I had always wanted a "wiener dog" since I was a little kid. So when I graduated from high school I finally got one as my graduation gift. My mom found a breeder and we went to look at the puppies. There was only 2 left, Lando the one I choose, and a red one named Nelson(that was the one my mom wanted me to get). He was a great puppy, but boy was he hard to potty train. At almost 5 years old he still has some problems where on occasion he goes in the house. He was so active and playful, loved to cuddle and sleep under blankets and in between your legs!
Well Last Tuesday morning when Tim and I woke up we could not find Lando anywhere in the house. Even when we called his name he did not come, this was very unusual. Finally after looking all over the house we looked behind the couch and found him laying back there. He would not come out, and Tim had to go back there and get him. He was having trouble walking and would yelp out in pain every time he moved. We figured maybe he fell. After a few hours of not getting any better, Tim took off of work and took him to the vet.
They refused to see him since we didn't have an appointment. I was livid. Tim said though that once he got up there Lando was running all over the waiting room like nothing was wrong. So we figured maybe he was just sore, or had a pulled muscle and would get better. The next day he seemed to be OK. He would walk but just looked sore. By Thursday though he was not walking at all with his back legs, and we could see muscle spasms. I headed to my mom's and she helped me with the kids so we could take him to the animal hospital.
Once there she said that she was 99% sure that he had degenerative disc disease and ruptured a disc. It is very common with this bread. His was pretty bad since he had caused him to loose all function in his back legs. She said he was a candidate for surgery. Bad thing is it cost $2000-$2500, way more than we could afford. Plus she said even with surgery there is a high risk that another disc would rupture, just there territory with the breed. We just cannot afford to spend that much money for another disc to rupture.
So we are treating him with medicine. He is on a pain pill, muscle relaxer, and steroid. She said with this kind of treatment there is a chance he will never walk again, a chance he will walk but not 100%, or a chance he will have a full recovery. My theory is if he is not in any pain then that is all that matters to me. We have been on the medicine for a week now and he is started to walk again. Not fully, he still has some problems, but he is so much better.
The only problem we are having right now is he is having a hard time controlling his bladder. I think it might be the steroid's making him pee all the time, so we have to keep a doggie diaper on him unless we want pee all over the house. He is not thrilled about this at all. We could see a little depression at first because he could not be as active as he was. But now he is started to come around.
Although he is not fully recovered, he is doing pretty well.
1 comment:
Glad he's doing better. That diaper picture is so adorable, he looks so embarassed!
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