We have a 6 year old dachshund mix.. Here is a brief history.. About two months ago he woke up unable to walk good. My wife thought he had a stroke. We carried him outside to go potty and his back legs were just slipping out from under him.. He was still somewhat able to use them but not able to hold himself up. While we waited for our vets office to open we were looking at him on our couch. Pressing certain areas to see if anything / anywhere hurt. He never yelped at anything.. Then my wife seen what looked like a lima bean coming out from his neck.
We got him to the vet the minute they opened up and they immediately thought it was his back (common in dachshunds). They said the thing we found was a tick. They removed the tick and gave him a steroid shot. He was 100% within 4 hours. We thought it was very strange that the tick wasn’t the cause as we read it was able to cause temporary paralysis. They didn’t do any x-rays or anything.
Now, this past week… Wednesday he started having trouble getting up stairs.. We took him to a different vet and he said he thought it was a swollen disc and gave us anti inflammatory pills (non steroidal). He said he should be better in a day.. The next day he did seem 100%. We took him on Friday over my parents for a picnic and he still seemed to be fine..
Saturday he woke up and it was just like 2 months ago.. He couldn’t barely use his rear legs again. We called the vet we had just taken him to but they were closed. We left a message but didn’t hear back from her. We had a busy day Saturday and when we got home Saturday night we decided to take him to an emergency 24 hour vet.
The vet took x-rays and didn’t see any disc problems but he said he still felt that is what it was. That x-rays don’t always show disc problems. He gave us all our options which included transporting our dog that night to an emergency place where he would get back surgery ($3,000 - $4,000) and that the post op care would be very tough. We couldn’t do that option so the next thing was to give him a steroid shot and then pills every 12 hours.. That is what we did.
Sunday he showed no signs of improvement.. We were very heart broken and figured that when we went to the vet on Monday he would tell us there was nothing more we could do. Well we went to the vet yesterday and he said he wasn’t ready to give up on him yet (which was a huge relief to us). He said he has seen dogs come back from this and said that he reacted to him probing his feet (which the ER vet said he did not do on Saturday night). He said to keep him in a cage for 1-4 weeks so he can’t move and aggravate anything.
I’m not really sure what advice I am needing.. We just aren’t ready to let him go at such a young age and with him being perfectly healthy besides this. Hopefully he will start to regain mobility in his legs.. I’ve seen on TV before some type of cart that has wheels on it but I’m not sure if this would apply to him or not..
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.
Buddy
We got him to the vet the minute they opened up and they immediately thought it was his back (common in dachshunds). They said the thing we found was a tick. They removed the tick and gave him a steroid shot. He was 100% within 4 hours. We thought it was very strange that the tick wasn’t the cause as we read it was able to cause temporary paralysis. They didn’t do any x-rays or anything.
Now, this past week… Wednesday he started having trouble getting up stairs.. We took him to a different vet and he said he thought it was a swollen disc and gave us anti inflammatory pills (non steroidal). He said he should be better in a day.. The next day he did seem 100%. We took him on Friday over my parents for a picnic and he still seemed to be fine..
Saturday he woke up and it was just like 2 months ago.. He couldn’t barely use his rear legs again. We called the vet we had just taken him to but they were closed. We left a message but didn’t hear back from her. We had a busy day Saturday and when we got home Saturday night we decided to take him to an emergency 24 hour vet.
The vet took x-rays and didn’t see any disc problems but he said he still felt that is what it was. That x-rays don’t always show disc problems. He gave us all our options which included transporting our dog that night to an emergency place where he would get back surgery ($3,000 - $4,000) and that the post op care would be very tough. We couldn’t do that option so the next thing was to give him a steroid shot and then pills every 12 hours.. That is what we did.
Sunday he showed no signs of improvement.. We were very heart broken and figured that when we went to the vet on Monday he would tell us there was nothing more we could do. Well we went to the vet yesterday and he said he wasn’t ready to give up on him yet (which was a huge relief to us). He said he has seen dogs come back from this and said that he reacted to him probing his feet (which the ER vet said he did not do on Saturday night). He said to keep him in a cage for 1-4 weeks so he can’t move and aggravate anything.
I’m not really sure what advice I am needing.. We just aren’t ready to let him go at such a young age and with him being perfectly healthy besides this. Hopefully he will start to regain mobility in his legs.. I’ve seen on TV before some type of cart that has wheels on it but I’m not sure if this would apply to him or not..
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.
Buddy
