Boomer's recovery: How a former dogfighting pit bull got a new lease on life (VIDEO)

Boomer, a 14-year-old pit bull has seen a remarkable recovery after a serious spinal cord injury. Watch video

WOOLWICH TWP. -- Boomer walks the halls of St. Francis Veterinary Center like a star. Everyone stops as he goes by, offering a quick pat on the head or a nice tummy rub. He gets the same treatment at the Lit Cigar Lounge in Swedesboro, which his adoptive dad co-owns and he has his own leather chair.

Just a few months ago, however, the 14-year-old pit bull couldn't even stand up, nonetheless walk around.

Adopted by Mark Magazu in 2003, Boomer had been rescued from a dog-fighting ring by the New York Police Department. He had serious trauma to the face and you could barely tell he had an eye on the right side, Magazu said.

"His face was chewed up. No one would take him," he added. "His face was just destroyed."

But Boomer had a good temperament, and Magazu had a significant resource to help the injured dog -- his father, also named Mark Magazu, a veterinarian with decades of experience.

They got his face fixed up and Boomer had been living a great life for more than a decade. In January, however, he suffered a new injury -- a serious spinal problem that left him paralyzed. He was completely unable to walk.

Magazu again turned to his father, and the Saint Francis Veterinary Center, to see what could be done.

Throughout January and February the staff worked on different tests and therapies, all of which proved not to make much of a difference.

In the meantime Magazu had to carry the 60-pound dog everywhere -- including up and down the five flights of stairs to his apartment -- and care for him like a newborn baby.

"It was touch and go. He looked really bad," Magazu said.

Using an MRI and 3D CAT scan technology available at Saint Francis, the elder Magazu found that two vertebrae in Boomer's neck were basically cutting his spinal cord in two. The damage was not caused by any particular incident; rather it was an aging dog with a bone problem that many owners would have seen as a death sentence.

Surgery, while risky and rare in these particular injuries, was the last option for Boomer, and for Magazu.

"If he was never going to walk again and never going to get better without surgery, it was worth a chance," the junior Magazu said. "The worst that could happen was already happening."

So he entrusted his father with the complicated and rare operation.

The actual procedure included going through the front of Boomer's neck, according to Dr. Magazu, and removing debris from the spinal column.

"We went in and did the ventral slot. We removed a substantial amount of debris around the spinal cord," he said. The spinal cord, quite frankly, did not look real healthy from the constant pressure here. Any time you get paralysis in an older dog the risks are always greater. Honestly his recovery is remarkable."

After surgery, and months of physical therapy, Boomer is now back on his feet and running around. His owner credits at least 25 individuals who helped to care for him from the staff at Saint Francis to the members of the cigar lounge Boomer now visits almost every day.

"He needed to be turned, picked up, walked 24 hours a day," he said. "When he was coming out of the paralysis it wasn't enough to just stand up. He had to learn to walk again," Magazu said. "...He's healthier now than he has been in a year. He runs around. He gets up and down on things. He's getting into things again...It's awesome."

Rebecca Forand may be reached at rforand@southjerseymedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaForand. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.