Hi everyone
Firstly, I'm a newly registered member on the board, but I have been following stories on here since roughly May 2013, in the hope of reading a case similar to Bilbo's. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find an answer, and thus I've decided to post here just for a bit of advice.
My name is Sian ... I'm from
South Africa, and I've recently had my first encounter with IVDD.
Bilbo (a fairly large
Basset) was diagnosed with a serious case of IVDD on 29 March 2013. He was immediately admitted to hospital and emergency surgery was carried out.
His exact diagnosis: Lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion causing partial paralysis
Surgery: Surgical reduction of disc prolapse
Background: We woke up one morning and found that Bilbo was shivering like crazy and when he tried walking, he wasn't able to walk properly. He would walk all wobbly on his hind legs, swaying to and fro and falling from side to side. It was so severe that he'd fall onto his right bottom, try get up and then wobbly walk for 2 or three steps and fall on his left bottom.
We immediately took him to the vet (on Tuesday), who gave medication but advised that if he didn't improve by nightfall, we'd have to rush him through to one of our city vets.
Unfortunately, no improvement was evident on Wednesday morning, and as both my husband and I work full time, we were only able to take him through to the city on Friday morning
To make a long story short, Bilbo had surgery done immediately, but infection set in and the antibiotics which were prescribed was not killing the infection, so new cultures of the infection were grown to see which antibiotics would attack the infection. Bilbo had to go back into surgery twice thereafter to have certain tests performed and a tube inserted for draining of the wound. He also developed a stomach ulcer at this point which was also treated.
However, he showed no ability to use his hind legs. We were devastated, but were advised by the vet that this was to be expected and that we should give it some time.
He was discharged on April 12, 2013 ... but we were not advised regarding crate rest needed
For a few days thereafter we would express his bladder and he'd urinate and do his other normal business. But this was only for a couple days, whereafter he was
able to urinate on his own (yay, very happy about that).
We kept him confined (luckily) and only helped him out when we felt he needed some fresh air or needed to do his business.
Unfortunately his condition did not improve any and, being uninformed about IVDD, we were worried by the end of April 2013 because he still could not use his hind legs.
On 29 April we took him to the city again, where the only hydro therapy was available, and he received treatment there for a month and a half (only coming home mid June 2013).
During this time he gained tremendous strength in his hind legs and went from being unable to move his hind legs, to being
able to kick underwater and to move them whilst in a sling. He would also criss cross his hind legs in the beginning, but that too improved over time, to the point where he no longer does this anymore.
He also received a few acupuncture therapy sessions.
Mid-June he was released back to us on the point of "almost" being able to walk on his own and not needing as intense sessions as in the beginning.
Right now he's at a stage where he
can walk, IF assisted by us. He is not fond of the hind leg assist, so we've done away with that, as he cannot walk properly with this on.
He does however
walk incredibly well if we hold his tail.He tries pushing himself up, but can't do this at this stage unless we hold his tail and assist him.
He is able to stand on his hind legs for a little while on his own, IF we prop him up to a standing position.
Tail wagging is definitely evident so we're happy about this.
The therapist at the rehab centre also tested his DPS at the beginning of his sessions, and she was concerned that he didn't show any signs thereof, but by the time he was discharged, she was happy that he definitely had DPS.
In the meantime we've also
ordered him a wheel chair to see if this won't facilitate the recovery process, but we're having a bit of a problem in getting the right wheel chair as the fits aren't going quite well. His hind legs are longer than his front legs (typical Basset build) and this is posing some problems ... but we're not giving up yet!!!
Once he's in the chair (we only let him walk a very few minutes a day because the fit is not perfect, but to give him some sort of freedom from us following him, holding his tail all the time), he uses his hind legs correctly.
My question (after such a windy post, sorry!) is this:
Given the above information, would it seem that in the long run, Bilbo will eventually be able to walk on his own again?
Could it be a case of he's just not strong enough in his hind legs to carry his heavy body?
Or are we being over optimistic in thinking that he will be able to walk again?
I know it's only been 4 1/2 months post-op ... and seeing the vast improvement he's made thus far just gives us hope that he will eventually walk on his own again ... but are we being over optimistic?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much for your time.
