Animal Health (General)

[gailarden]

My 7 yr old mini daschund, Wendy, became paralyized. It happened very quickly. She had been to the vet the previous week because of not eating & was about to have her teeth cleaned maybe some extractions & was on medication for the tooth infection. I called the vet the next day & took her to find out about paralysis in hind legs. The doctor said she had suffered a spinal cord stroke & had no bowel or bladder control either. He prescribed Prednisone daily, then every other day. I had another daschund mix who became paralyized & xrays showed she has a disk out in her back. She took Prednisone and slowly regained use of her hind legs but she never lost bladder or bowel control. The vet says that Wendy's condition is worse than the other dog. I couldnt find anything on the website that was the same condition. I have never heard of this before and was wondering if anyone reading the posts knew anything about it. Wendy is very depressed. If you know anything about this or have had any experience with a dog that had it, please respond. thanks, gailarden

[Daveyo]

Hi I am Daveyo

I will be in touch with you shortly. I do believe this paralysis can be fixed. Please stand by and be on the look out for the messages here the next 48 hours.

Meantime keep the dog down and laying down. Doxies have spinal problems just behind the bottom of their chest cavity (rib area) at the rear, and if you go up that will be the spot area on the spine. Common.

Don't fear

I will tell you what to do and how to get your dog fixed up and where to go.

Please tell me your location as quickly as you can.

Daveyo

[gailarden]

We are in Quitman, Texas about 100 miles E. of Dallas. Do you know what a spinal cord stroke is?
I thought a stroke had to do with the brain. The other daschund who is now walking tho stiffly has a disk out. My husband has 2 disks out in his back so I understand about that. thank you for your reply. gailarden

[Daveyo]

Doxies ( and other achondroplastic breeds.) have a genetic problem with spinal disc protrusion problems. Cortisone does NOT help. 2 ways of handling the situation.
One----Surg immediately. within 12 - 24 hours. This protrusion works just like a tourniquet. stops the blood supply to the distal cord. Compression. It dies. Does not return. So, opening up the bone space over the protrusion and cleaning out the disc material allows for the restoration of blood and return of function. It turns out that with cord trauma there is a drug now that allows for the maintenance of the cord integrity so that the animal will have function. This drug is PEG (polyethylene glycol) It must be placed directly into the cord at the site of damage. Works in about 90 % of the cases. Especially those where the back has been broken as in auto accidents.
Two---Cage rest with pain killers. NOT corticosteroids. Something to relieve the swelling helps. DMOSO.(takes the swelling down) Injected along with fluids IV seems to help. Recover is slow. 5 days to 14 days to see any chance of recovery. Depends on the amount of material moving and how fast it moved. If super fast it causes bleeding into the cord (hematomalacia, hemorrhage) which is progressive and the animal dies in about 3 days. If it is slow Then there is a chance of recovery. Depends on how much blood flow is by the area involved. Remember the tourniquet. I have seen dogs take as much as 6 MOS to regain a walking ability. I have seen 50 % completely paralyzed with this procedure. It is all about fees. Money. Lucre. One very expensive and requires an expert in surg. the other is cheap and you get what you pay for. Doc.

There is your answer.

if it was me, I would choose surgery which offers the best chance for full recovery, and use PEG, and use the second option part of it, being cage rest and keeping the dog on a brace and give it time to recover. After this and the dog is recovered do not allow any jumping or going up and down stairs, and don't let that dog walk much except to go to the bathroom, or to eat. Keep it inside. If you watch them carefully the way they walk you can see how their spine moves sideways back and forth side motion. Then get to your dog and examine it while well, and memorize this spot.
That twist point is the spot that causes all the problems.

Last of all do allow the dog to lie on his back and not on the tummy. This way the stress is off the spine.

Therefore it is prudent to at least take a good X-Ray once a year after age 6 on these dogs. After age 8 then do it twice a year. Sooner or later that problem will show up on most Doxies and on some they are spared..Genetics play a role here.

