A PRIESTWOOD woman has spoken out after a crippling disease that has left her dog unable to use his back legs was missed by her veterinary practice.

Tori Hall, owner of Rex, a French Bulldog, noticed he was more subdued than normal last Tuesday and rushed him to Kynoch Vets in Easthampstead, only to be told they couldn't find anything wrong with him at all.

Just hours after being sent home, Rex was "squealing in pain" and, with the vet's emergency phone going unanswered eight times, Tori rushed him to another vet who diagnosed him with Myelomalacia - known as 'death of the spine'.

Speaking to the News, Tori said: "We took him to the vets because he wasn't the same, he wasn't jumping up on the sofa or anything, which is what he'd do usually.

"So we took him to the vets but they said they couldn't see anything wrong with him, they just gave him some antibiotics and told us to go back in the morning.

"By midnight Rex was squealing so loud that even people in the flats downstairs could hear him.

"I'm so angry that they sent us home and completely missed what was really wrong.

"No one was expecting it but there was clearly something wrong with his spine."

Now staying at a specialist unit in Winchester, Rex, aged just two years old, will never gain the use of his back legs again and will have to return home in a specially designed wheelchair.

Myelomalacia is the acute and progressive death of the spinal cord following an injury and leaves dogs with paralysis of the hind legs, numbness and hyperthermia.

David Potter, head vet at the Easthampstead branch of Kynoch's, said he was unable to comment on individual cases, but apologised for the failure of their emergency phone on the night of the incident.

He said: "What I can say is that we are aware there was a problem with out out of hours phone and there was an hour where our out of hours phone was down.

"It's been rectified now, of course this doesn't help our client now but it has been fixed."

Althought Rex will never fully recover, Tori is adamant she will help make him as comfortable as possible.

She said: "Rex is only two, he's just a baby bless him, we're just going to try and give him the best quality of life we can."