[Dailydrool] Back trouble

[saraberry at aol.com]

Our single experience with back trouble involved our Mamie, who has never been right in the rear.  She then had a single event of diving under a low hanging porch and hit the back at six years old.  Afterwards seemed ok.

A few days later she would not eat her dinner and presented in a manner that we rushed her to the vet with assumed gastrointestinal issues.  She basically stood shivering and salivating by the food bowl and would not eat and seemed to have pain in her lower abdomen.

The emergency vet kept her overnight running gastro tests with no outcomes.  When we asked to come pick her up, and to pay a $1000 bill for tests, she was very obviously still in pain which was very upsetting.  The vet did not seem to recognize her pain.   My partner asked them what else could possibly be going on.  At that time, the vet guessed that back issues could be going on but they would need to do an MRI which would run about $5,000, then if there was a back issue there would be immediate surgery pushing the bill up to around $10,000 with a 50/50 chance of recovery, and then she would need assistance care for about six months to a year.  

We took her home and got on the phone   About two hours later, she went down in the rear and appeared to have no use of the back legs.   By then, we had a referral from a breeder friend to a vet in Davis, CA, who did traditional and Chinese medicines to address back issues.  The first thing they did was to immediately put her on a strong anti-inflammatory and insist on total crate rest.  In addition to that, she had Chinese herbal powders that went into her food.  After two weeks of carrying her in and out and holding her up to go to the bathroom, we began to see slight improvement in her feeling her back legs and being able to hold herself up a little.  Then with the same vet, we started acupuncture that involved needle placements all over her body and then mild electrical current.  When we took her to the vet, and they started with the needles, we were very concerned, but as soon as the first two needles were placed, you could see her entire body relax and she seemed very comfortable with the procedure.

We continued crate rest, no stairs, carrying her out and generally keeping an eye on her for a few months, and she kept improving, just a little at a time.  Finally the vet said to us, "Look at her, she is doing really well.  We can stop these procedures now and just be very careful with her and come back if there are any further set-backs or problems."

This was over two years ago now.   Mamie is now eight and still is not right in the rear.  We are very careful with her, but she loves to run and play with the other bassets, so we allow it under supervision.  She moves really well and has not had any further problems, but we are guarded and really watch her to prevent another incident.  We are also very careful with her around steps and low hanging things that she might try to go under.  I think she knows not to do that now since I have not seen her try.  But who knows the black hole of the dog brain...

If you are in the Northern California area, I will be happy to give you a referral to this vet who was so great, but it may have been more the anti-inflammatory that was administered right away and the crate rest that did the most to help, which is a very traditional treatment if you don't choose the surgical route.   I do know that we saw her body and muscles relax during the acupuncture treatments, and that was something she needed to do to heal.  Not sure about the Chinese herbals, but they may have also made some difference.   

I do know that when you see the back issue happen, or have a suspicion that is what is going on, that if you are going to do the surgery, it must be done IMMEDIATELY in order to get the best result.   I also know it is impossible to diagnosis the actual problem without an MRI.  They can only guess.   And I do know many who had the surgery and it went well.  I also know some who had the surgery and the dog had lifetime issues, so when they tell you 50/50, they may be right.  If Mamie had been a different dog, we might have done surgery.  But we knew she was never right in the rear.  If she had been Luther or Harry, who are both solid, then to us surgery might have made more sense, but that was a personal call we made.  Putting her on wheels was also not an option for us, but that is a personal choice and I respect the people that do choose wheels.

Best to anyone with these issues*

Sara
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20100708/d2e3dc03/attachment-0002.htm>