Daveyo

[gailarden]

I guess I may appear stupid but your answer was very complicated. I could see surgery if the vet had said Wendy had a disk out in her back. But I was trying to find out about & had never heard of....
a "Spinal Cord Stroke". Wendy is in no pain. She wets all over me when I pick her up & not so much with her bowel movements but she is having them. Are you saying that there is still a disk or something ruptured in her spine even tho vet called it a stroke? Bambi the other little daschund was in pain. it took her 3 mos to start using her hind legs but she had bladder & bowel control.
Also I need to look at her vet record & see exactly what day we took her to the vet.
If I understand you right time in getting treatment is important. Why didnt the vet tell us that?
He said keep her confined. I have her in a small area of my huge walk in closet.
Prednisone which has been reduced to 5 mg every other day & shes also on an antibiotic I guess for her infected teeth. I really appreciate what you have told me. I need to re read it. Maybe take her back to the doctor and press him a little more...I have seen a lot of conditions but not this.
We have an animal sanctuary. we will take anything that needs our help and get them to the right person if its wild life like a wild life rehabilitator. we are a 5013c non profit charity for un adoptable dogs & cats. but, Wendy is my personal ..hate to say pet. my special girl. and she is so depressed.
Thank you. gailarden

[Daveyo]

Well obviously your VET went the cheap route and or cannot do such surgery. This kind of surgery is very touchy. The best experts are in California, and only one outfit in Houston Texas. Expensive. But it is worth it since well over 95% of the dogs do recover and walk normally again the the problem is resolved not to be repeated either.

What they do is micro surgery, and clean out the debris which is the cartilage itself. Without that cartilage it goes bone to bone and then a slight slip of the disc and then bingo. So included in this surgery is they lock up the area, in other words freeze it so it not happen again yet maintain the proper spacing and the dog can still walk but a bit different and use the other parts of the free spine to move about. What they do is lock out that pivot point. Only two or three discs at most.

So for most owners who have Doxies please take heed that when these dogs reach age 5 years old, start restricting their stairs up and down, and stop their jumping around. Settle them down to flat areas and you can prolong and avoid his problem for the most part. Doing the X-rays in this area at least once or twice a year is recommended to catch it in the early phases. When???? varies on each Doxie.If one gets lucky to catch it in the early phase, you have more options and you can avoid spinal damage. To do the surgery on this when early is much less than doing it on a dog that is paralyzed in the hind legs. Understand. A small investment doing x-rays twice a year can save you thousands later.

I need to also mention that Doxies can become extremely very violent especially the females and if there is pups around that is not from them. These females will kill the pup when your not around.

It just happened to me yesterday. I went out for a short spell, and had Little Louie nicely tucked in with my Charlie here, and Tiger in her usual spot. Everything fine so I left to take care of some business. Came back a while later and found my bedroom turned into a death room with blood splattered all over. How bad > here is the description. Little Louie had his entire skull completely crushed down to pieces and the head part was flat. Yep no skull at all, the neck was broken, and the throat was ripped out, and both eyes gouged out with the flesh hanging, and the walls was splattered with blood, a spot area with a pool of blood where I found Little Louie, the boxes had blood and for the most part of the floor covered with it as well, including some towels. Little Louie was only 7 weeks old going on 8. A very smart little cute pup and he knew his name at 4 weeks of age, and knew where to go, and slept on my face every night. I miss him now.

So basically the great great grandmother which is Tiger here is a KILLER DOG. She will kill pups if given the chance and when she kills it is extremely very violent. I can confirm this now. I have never seen it this bad, and I mean it was very bad. Gruesome is as close as I can get.

Have not slept last night, and have not cleaned out the death room. The scene disturbs me a lot.

So now I mourn the loss of possibly a very smart little doxie that I would have had if this had not happen. Tiger took a part of my heart away. I came awful close to putting her to sleep permanently last night. The needle was ready and all, so another Doctor came and talked to me a bit and pleaded me to give my Tiger another chance. Tiger knew what was happening and was terrified. It was in her eyes, and she knew I had the death sentence upon her written all over my face.

