Brownie is 6 and not overweight. I’m familiar with dachshunds and their back problems, so have used theraband strips to block her from jumping of the bed, etc. We don’t have stairs.
This morning, she was in the hallway and began to cry. I found her there, lame.
I took her to the vet and he said she only responds to deep pressure. The vet said the injury is just past her rib cage. She got some steroids and pain meds, and she is now home in her crate.
I put an ice pack on her for 5 minutes every hour and offer her food and drink and a trip to the restroom every 2 hours. She doesn’t want to eat or drink (not even chicken broth!) and she has not been to the bathroom since I found her this morning.
He said if she’s not better in the morning he will refer her for an MRI and surgical evaluation.
Good things: She feels deep pressure.
Bad things: She won’t eat or drink and hasn’t needed to pee. MRI is $2000.00 and I don’t know how much surgery would cost.
I’m sorry. This exact same thing happened to my dachshund Nathan 7 or 8 years ago. He was 7.
After about $1000 in vet fees and meds, the vet told me the next step was surgery (I think he said about $3K) with no guarantee that he’d be able to walk properly after. I opted to have him put down, and I miss him to this day.
Same story here. We were quoted $4K for the MRI and fusion operation, with months of rehab and no guarantee she wouldn’t rupture another disk. We too did what we thought she would have wanted us to. If you do the same, don’t blame yourself, just remember the love.
How did you get yours to stop jumping? We could never figure out how, and our minidox’s injury wasn’t on a significant jump anyway. Maybe it just doesn’t make a difference; the breed has an innate defect.
I am sorry to hear your news. My friend’s rotty woke up a year ago and he couldn’t move his hind legs. Steroids fixed him got him back up and running, so there is hope.
We had two doxies, and when the first one went down we didn’t know what to do and she lost even deep pain sensation in her back legs fast. We had to put her to sleep. It was terrible. The same thing happened to her sister, and we asked the vet to give her vitamin C as soon as possible. He said he didn’t know how helpful that would be, but we were insistent and he shrugged his shoulders and said it wouldn’t hurt her. We also went the steroid route and she recovered.
You want to take action as soon as possible - the first three days are critical. I’m glad you have steroids for her. Good luck!
She’s still not interested in food or drink and has not peed, so it’s not looking good. Her bladder doesn’t feel full, so maybe that’s good. I gave her some stinky kid socks and a bone- she likes those things.
I never did get her to quit jumping completely but blocked her from the high jumps off the bed by building a ramp and then blocking the sides of the bed with some large pieces of theraband.
Theraband is like a very wide rubberband (5 or 6 inches wide) and we stretched it from the headboard to the foot board along the sides of the bed and secured the ends with velcro so it would stay wide. She didn’t want to jump over it so was compelled to use the ramp at the foot of the bed. She still jumps onto and off of chairs or jumps on people to get them to pick her up. We just got really low (and uncomfortable) chairs for the living room- maybe 15 inches.
I’m so sad that she’s having this much trouble, and so soon. She’s a great dog.
That sort of defeats the point of owning a dog, doesn’t it?
If they really have taken Dachshunds to the point where 20%-25% will suffer from spinal problems and owners have to make of point of not letting them jump on and off the furniture in case they end up paralysed then I personally wouldn’t own one.
They now seem have joined the list of breeds that are showcases for genetic disease rather than healthy happy animals, along with King Charles Spaniels, bulldogs, bloodhounds and the rest. Il-health should be a rare exception for dogs, not something that’s expected.
I was going to nitpick that it’s English Bulldogs (the short-faced wrinkly ones that were crossed with pugs) that have the health problems, and the more traditionally-built American Bulldogs don’t…but I see in the wiki link that there are some health issues with American Bulldogs after all.
The two other notorious breed issues I would add to your shortlist are the hip dysplasia bred into German Shepherds and the dumbing-down of show Collies.
I went through the same thing with Tasha, and she responded well to steroids, crate rest for several months, and a dog cart. Before you make a decision to put her down, please consider a cart. Tasha only needed hers for a short time before she was completely rehabilitated. I know that there will be another injury in the future…it’s a sad fact of dachshund ownership. She was only 3 when she had her injury.
Dogs To Go built a custom cart for her for a very very reasonable price. It was less than $50 at the time. This is a fantastic option if surgery isn’t ecomonically feasible for you.
Dunno if this helps but here goes: a family friend has several dachshunds. One was injured somehow (she wasn’t sure how, she thinks one of the grandkids did something to the poor thing) and his back half was paralyzed. She didn’t have the money for aggressive treatment, so paralyzed he remained.
And he was the happiest dog I’ve ever met. Incontinent of course, but he dragged his bottom all over their smooth kitchen floor, went after treats, was wiggly and happy and loved to be petted.
Would I have made the same choice with my pet? Who knows. But I mentioned this as an example that even if the dog’s legs don’t recover, the dog can have a lot of joy left in her life.
My mom had a Dachshund when I was a teenager that thought our other (much taller) dog was his mate. She wasn’t very receptive to this short guy but he would occasionally catch her sleeping and … well, more accessible.
He got a hold of her once and she jumped up in surprise and he fell off and hurt his back, losing the use of his back legs. My parents took him to the vet fearful that they would have to destroy him.
The vet said that he appeared to be in no pain and that sometimes they improve. So the folks took him back home and kept an eye on him. He recovered within a few weeks and about six months later he lost another courtship attempt and sure enough broke his back.
This time his recovery was enough to eventually get to a stand but his back legs were pretty numb and he basically pogo’d around with them. I don’t know if he lost interest in the other dog because after that she started sleeping with her back end against the wall. She made sure that he had to get past her teeth to get to the prize.
He lived to a ripe but frustrated old age.
I hope that yours makes a recovery and is smarter than my mom’s dog was.
You might want to investigate the options for “wheelchairs” and such for dogs. Doing some quick googling I discovered a company that specializes in such matters (no endorsement though since I’ve never dealt with them) http://www.eddieswheels.com/html/our_story.html
I also noticed that there are instructions online for making a dachshund wheelchair at home which surely would be cheaper.
I hope that things get better soon for the little gal.
She’s feeling just a little better now. She only had about an ounce of water and two tablespoons of food yesterday, but my neighbor talked her into eating 2 more tablespoons (with strategically hidden pill) and drinking about 3 ounces this morning!
Also, this morning, when I pinched her toes she tried (very weakly) to pull her leg away from me. Her legs are still not functioning or weight bearing, though. Also, she still has not urinated but doesn’t feel full at all. Brownie is famous for peeing on my neighbor in the past, so the neighbor tried to get her to do it again, but without sucess. Maybe later.
I’ve got a message in to the Doc about how much water she needs/day and if there is anything surgical we can do to stabilize her back, providing she recovers sufficiently, so the injured part will not get injured again.
