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Post by Autos Grandma on Mar 13, 2021 14:38:52 GMT -7
SUBJECT: ?'s Auto conservative 3/2 Our precious dachshund Auto was diagnosed with mild IVDD on March 2nd and prescribed strict cage rest for 2 weeks, Prednisone 2.5mg every 12 hrs for 3 days then once a day for 3 days and now 1 tablets every other day for 5 days (we have 1 dose to go) along with Methocarbamol 500mg 1/4 tablet every 8 hour and Famotidine 10mg 1/2 tablet once a day. We are on day 12 so he has finished both the muscle relaxant and antacid I should say Gabapentin 50mg was tried prior to diagnoses, but Auto didn't do well on it. Auto was 6 years old in January and weights 11 lbs. He is doing quite well, walking/jogging, sitting even up on hind legs (begging) which we stop asap, eating and drinking well and peeing and pooping with out discomfort. Our question is what now? I'm now giving him body massages, moving his back legs and walking some when he goes out for a potty break. Should we introduce short walks? How short? We are dachshund proofing the house so he won't jump on furniture or go up or down stairs. Auto does get excited so we're trying to keep him down as much as possible. Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you
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Post by Romy & Frankie on Mar 13, 2021 15:27:56 GMT -7
Welcome to Dodgerslist! We are glad you’ve joined us all. We’ve got valuable information we’ve learned from the vets Dodgerslist consults with and our own experiences with IVDD since 2002 to share with you! Learn more about us and how we team up with veterinarians: dodgerslist.com/about-team-dodgerslist/
What is your name? I am Romy.
Conservative treatment for an IVDD dog consists of 8 weeks of strict crate rest. I know that your vet suggested only two weeks of crate rest but we at Dodgerslist support a full 8 weeks. To explain this we always use the analogy of a broken arm. A cast is put on a broken arm to stabilize the broken bone, preventing movement and give it time to heal. Because we can't put a cast on a dog's spine we use the crate to enforce the immobility. With little blood supply discs are much slower to form good scar tissue than it takes a blood rich broken bone to heal. Those weeks of a cast for a broken arm to heal is similar to the recovery suite being a kind of cast for the disc. 100% STRICT crate rest 24/7 for 8 weeks provides limited movement to allow good strong scar tissue to form. We have seen a pattern of dogs being more likely to relapse if not given the full 8 weeks of rest in the recovery suite. I know that 8 weeks may seem like a very long time, but it cannot hurt a dog to be on the full 8 weeks of crate rest. Any muscle atrophy will be quickly made up when the dog returns to activity. It can hurt a dog to stop crate rest too soon and risk damage to the still healing disc. We have some more information about how crate rest works here:
It is excellent that you have started arranging your home in a back friendly way. We have some tips on doing that here:
We encourage you to register and set up email alerts as timely interaction/communications is needed when helping your dog. It can be very scary when our dogs are diagnosed with IVDD. It is less so when we learn all we can about the disease. Be in command of the 4 phases of healing, what to expect with pain, with swelling, disc and nerve healing. : dodgerslist.com/healing-the-disc/
At the MAIN WEBSITE, use the orange SEARCH bar feature to easily access all the IVDD information: dodgerslist.com/
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