Vet advice? IVDD in a dachshund

bam02

6:30p, 5/2/24

Our 5.5 year old mini dachshund was diagnosed with intervertebral disease last Friday. That prescribed meloxicam, methocarbomal, and gabapentin. Also lots of rest.

She seemed to do better for a few days, but now suddenly is having apparent weakness in her back legs. She's very hesitant to walk or go up steps. When she does walk, it's very crooked and her rear end keeps collapsing.

We just need to give the rest and meds more time or is this a sign of something more urgent?

FishrCoAg

7:40p, 5/2/24

In reply to bam02

More urgent. Where are you located? I would reach out to your vet now.

SharkinAg

8:50p, 5/2/24

You'll have one of two decisions to make: 1) more rest and meds
2) mri plus surgery with a specialist costing 9-15k
Most people opt for option 1 for multiple reasons. Cold laser therapy helps ivdd quite a bit in my experience. Not all vets have the unit though.
Definitely need to call your vet tomorrow morning and discuss things further. I'd also encourage you to confine your dog to a crate for the near future and only go out to the bathroom.

bam02

8:53p, 5/2/24

In reply to SharkinAg

Thank you both

dr_boogs

10:47p, 5/2/24

In reply to bam02

One of the neurologists at a&m has a clinical trial going right now looking at a treatment called chondroitinase. It's injected using x rays into the disks and it dissolves the ruptured disk material.

I'm a surgeon and have cut hundreds of backs over the years and this treatment is very compelling. His pilot study has moved to a phase II which means the initial study met certain benchmarks.

Waaaay less expensive than the 6-8 k a back surgery costs at A&M these days. After you see your vet again you might ask about it.

bam02

3:23a, 5/3/24

In reply to dr_boogs

Thank you. Any idea how to get info on something like that?

RooAg

4:26a, 5/3/24

Just did this surgery on our havanese 2-3 weeks ago. Luckily it seems to have gone great and he is back to his old self. I think most dogs take a little longer to recover. Our pup was basically going paralyzed on his right side so seemed an extreme case as it went to that really quickly. Couldn't walk at all on his right side but still had a little deep pain feeling so wasn't too far gone yet. Absolutely need to get your dog the vet asap regardless of what you do. Literally hours-days matter if he is starting to lose feeling.
We used Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists in Houston and couldn't have better things to say about them. Each case is different but ours wasn't really a candidate for non-surgery rehab. MRI plus surgery. $11-12k but he just turned 6 and should have (hopefully) many good years ahead. Either way, dogs need a lifestyle change after this to sone degree - mainly a low impact one meaning no jumping on and off furniture, stairs are an issue, etc.

To clarify - we did not do the new thing referenced at A&M, but the standard back surgery.

bam02

6:41a, 5/3/24

We are in SA. I love the idea of the clinical trial at A&M but honestly I'm sure that would be too difficult with our schedule.

Contacting our vet today.

Snowball

9:59a, 5/9/24

Not a Veterinarian, but our Senior dachshund (11 years) started having acute IVDD back problems about 3 years ago and we have learned a lot from experience, vet appointments, treatment and from Dodgerslist - Great site with good info on crate rest and treatments.

Every situation is different. Get with your vet, watch your dog closely If it is leading to loss of limb function, major mobility problems, They cant pee/poo on their own, they won't eat, etc then they usually recommend surgery or intensive treatment. The surgery isn't even guaranteed to solve the problems. If you have the $$ go for it, We cant afford to do the surgery. Our situation was to manage the pain and crate rest the dog and go from there and it has been so successful.

Our vet gave us these medications:
Prednisone steroid initially (after the first couple days we stopped this, helps with inflammation)
Tramadol- for pain.
Methocarbamol- muscle relaxer (this seems to help the most for our dog, loosens the tight abdomen and tighness in back legs. Once this kicks in, he can walk around pain free.
Gabapentin-Nerve pain

We give him this 2 times a day in a pill pocket or mixed in with food.

The pain episodes happen seasonally usually 2-3 times a year. We treat pain for about 2 weeks with meds and strict crate rest with only picking him up and putting him in the grass to pee/poo on a leash to limit steps, then back in he goes.

We keep those meds on constant fill when they run low and just keep them on hand at the house. It was about $100-$150 to fill the script and we keep them at the house when we notice the pain symptoms.

We also have kept his weight down which helped tremendously. Ramps everywhere too helped. Back problems suck and it's terrible to see them in pain. But dogs don't interpret pain as a hindrance to their life, and you as the owner have a way to help manage the pain. Treat pain and limit them to their crate ASAP so that nerve pain can resolve due to inflammation or issues there.

bam02

4:46p, 5/10/24

In reply to Snowball

Thank you so much for the long reply and great info. It's definitely a tough decision to figure out the right way to go. My wife and I have been back-and-forth on it the whole time.

My wife actually did contact somebody about the A&M Vet School study. Whoever she corresponded with was very helpful and had her send a video of our dog in. After looking at the video, they responded that she was not actually affected enough to qualify for the study. I doubt that it was a veterinarian who responded, but they said in their response that they think she will get better on her own. That made us feel great, but of course our vet recommended surgery so I don't know if we are just clinging onto what we want to hear.

We actually had her scheduled to go in Monday for imaging and surgery, but today we canceled. We are going to try strict crate therapy. I just have real concerns if my wife will be compliant.