Louie has IVDD - update - good news!

Wed night Louie couldn't get comfy at bed time and his tummy felt real hard so i thought may he has to poop, so we were out walking the neighborhood at midnight. He pooped, came back in thought that was that, and he still wouldn't lay down for more than 15 seconds before fidgiting. Went to the ER vet at 1 am, got an x-ray and they said he has complete disc compression T9-10 (may be completely calcified disc), narrowed 10-11

he got pain meds and seemed to be a little better. Saw his regular vet today and she said he could have been born that way. We don't know because we don't have an earlier x-ray. I thought this was too young for arthritis, he's 6. So anyway the ER vet and his regular vet think the chiropractor can help, but basically his agility career is over. The chiro couldn't get him in for a month, but i told them put us on the waiting list and they called today and said he can take him tonite at 6:30.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

IVDD is a bugger. My canine rehab therapist sees a fair bit of it. Doxies are really prone to it. Here's a bit of a link on it.

http://www.dachshund-dca.org/ivddarticle.html

And here's an article on supplements that some folks have used with IVDD:

http://www.dodgerslist.com/literature/Supplements.htm

And some possible options for treatment:

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-practice-news-columns/complementary-medicine/non-surgical-options-for-ivdd-keeping-hope-and-dogs-alive.aspx

And I'm sorry that Louie has this. Not fun for either of you.

Thanks Blanche, a lot of good info there....I skimmed thru some of it and read about the supplements and non-surgical options. I will print them out Monday at work, since I don't have a printer at home that works. I notice they mentioned accupuncture, something I was wondering about. Also noticed they did not mention chiropractic. I've had real good luck with his chiropractor in the past. He enhanced/extended the quality/length of Juniors life, and was good with Louie when he was going for preventative maintenance. I'm kicking myself right now thinking if we would have continued on with the PM we might not have this problem now......but he was doing so well he said he doesn't have to come back regularly at that point, just if he had a problem......well NOW he has a problem, and I'm guessing we're gonna be back very regularly..........damn damn damn

I've used acupuncture but never chiropractics so can't speak to it's effectiveness with IVDD.

Here's a holistic vet link that talks about chiro stuff with IVDD. Most of the other links I found said that chiro is contra indicated with IVDD--but I have no way of judging if that's just traditional vet bias or is an accurate recommendation. The Dodgerslist link definitely says no chiro.

But the holistic link talks about it a fair bit.

http://holisticvetinfo.com/discdisease.htm

The vets were wrong! The chiropractor took a look at the xray and said that's how it LOOKs on the xray, so he understands their way of thinking BUT if the xray was shot from another angle you would see the disc. He said they are trained in western medicine and not functional medicine. He gave Louie a treatment and he is good as new, feels like a million bucks. He said he does NOT have IVDD, his agility career is NOT over and he had a couple minor problems that he could fix! I am so happy! Disregard everything I said in that last message....LOL
So he is going back in 2 weeks, and 2 weeks after that right now, and probably regularly again for PM.

EXCELLENT!!

I'm just catching up on this Stephanie, and I must say I was worried about a chiropractor with this condition, but what a wonderful result! Sometimes vets get it so wrong!

Great news..yea!

thank you everyone!

what a roller coaster of emotions for a day!

That is excellent news! You (and Louie) must be totally wrung out emotionally.

I do have to say that I'm VERY VERY cautious about chiro with quite a few back issues. I, personally, have had bad results with chiro and I've had two dogs that had bad outcomes with chiro. So I'm always hesitant to recommend it--especially since I no longer have much faith in it for many issues.

If people have good results with it, that is fantastic. But I do find that a lot of folks recommend it for everything and I'd just caution folks to be cautious--as you'd be cautious with any recommendation for medical or vet care.

My homeopathic vet isn't against chiro, but also feels that it has uses if used cautiously and conservatively--especially with back issues for dogs.

Very exciting to see and hear results... One of my recent job interviews is for a position as a registrar at a SCHOOL for alternative (read: EASTERN) medicine (meaning: acupuncture, both Chinese and Japanese, AND (Eastern) pharmacology)... As a kid from a family of MDs, it's not the first kind of care I would turn to... that being said, indeed, there are places where Western Med "drops off" (consider fibromyalgia, chronic pains - particularly in the aging population) and Eastern practices seem to help... and this is true in the animal world as much as the human.. (and apparently the people who decide to STUDY these things, often do so as a second career, and commit a lot of time and money to getting licensed.)

keep us posted on your lovely fella!