Tony's Buddy 4/4 Conservative Labrador - RIP

Paula,
Thanks for your feedback. As far as prednisone, his last day will be Monday the 8th. He has been on Prednisone since April 9th, starting at 40 mg a day then down to 20 per day and now 20 every other day.I have been giving him a stomach protector (famotiditine 20mg) with each dose. He has been on tramadol 5x a day the whole time. When I spoke with her I told her about his signs of pain decreasing. He would have teeth chattering, be reluctant to move and have spasms.I havent seen any of those signs in about 2 weeks. I will discuss tapering his tramadol with the doctor. She has suggested a gradual return to physical activity, giving him some freedom of movement for short periods of time while supervised and gradually increasing that in 2 week increments.

You have done a wonderful job of documenting Buddy's IVDD journey. Thank you for sharing this video. I would love to (if I can figure out how to save the clip) use it as a resource to show others - people whose uninformed Vets have only given their dogs the surgery or euthanasia options. You did a great job of adapting the "rules" to fit your dog and life style and none of us are perfect at this - not a one. Thank you so much - give Buddy a hug, cookie and kiss from me!

Tony, the video was very touching and made me cry. They gave my FurBaby a 40% chance of complete recovery with surgery. It was BAD, she did VERY well and has recovered 100%, I am so blessed. You are a GREAT Dad, and are doing a GREAT job, keep up the good work and in no time, your FurKid will be back to nonmal, Many (((hugs)), and Prayers coming to you from Washington, Pa..

Your VERY welcome, and you are doing a GREAT job...Hang in there!!!

What would hurt to keep him crated until June 8 when Tramadol is out of his system and the Pred as well. Then you have a clear picture on whether this is any swelling left. If he shows no signs of pain then it is then time to begin a slow program of reintroduction back to physical activity because you are certain there is no more inflammation going on in the spinal cord.

It is your decision on whether to play it safe and assess Buddy when he is off his meds about pain/swelling.

We are not vets, but since 2002 we have seen 1000s upon 1000s of dogs, how vets prescribe. It is an obvious pattern. All we do is relate to you what we see that works. You are the team captain… you hire the vet, you do your reading and self education and have the final responsibility to make decisions for your dog.

Dr. Swainson, DVM, ACVS talks about what happens when a dog is on steroids but crate rest is not enforced. The use of corticosteroids has been shown to effectively decrease inflammation and thereby decrease ménage and discogenic pain. Corticosteroids have also been shown to lessen the effects of severe spinal cord trauma. In this instance, prednisone probably decreased pain, which lead to increased activity and may have contributed to the ensuing paralysis [Note owners did not have the dog on 100% STRICT crate rest!]

 Corticosteroids can also make patients with non-surgical IVDD more comfortable, but should always be used in conjunction with CAGE REST.  www.canineortho.com/index.php/prognosis-intervertebral-disc-disease/27-neurosurgery-resources/76-case-study-down-but-not-out-new-thoughts-on-canine-disc-disease

Tony,
To relieve your mind, Dodgerslist has 11 years experience with IVDD and thousands of dogs have recovered successfully because of the support and advice offered.   It was started by Linda Stowe when a friend's Dachshund named Dodger was put to sleep by a Vet who was unaware of the treatment options that are available to successfully treat IVDD. Linda wanted to be a catalyst for change and education, so she started Dodgerslist and it has been growing ever since. Our former Yahoo mail list had over 5000 members and the present forum is rapidly gaining new members.. This is not a flash in the pan website that has been around a short time with minimal experience. We are here because each of our dogs have had IVDD and we have been through what all our members are going through now. Everything on our main website has been checked for accuracy by a Veterinary Neurologist. Please read our success stories. www.dodgerslist.com/monthstory.htm

Here are some recommendations from Vets who are impressed with Dodgerslist.  www.dodgerslist.com/index/nancykayDVM.htm    www.dodgerslist.com/index/education.htm     www.dodgerslist.com/neurocorner.htm
 
The information presented in the following articles has been reviewed for accuracy of information by appropriate veterinary professionals (ACVIM-Neurology, Licensed Veterinary Surgical Vet Techs and Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner)    www.dodgerslist.com/healingindex.htm  

 Here is some info about getting back to gradual activity.   www.dodgerslist.com/literature/AfterCrateRest.htm


I hope this helps!  I loved Buddy's video!   : )
 

Not all vets know IVDD. Not surprising when you think of what a vet is responsible for. Most DVMs in a general practice see many different species- hampsters, cats, all breeds of dogs, reptiles, birds, maybe even farm animals. They practice many specialties in the course of a day: pediatrics, dentistry, surgery, internal medicine. Is it surprising, that keeping current and indepth knowledge of each and every disease for every species is probably not likely? However YOU can easily become a mini-expert on one very-important-to-you disease.

