Anyone's dog ever suffered a slipped disc?

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Ilovefoals

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The vet thinks it's a possibility my Dane puppy has. She's in agony and is on Metacam and Tramadol for the pain. X rays were inconclusive so are being sent to a specialist. Just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience and how it was resolved?
 
My oldie had one a few years ago. I thought she actually had a stroke! She was walking round with her head turned to the side and moving rather crab-like. Got her to the vet, he never did an x-ray on account of her age (didn't want to put her under at 15 years old, and I was happy not to). But he felt reasonably confident that with some rest, some steroids she'd be right as rain. And she was. He gave her a smidgen of ACP for the first night, and she was stoned out her box - quite happily.

I fed her in an elevated food bowl for all her remaining days though - just to keep her comfortable - but especially helpful at the start.
 
My parents first dog was a lovely little Cavalier Kings Charles Spaniel she was just under a year old when all of her discs slipped in her spine. The kindest thing was to put her to sleep :( as she was in constant pain and yelped constantly. Very very sad in any dog especially a young one. I hope they can do something for your girl but think carefully about her quality of life and what the prognosis is. Good luck I really hopethey can do something for her if your not sure about what your vet has said maybe get a second opinion?
 
My shih tsu was 9 when he got this - horrible.
He was on steroids and painkillers but still in so much pain - he needed to rest but couldnt despite being on cage rest - whenever he got a spasm he jumped up and ran around in his cage yelping and scared- heartbreaking to watch and i had him pts - the only way he would have recovered is if he could have been strapped down which obviously he couldnt be.
However your dog is much younger so fingers crossed for you - I also think it depends on the dog and how they react to it - the pain scared my poor little dog - in a cage he tried to run away from it and would jump suddenly so he had to be kept nearly asleep to stop him doign this - this couldnt continue for long, he was only tiny anyway and lost so much weight - by the end i was pouring tiny spoons of water in his mouth -
 
I was hoping for some more positive outcomes :( She's walking a lot easier today. It's the getting up and down which are causing her the most pain. It's heartbreaking to watch. She's only 17wks so I'm hoping it's more of a soft tissue injury like a pulled muscle. Hopefully the specialist will get back to us on monday.

Here's the poor wee toot looking all sad :(

CIMG4051.jpg
 
As i said she is alot younger so has time on her side - i do really hope she pulls through, with my dog it was a degenerative condition common to his breed so with his age i feared it would just come on again and again - his wasnt through injury which i feel is different and more hopeful - keep positive, all dogs respond differently to treatment. Big hugs to you and thoughts to the little man
 
Beautiful pupster :) but I'm biased as I've got two Danes!

Disc problems would be very unusual in a dog of this age and breed and I would say relatively unlikely. Has your vet x-rayed just her back or has he x-rayed long bones and joints etc in her legs to look for evidence of panosteitis or HOD?

Did she happen to have a temperature when vet examined her at all?

Hope she feels better soon xx
 
Hi Karen. Vet x-rayed her spine which looked ok but has sent the film along with the ones of her legs off to a specialist. She didn't seem to think there was evidence of HOD or panosteitis which was what I was most worried about. And no, no temp at all.

This morning she's a lot happier. I only had to give her the Metacam this morning as she was a lot brighter and have witheld the Tramadol to see how she goes. She's up and about and showing interest in her toys and definately seems less sore so I'm crossing my fingers it was perhaps a pulled muscle or a trapped nerve. Hopefully the specialist will be in touch about her xrays tomorrow.
 
My dalmatian slipped a disc after running head first into the side of a very solid dog which didn't give way. She did recover completely but it did take a long time and we had several setbacks but only because she had a habit of throwing herself head over heels at full speed at the slightest opportunity :rolleyes:

The vet recommended 2 x 10 minute walks a day but she would then go mad running around the house. I found she was better off going for longer walks (increasing gradually) on a short lead.

Fingers crossed it's something less serious but don't despair there is hope if it is a slipped disc.
 
I haven't had this but was at the specialist vet again this week and there were 2 dogs there who had had this. They were both diagnosed by MRI and both operated on. One was 15 years old!!:eek: He was a lovely mongrel terrier type and looked good for his age. He looked a bit stiff but had recovered well from the op in July. The other one looked fine to me.
 
haven't had a dog thats slipped a disc but if the pup has there are two options the first which has been mentioned here already is cage rest and restricted exercise using a harness that goes around the shoulders rather than on the neck for a couple of weeks and in a cage the rest of the time. the other option is surgery and depending on which disc space or spaces are affected will act on how long recovery takes for example if it's a neck (cervical) disc this can affect front limb and hind limb function and dogs who have surgery can become worse the first couple of days after surgery as if you go in and remove disc contents you cause even more inflammation and so things get worse before they get better but the success rate for dogs is usually 90% or so - this being a young dog with potential disc damage they will probably do cage rest rather than sx unless it is really obvious on the x-rays
 
Just a small update for you guys who answered my query. The orthopaedic specialist has looked at all Rosie's xrays and cannot find anything wrong with her bones at all. Legs, knees, hips, elbows and spine are all fine. The pup is much better in herself and didn't yelp at all yesterday so at the moment he's putting it down to a trapped nerve or pulled muscle. If she experiences another episode she'll be going for an mri scan.

However, my original vet looked at the xrays, she commented that there was something strange on one of them which could have just been something on the film but she wasn't sure. It only appeared from 1 view. The specialist also commented on it and so has refferred Rosie to a cardiologist as he thinks there could be a mass around her heart?? It's not very clear but he said he and 3 of his colleagues looked at it and no one knew what it was. So now I'm worried about something else!!! Any ideas? I guess I'll just have to wait and see was the vet says :(
 
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