July 2, 2025, 4:46 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
The year 2025 is already halfway over, yet Guido Maria Kretschmer is still feeling the effects of New Year’s Eve. The fashion designer recently spoke about a dramatic incident involving his dog, Pierrine, during the turn of the year.
“We had a very dramatic story on New Year’s Eve,” reports Guido Maria Kretschmer in a short video clip with the TikTok veterinarian InselTieraerztin, who seems to be a personal friend as well. Essentially a good friend and veterinarian in one, as he mentions in the clip. Specifically, the accident involved his dog: “One of our dogs ran into her and, as we later found out, tore the wing off the atlas.”
The Atlas is the first cervical vertebra in dogs and supports the head
But what exactly does that mean? “The atlas is the first cervical vertebra in a dog—and also in humans,” explains veterinarian Dr. Marco Antonio Fragoso when asked by PETBOOK. “It is located at the top of the spine—right under the head. It supports the head and helps the dog move it.”
The wing of the atlas is a part of this vertebra, which can be imagined as a kind of small “handle” on the side of the atlas. Therefore, such an injury, where a part of this vertebra is broken or severely damaged, can not only be very painful but also severely restrict the movement of the head and neck and lead to nerve damage. But that’s not all. “In the worst case, it can be life-threatening,” Dr. Fragoso assesses. “It depends on how severe the injury is and which structures are affected.”
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Just narrowly missed the artery
Guido Maria Kretschmer’s dog Pierrine was lucky. As the “Shopping Queen” star reports, the veterinarian friend immediately referred him to a specialist because everything “crunched very strangely,” he recalls. She only said: “You must go immediately! I can’t do anything more for you here. Keep her calm and go to the animal clinic.”
And that was exactly the right thing to do, as the doctors at the clinic confirmed, Kretschmer reports. The veterinarian “didn’t try anything but immediately said: ‘Let the expert handle it,'” and that’s exactly what happened. “We saved her. A big, big miracle,” he emphasizes in his video. The injury narrowly missed an artery in the then 6-month-old dog, the veterinarian also confirms in the video. “You suffered a lot, I must say.”
The fact that Pierrine could be saved probably means more to Guido Maria Kretschmer and his husband than anyone else. In the past two years, their four dogs and both of Guido’s parents passed away. A series of losses that is hard to imagine. But fortunately, the young greyhound was saved and is now doing well, as Kretschmer reveals in the video.