Prednisone should be working to get swelling down.. it is one of the best anti-inflammatories. Once swelling is down the pain will resolve. With swelling gone, nerves are no longer pressured and they can begin to self heal. It is not the pred that heals nerves… they do that on their own. Often we must think in terms of month for nerves to repair themselves. So Buddy is healing just as textbooks say.

You do your own reading and bring discussions to your vet. In the end it is not your vet who is responsible for his care but your responsibility. Disc disease is a tricky disease and not all vets are fully informed. We don't expect our own doctors to know every disease, we often go for 2nd opinions til we find a vet who can help.

If you have a full under standing of this disease, what the purpose of the pain meds, the anti-inflammatory are for, what the purpose of crate rest is for, then you become a very good Captain of Buddy's health care team. You move into a position of being able to recognize when harmful advise is given and when to say "no, thank you.' We all have had to take on the job of reading and learning. Everything IVDD is located on our main web page….all accumulated and available to access if you want to get up to speed. www.dodgerslist.com/literature.htm

Muscles will come back….when there is a disc episode there is a real need to protect the spinal cord which may not come back if too severely damage. Prednisone works on getting spinal cord swelling down. All of life is the weighing of risk vs. benefit. Let's think positive that once off all his meds that no signs of pain will appear and he will no longer need to be on any meds at all!

That is wonderful he's doing so well. My dog also lost movement in his legs last week. He has been doing crate rest and he's doing better. 

Paula,
Thanks for your responseIve decided to go with your advice and take the safe route of keeping him on crate rest till after he is off of prednisone. He did show a bit of pain two days ago, but hasn't shown any since. Neurological functions still the same. He has recently shown the ability to hold himself up when pooping, so I have let him do that. The doctor says this may have caused some soreness. She said its good to let him so that he can maintain leg strength. Is this a bad idea, would you recommend I still support his backside? My doctor says I shouldn't jump the gun and bump him back up on the prednisone just yet. You also said any sign of pain must be swelling from the spinal cord, but my doctor is telling me it could be soreness or spasms as well. Please be aware that I am questioning the doctor as much as I am questioning you, just wanna make sure I'm doing the right thing.He is now on 2 tramadol every 12 hours and by Monday I can have him off it completely.  Finally, once hes off pred, how long without pain before I let him off cage rest?
Thanks, Tony

Tony, many years ago my female Rottie at the time, Mandy, got sick and the vets ran all kinds of tests and were unable to find out what the problem was. On Valentine's Day when she was 6 y.o., she went outside in the morning to pee and fell over and couldn't get up. My husband was on active duty, so I had to get her into our vehicle and I took her to the vet's office without an appointment. The vet had to carry her in to the office. When he put her up on the examining table, he said, "Oh, Mandy..." She had lost almost all of her muscle mass since she had seen him the previous week. Her backbone stuck out all over, like a dinosaur's skeleton. She couldn't stand on her own. The vet put her on prednisone and she remained on it for months. She recovered but never did regain her proprioceptive sense of where her rear feet were. For the rest of her life, she would fall down if her nails got a little too long. She lived until she was 12 y.o. and was healthy in every other way. For that reason, I am not afraid of prednisone. Without it, I would have had to have her euthanized. Instead, she had a great life and walked or hiked with us to the end.

Jude,
 Thats a helpful story, its good to have an example of someone else who has been on pred for that long and benefited from it. Having said that, today is Buddy's last scheduled dose of pred and I hope everything goes well but if he has to go back on it I'll feel better.

Very glad to hear the pain was an isolated incident….could have been learned pain that had happened to him in the past or ? The positive news is there have been no other signs of pain.

We we have been sick in bed, our legs can get a bit wobbly with lack of use….. so once you have observed him for a couple of days and then begin a slow, incremental reintroduction back to physical acitivity, his legs will get a chance to improve muscle tone and steadiness. If you feel on the reintroductory phase that there is too much swaying do use a sling as kind of a back up in case his butt might topple over until such time as you see he is more steady.

Please do let us know how it all goes.

Wonderful news. Look forward to seeing the video.