Sandi's Rudy 5/28 conservative NECK

I really hoped we would never be back here again! IVDD is the norm, in our house, it seems. This being the fourth incident since 2011, I knew exactly what to do! On Tuesday afternoon I noticed that Rudy kept sniffing something on the ground, sniffing, sniffing, never looking up, and being extremely clingy, more so than usual. We've had the cat bring in a bunch of critters since Spring, so I thought he was smelling that. When I knew something was wrong was when his brother Duke ran out the back door to bark at something and Rudy couldn't lift his head to bark. IMMEDIATELY, I grabbed the ex-pen, and he KNEW. He went right in. My dogs are not crated. So this, to me, was a sign he knew what was coming! Fortunately I keep Robaxin and Tramadol here, so I gave those right away as it was after closing time at the vet. Wednesday morning, he got two more pain pills, and then we went to the vet He seemed much better, but I knew it was because of the meds. The vet noticed that he was very hesitant in moving his head up and down, and from side to side. We've been through this before. So...he was given his usual regimen of Prednisone, Robaxin, Tramadol, Sulcrafate, and Pepcid. He feels much better, but since we have been through this before, I know it is because of the heavy duty meds, and immediate crate rest that we are not looking at anything serious at this point. My dogs are fed raw, and Rudy being so difficult to "pill" I have found that small chunks of raw, red meat are wonderful pill pockets! Or raw calf liver. His pees and poos are great, he is wagging his tail with joy and jumping up on the side of the crate to greet me when I get home. Fortunately, I work close by, and can get home to pill his pain meds, which he takes 3x day. His pred is only twice daily for 5 days, one a day for 5 more days, and so on. Hopefully this will be as uneventful as the last episode and my boy can recover for another year and a half!! Thank goodness for this site! I did not panic once!!