Dodgerslist

Story of the Month - October 2009

"Baxter"

Baxter Boo was born August 20, 2003, we adopted him October 2003. He is a red long hair dachshund. I have always had dachshunds and was familar with IVDD but still for some reason never thought it would happen.

On Sunday, May 17, 2009, Boo started walking slowly as if he was in pain. I restricted his activity and made arrangements to take him to the vet on Wednesday when I already had an appointment for one of our kitties. I kept an eye on Boo in the mean time. He could walk, but was walking slowly. I wouldn't let him do stairs or jump. Then Wednesday, May 20th at 2 a.m. I woke up and Boo was in pain, he was panting heavily and couldn't walk at all. I rushed him to the emergency vet. The emergency vet did not give us much hope as Boo showed no signs of deep pain sensation. The emergency vet even mentioned that we might want to consider putting Boo down. He was five years old and my baby and I wanted a second opinion.

I took Boo to our regular vet that morning and she gave us some hope. She did not get any sign of deep pain sensation but said that doesn't mean he doesn't have feeling. She prescribed pain killers and steroids and wanted to see Boo back in a week. So we put Boo on strict crate rest, we bought three baby play pens, one for the kitchen, one for our bedroom and one for the computer room. We took Boo back to the vet a week later and she got signs of deep pain sensation. He was now considered a good candidate for surgery. Problem was we did not have the $4000 for surgery. So we opted to do conservative treatment with steroids. The vet said his chances of walking again were 50/50 and gave us information about doggy wheelchairs in case we had to go that route after the crate rest.

So over the next several weeks, we had Boo on strict crate rest and steriods. In the beginning, he was incontinent, couldn't stand, walk, or move his back legs or wag his tail. Slowly Boo began to improve. The first thing was he would move his one back leg if you touched it. Then he wagged his tail. The next 7 weeks went by slowly, with Boo making progress every week. He is now entering his final week. He can stand on his own, potty on his own and wags his tail all the time. When we take him outside to go potty, he takes a few steps does his business and wags his tail to go back inside. The vet now expects him to make a full recovery. After Baxter Boo's crate rest, we were unable to afford physical therapy through a doctor. Instead, we did our own physical therapy following the guidlines on the Dodgerlist website.

Baxter update 10/1/2009

Since Baxter Boo began his physical therapy in July, he has made wonderful progress, he is walking and running again. At first, he was stiff in his walking and wobbling, but now he is walking very well, almost like before his injury. We are still working with him, making sure he doesn't over do it.

Shari

Please share your story. Send an email to lindox5@yahoo.com.