Ruth's Chico 8/8 relapse after 4/2013 surgery? Chihauhua

My Polly (dachshund/chihuahua) had surgery in January, and successfully recovered. On July 10, she was reluctant to walk or move, had a tense abdomen, yelped when picked up...all the signs of another IVDD episode. A few weeks prior to that, we had noticed her gait looked peculiar, and put her on crate rest for a week or so. When she showed no pain of further neuro deficit, we decided to let her out. Now, I sure wish I had trusted my instincts and kept her on crate rest. As it is now, we are just finishing week four of eight weeks crate rest. She seems good, but I'm not taking any chances. Her neurologist said that it could be another disk, or new material from the disk they operated on. No way to know without doing an MRI, which we won't do unless we plan to do surgery again.

Short answer, yes. They can have episodes after surgery. As difficult as it is to manage, 8weeks in the crate is the best thing you can do. The crate acts as a cast to keep the back as still as possible.

Spend some time reading here. There is a lot of valuable information, as well as good advice from people who have been through this before. There should be a moderator along soon to help you further. Don't despair! You can get through this!

His name is Chico. 9 year old chihuahua. Our rehab specialist told us to get him the "little back bracer" which we got in a small. That's the name of the company. We just took him out to potty and he was walking fine again. I'm still crating him just in case. When he's not wearing the brace he's more wobbly. With the brace he's walking fine. He had another scary episode soon after his surgery where he lost his balance and he couldn't hold himself up and was walking like another disc ruptured so I had him sit and not move and a minute later he was fine just raising his right leg which he would do before the surgery since he was a puppy but after the surgery he quit doing that but it was back. That's when the rehab specialist said it could be scar tissue that tore off. He had a vet appointment today where he got too rowdy when they were examining his eyes. It was after we got home from that appointment that we noticed he was more wobbly than usual. Now I'm wondering if he hurt himself when he got too rowdy. He doesn't seem in pain. No labored breathing, crying or uncomfortableness like last time. I just can't believe he might have injured himself 4 months after his surgery when we're so careful and don't let him take steps and had ramps built just for him. We were warned that he had 4 other discs that were slightly ruptured when they did surgery on him. They left those untouched. But they told us if we took care of him well those other ones might never rupture. Just scary and stressful having to go through this all over again so soon after.

He wears his brace every day on our walks. He also wears it if we catch him wanting to play with our other dog to keep his back a little sturdier. Our rehab specialist said that long walks will help build his muscles and help build a stronger back. We take him on Two 1/2 mile walk and a mile walk every day. Is this too much for him? I haven't ever done sling walks. We were told we didn't have to do that because he was walking pretty well the day after surgery. He wasn't completely paralyzed when his disc ruptured in April. He mostly walked around like he was drunk and his little back legs would cross each other. In rehab he would do the water treadmill, walk over sticks to force him to raise his back legs, they would have him on a circular board with a ball underneath to force him to have to balance himself, and he did laser therapy. We actually just finished with all his rehab this past month so we were excited that they believed they didn't need to see him again until his yearly check up. This morning we took him out to potty and again he seems to be walking normal. Is it weird for them to have spells of wobbliness and then for it to just go away? His Tuesday appointment with his surgeon feels like it's forever away! Are dogs that use carts able to go to the bathroom by themselves? I have been watching videos of paralyzed dogs with carts to prepare myself for whatever our future holds and I was curious about that.

Chico doesn't seem to be more wobbly at the end of the day. The 2 times this has happened he is just walking short distances and that's when we have noticed it. He did have to go see an optomologist yesterday and he didn't like it or cooperate and it was after that appointment that we noticed him walking wobbly.

Just an update on Chico. We took him to see his surgeon yesterday. We were there for over 2 hours. Several people looked him over. They told us that he is doing great 4 months after surgery. He told us we are fortunate that he is waking like a normal dog already because some dogs are still paralyzed 4 months out of surgery. They said they don't see any neurological issues. They don't see signs of pain. When they did put pressure on his back on a certain spot he growled at them. They said he could be having an issue in that area. We know that he has 4 other discs that chronic and they decided not to mess with those when they did his surgery 4 months ago. They said he looks good overall and they can't really explain why he has had 2 uncoordinated spells that only last 2-3 minutes. They said it could be another discs or it could just be his nerves still recovering. They only way to really know is if they did an MRI but because he doesn't show any other symptoms they don't think that's the smartest way to go. They would most likely tell us that he does have 4 other discs that are slightly bulging and then just send us home because he doesn't show any clinical signs of needing to have anything invasive done. They did also tell us that they don't know of any test that show that a back brace prevents other discs ruptures. They said we can use it if we want but that some dogs are just "lucky" and get more than one disc rupture. They did also tell us that we are making do too much too soon. They told us to only take him on two 10 minute walks a day for the next 1-2 months and then we can start building from there. He said 2-3 miles of walking a day is too much for him 4 months post-op and that could be part of the issue he is having. They told us he doesn't have to be on strict cage confinement but they want him to be taking it easy. No more play dates at this point. If we are not closely watching him to make sure he isn't over-doing it they want him in his crate which we already do that now. We are going to be crate confining him for the most part just to be safe. If he has another uncoordinated spell then we are suppose to call them and they will give us Tramadol to help with any inflammation. At this point we are just suppose to monitor him for any other clinical signs and if he does worsen then we can talk about getting some imaging done because at that point they would be able to tell which disc is the problem. It's a good thing he's a lazy dog that likes to sleep all day and night and sun bathe!