Tiger is my first dog and my everything dog. We know each other so well, she is more than just a pet to me. She is like a daughter to me. Very smart and never causes me trouble, except when she gets moody once in a while which is natural. I raised her up and she is a very photogenic dog. The prettiest face of all the Doxies I have seen. Not only that her breed goes back 200 years and is fully registered with a family tree that is unbelieveable.

So what can I say.......... except to say she is very fortunate that she had her death sentence vacated and given a reprieve and only one more chance.

So now she is very subdued here and stays close to me knowing how close she came to being put in a box. I love her a lot so very much but she also tore out a part of my heart away forever.

Daveyo

[gailarden]

I am so sorry about your puppy being killed. We are very cautious with our dogs.
They are separated. The ones that get along together are in the same area. Even then this morning 2 dogs who are "roommates " and friends had a fight. They are a Rotteweiller who has liver disease & her buddy a Bordercollie I found dying of parvo, both were left when drug dealers were evicted down the road from us. The Bordercollie was the one who was bitten so off to the vet we go tomorrow.

Back to Wendy. Could our vet administer the drug you spoke of? or is it administered with the surgery. I think there may be a back surgeon in Dallas but I would not risk Wendys life if she can live with her back legs paralyized and theres no threat of her dying from it maybe we could buy one of those little carts for dogs with no use of their back legs. Wendy has already had a very bad beginnning. She was rescued by another rescue group from an abusive breeder. She had lived her whole 4 yrs in a cage being bred over & over. I drove all the way to McKinney Texas to get her.
She has been so happy walking here in the woods with me. free from the cage at last.
Theres no way we could travel to Houston with her. We have 43 dogs here plus about 20 cats who never go outside. One with rhinotracheitis who lives in the master bed/bath.
Are you a vet, Daveyo? Our lives are totally dedicated to the animals.
My husband read what you wrote & explained to me that what you were saying was the blood supply was cut off in Wendys spine. not like a disk being out.
I think I will start by making another appointment with the vet.
Thank you again for your reply. gailarden

[Daveyo]

The drug is administered after the surgery. Surgery is needed for the spacing to be corrected to allow the proper blood flow.

Right now that bone is on the cord, and it is not a very good idea. Everytime that dog moves it will get worse and rubs more of the nerve connections. That nerve is very fragile.

Hope this answers your question

Daveyo

PS that is a awful lot of dogs. Wonder about all the poo and the pee involved. Whew. Especially after eating a meal. They all seem to dump the excess with no end in site. I can imagine the work load you have.

[gailarden]

Thanks for all your help. I am just so worried. And I keep wondering how in the world this happened.
We have no stairs. Wendy likes to hide under the bed. When I called her to come out, she was dragging her hind legs.
Yes 43 is a lot plus about 20 cats that never go out. We bought the house because there are no animal restrictions here. Also we are on about 3 acres. The house was just perfect with added on enclosed porches a big garage with pens we set up. Storage bldgs have been set up & fenced for dog houses.
We are Lake Country Animal Sanctuary. We have very old blind ones. cataracts, glaucoma. Chronic mange. A lab with Epilepsey. 15 yr old chow w/arthritis. She weighs 80 lbs & has to be carried in to the vet on one of those stretchers. We lost 3 since the 1st of the yr.
But I love Daschunds. Sofie, Bebe, Little Boy, Bambi and Wendy are my "children".
and while I'm still writing, I would like to say that Heartworm medicine doesnt always work.
We have a very old dog that has been on heartworm med ever since we got him. When he went for his shots, he tested positive for heartworm. Just a little note for everybodys information.
gailarden

[Daveyo]

What heartworm meds have you already given to the dog.

I might have a better answer for you that can get rid of it before the next step below.

there are some heartworms that are resistant and the only way to get rid of it is via heart surgery which itself definitely gets rid of those intruders, and then a powerful drug is put in that gets rid of the rest. Then the dog will be ok

Pesky but deady intruders that kill animals.

Daveyo