He has two discs in his back that have calcified, meaning what should be cartilage, (like the soft stuff on our ears), turned into bone.
What was really surprising was how fast this progressed. He was fine all day, running around, jumping on furniture, pretty much going crazy like a super bouncy ball, and then all of a sudden he was having trouble walking. He was shaking really bad and feverish.
Kayla and Stephen took him to the vet this morning and they did some xrays and they showed that 2 of his lumbar region discs (where his lower legs are) were moved way up and had slipped above his spine, pretty much making his lower legs paralyzed. They gave him steriod shots and some medication to help with the pain and gave the option of doing surgery and steriod treatment (which both may or may not help him out). The vet said we'd have to "coax" him to relieve his bladder (meaning push on his bladder to empty it) and that if he needed to empty out his bowels, he'd have no feeling at all of the urge and the bowels would just empty out themselves.
He's been a part of our lives since Jeffrey was less than a year old ... so pretty much a part of our family. Since he's really Kayla's dog, we left the decision up to her. Poor girl --- she first decided to just do the steriod method. Stephen called me while the vet was talking about the options and it made me cry too, as much as I say how much I dislike the dog, but feeling what Kayla must be going through made my heart ache. The vet said he was a very good candidate for the surgery and could get him scheduled for surgery on Monday. Right when they got back from the vet, we decided to go ahead with the surgery. Stephen will fly with him to Anchorage on Monday and hopefully Duke should be well enough to come home on Thursday. If the surgery doesn't help, there's a specialist here that concentrates on dachsunds who does therapy and helps dogs adjust to those cart things, I guess dog wheelchairs. But, keeping my fingers crossed that the surgery will help.
3 comments:
Sending lots of good thoughts your way in hopes he has a quick recovery. Sounds like you're doing everything great, but if you need support or have any questions, check out www.dodgerslist.com
They also have a very active discussion list.
Take care.
naklengnau (Ap'aq use to say it like that) qimugta. Did he have surgery yet?
~Sophie
He had surgery on Monday Nov 3 - and it went very well. Drs were 80% optimistic about him being able to walk again. The clinic said, of all the dachshunds they performed surgery on that day, he was the only one to eat and play around :).
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