Dachshunds

Our 5 year old Standard dachshund Carly, was just diagnosed with a ruptured disc in her back. We rushed into the vet on Monday morning, we were devastated when the Dr. told us what was wrong & told us she had to stay. At first we thought she had injured her leg, or her hip, but of course it progressively got worse & by Monday morning her hind legs were barely moving. We felt such guilt, we got her from a very good breeder, we thought, but she neglected to tell us how common this injury is in dachshunds & how to prevent it. Carly has always been playful, up & down stairs, jumps up on the couch, etc...Needless to say we immediately felt guilty because if we could have prevented this from happening, of course we would have done everything possible. The vet told us she had to stay for a couple of days to confine her & give her predisone.We did discuss the operating option but he told us it wasnt even a guarantee costing $3000-$5000. We went back on the Wed thinking we were picking her up to bring her home & he said her injury was significant & she had to stay longer. He also mentioned if she didnt improve & her legs stayed paralized then he might suggest putting her down. I was devastated! I couldnt believe what I was hearing. He asked us to call back the next day, so we did at the end of the day & we were told that she had improved & we could pick her up the following day. We are thrilled that she is coming home & we know that we have our work cut out for us. My husband is picking her up right now so I dont even know what the Dr.'s instructions will be besides confinement at this point. If anyone has any therapy suggestions or advice for us PLEASE post them!! Thank you!

Sharon

My advice for you with your little dog, is to keep her on very strict rest. Put her in her crate, and move it around so she can still see you, but don't let her move around. Pick her up and take her to go potty, being careful to hold her whole body along the length of your forearm, keep her back straight. I would do this for at least 3 weeks although the vet may say a shorter length of time.As you slowly let her out of the crate, I would move her to an x-pen. After that, I would keep her on a leash, just in case she thinks she might jump on the couch.
I wish you the best of luck with her, and keep us posted.

We have our Zero, who is six years old. He had Hemilaminectomy on T10-T13 disks, this was almost two years ago to the date. Last Thursday Feb 27, he started having some issues. We thought he may have strained his back. Took him to the vet Monday, they switched his anti-inflamitory from Rimadyl to Prednisone. They thought he'd be better by Friday (today). Took him back in this morning because he's not better..if not getting worse. Then we got the bad news....its more than likely his disk again, possibly even the same disk as last time. I asked our vet what he would do...He told me to try accupuncture and gave me a name and number of a doctor that does house calls in the area.
So we are going to try this and hope and pray this works. Otherwise our options are: surgery again (which our vet didn't think would be wise to do since we only got two years from the first surgery and it was $3000) or fit him for a cart. Which just breaks my heart.

I've kept him crated since Monday, only letting him out to potty or to cuddle (then I'm very watchful so he doesn't jump anywhere).

Has anyone had luck with accupuncture with this type of condition? I'm just looking for a glimmer of hope...He's like my first born (we got him a year before our son was born) and well he's always been my baby.


Zero's mommy.....