We finally got to bring Dex home last night! If you’re counting, that’s four nights away from home. Probably the worst weekend, ever.
He’s alive and happy and super excited to be home. He’s still not walking, but they say he’s healing as expected and should be walking in the next couple weeks. He’s got some leg movement and his tail wags like crazy, all good signs. The neurologist pulled up his x-rays for us yesterday and it was crazy to see such a clear spinal cord and then BAM no spinal cord outline at all. Apparently that’s where he was all messed up. The neurologist also went over aftercare, which is crucial to his healing. Three weeks strict confinement to his crate. We were told we can hold him while we’re home, but otherwise he needs to be in the crate. The problem is..he always wants to move! I was expecting him to be a little more sedated, but noooo, not this little guy. He’s not really interested in just laying on my lap, so it makes it difficult to let him out of the crate. And when he’s in it, he wants OUT. Ah well, we’ll deal with it because I’d be kind of devastated if my dog never walked again. I mean, we’ve definitely looked at a set of wheels if necessary, but I’m really keeping my fingers crossed for him to start walking again. He’s also on a couple meds and needs to pee all.the.time. Fortunately, my mom is staying with us to take care of him for the next few weeks. Very thankful she is able to do this because I’d be really freaking upset if he had to be alone all day every day.
If you’re curious what exactly happened and what his condition is..I found a really good website. The American College of Veterinary Surgeons (http://www.acvs.org/AnimalOwners/HealthConditions/SmallAnimalTopics/IntervertebralDiscDisease/) gives a good explanation of his disease: Intervertebral Disc Disease. We didn’t know he had this until yesterday, but apparently it is very common in the dwarf breeds of dogs, dachshunds being the worst.
So what happened was Dex had a disc that ruptured. The rupture impacts the spinal cord, which causes the paralysis. According to the website:
“Most intervertebral disc ruptures are a combination of compressive and concussive forces that lead to the rapid degeneration of nervous tissue in the spinal cord. The type of force, the degree of force applied to the spinal cord, and the duration that the force was applied will determine the extent of the damage and the loss of neurologic function.
Conscious proprioception is the ability to know where limbs are without seeing them. The neurons that control this are superficial on the spinal cord and relatively minor damage to these can lead to loss of coordination and a "drunken sailor" ataxic gait. Deeper within the spinal cord are the motor tracts that control coordinated movement of the limbs, including walking. More significant damage leads to loss of walking and potentially loss of motor function. Deeper still within the spinal cord are the neurons that control pain perception. Severe damage can lead to entire loss of pain sensation. This can carry a very poor prognosis for recovery depending on the duration that pain perception has been lost.”
So Dex had loss of coordination, which in eight hours lead to loss of motor function. He never lost pain perception, which is definitely good and gives him a MUCH higher probability of being able to walk again. Every day the neurologist would tell us “he has good pain perception” and I never understood what it actually meant, all I knew was it was a good thing.
The website says the cause of this is:
“The majority of intervertebral disc ruptures occur in chondrodystrophic breeds (tiny breed dogs like Dachshunds, Lhasa apsos, Pekinese, beagle, etc.). These breeds undergo an early type of disc degeneration (chondroid metaplasia) that leads to early mineralization of these discs and predisposes the disc to mechanical failure under traumatic and normal forces.”
I was so confused as to why my dog was walking one minute, wobbly an hour later, and not walking at all eight hours later. The neurologist said it happens fast and anything can cause it. It could be from him jumping off the bed to him just walking.
According to the website, Dexter’s prognosis is decreased if motor function is absent at the time of surgery, but much better than if he had lost pain perception as well:
“Prognosis varies significantly with the degree of injury and the location of the injury. Most intervertebral disc ruptures that present in dogs that are still walking or have motor function have an excellent chance to return to walking and normal or near normal function. Prognosis for return to good function is decreased if motor function is absent at the time of surgery. Return to function if deep pain perception is absent can be unlikely if the duration of insult has been prolonged. Some dogs treated for intervertebral disc rupture will have some degree of wobbliness while walking.”
The neurologist thinks that Dex has a 90% chance of walking again, so I’m going to try and be optimistic.
