his four legs.

‘A CT scan and myelogram revealed pressure on the spinal cord in his neck which was being caused by the protrusion of an intervertebral disc.

‘We performed a cervical ventral slot, where access to the spine is made by going into the front of the neck to get access to the underside of the vertebra.

‘The results were very good, with movement and strength gradually returning over the two weeks.’

Moses is now on a strict rehabilitation regime, including hydrotherapy involving a treadmill, and physiotherapy – which by all means appears to be going successfully.

Mrs Taylor said: ‘He’s had 10 blocks of hydrotherapy and he’s on another 10 now.

‘He’s never going to walk as well as he did before, he’s a bit like Bambi at the moment.’

Mrs Taylor wanted to offer her particular thanks to Moses’ vet, Ruth Cormode at Jane Callow Veterinary who treated him initially and made the referral to the specialist clinic.

She also wanted to thank Mary Sims and Sammy Glaister from Isle of Man K9 Caring Hands Hydro Clinic, ‘who have been doing amazing work with Moses’, and Gemma Harland from Mannin Veterinary Physiotherapy, ‘who has also carried out amazing work and has given me exercises to do with Moses and massages to carry out on him’.

She said: ‘They are the people who have been working with him and they have been brilliant.’