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Dog With Slipped Disk -- Anyone Have Experience??



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 3rd 05, 07:56 AM
Dogman Dave
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Default Dog With Slipped Disk -- Anyone Have Experience??

My very athletic five-year-old Siberian Husky was in the living room this
afternoon. Suddenly, she's screaming in horrible pain and unable to move her
hind legs. She's twirling around, trying to walk, completely paralyzed in
her hind end.

After a while, she was able to take a few wobbly steps, then sit for a
moment, then a few more wobbly steps.

I rushed her to the emergency vet and it appears she has one or two ruptured
disks (also called slipped disks). She's going to have another procedure
tomorrow, where they inject dye into her spinal column and do some kind of
scan, which is likely followed by immediate surgery. Because of the sudden
onset, the vet said it's pretty certain she has a slipped disk and not a
tumor or other malady.

Has anyone here ever had experience with a dog who has had spinal surgery of
this sort? From what I've read, and also what the vet said, younger dogs
almost always have a 100 percent recovery.

I'm just wondering about how long the recovery will be and other sorts of
things I'll need to know. It appears she'll have to be crated for several
weeks to keep from bouncing about.

Any shared experience would be appreciated.


  #2  
Old April 4th 05, 03:11 AM
Kathleen
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Dogman Dave wrote:
My very athletic five-year-old Siberian Husky was in the living room this
afternoon. Suddenly, she's screaming in horrible pain and unable to move her
hind legs. She's twirling around, trying to walk, completely paralyzed in
her hind end.

After a while, she was able to take a few wobbly steps, then sit for a
moment, then a few more wobbly steps.

I rushed her to the emergency vet and it appears she has one or two ruptured
disks (also called slipped disks). She's going to have another procedure
tomorrow, where they inject dye into her spinal column and do some kind of
scan, which is likely followed by immediate surgery. Because of the sudden
onset, the vet said it's pretty certain she has a slipped disk and not a
tumor or other malady.

Has anyone here ever had experience with a dog who has had spinal surgery of
this sort? From what I've read, and also what the vet said, younger dogs
almost always have a 100 percent recovery.

I'm just wondering about how long the recovery will be and other sorts of
things I'll need to know. It appears she'll have to be crated for several
weeks to keep from bouncing about.

Any shared experience would be appreciated.


I had a BC who managed to rupture two disks in his neck. He was in the
habit of ripping boards off of our shadow box-style fence (in order to
escape and roam the neighborhood), and the fact that the border collie
spine is not designed for such antics finally caught up to him.

The docs at the ortho clinic did the dye test on the spine and called me
with the news that it was most probably cancer - they said they were
about 85 percent sure. Said there was evidence of a mass well above and
below the disks that were supposed to be ruptured. And that the kindest
thing might be to not allow him to wake up from the anesthesia.

I was flabbergasted. Devastated. How could cancer have such a sudden
onset? And my own vet had been so certain that it was trauma... So I
said "absolutely not" to immediate euthanasia. Told them to proceed
with the surgery. Open him up and see what's in there. If it was the
disks, patch him up, and if it was cancer, just debulk the tumor, get as
much of it out as possible to relieve his pain and buy him some time.

It was the disks. They'd ruptured with such violent force that the
squishy stuff inside had spurted all up and down the spinal canal -
that's what they'd been seeing on the dye test. It still makes me shake
to think about what would have happened if I'd been willing to follow
"expert advice" instead of my own instincts.

Connor had staples in his neck holding the incision closed. 12 days
post op I took him to have them removed and the incision just FELL OPEN.
Thank god it happened before we left the office. Healing was delayed
by the oral steroids he'd been given to try to relieve his pain prior to
his consult at the ortho clinic. They re-stapled him and we returned
again in another 14 days. This time it stayed closed.

As I recall, I kept him crated for that first month, taking him outside
in the yard on a belt that wrapped around his waist so as not to put any
strain on his neck. He was so relieved not to be hurting anymore that I
had to keep him confined to keep him from doinging around like a maniac.

Kathleen

 




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