Dog hit by a car no movement on right side

[leannjoey]

My 4 year old Boston Terrier was hit by a car a few days ago. We took her to the emergency vet and they began steroid treatment for a spinal cord contusion. She is trying really hard to stand up and they are now saying there is a chance she will never walk again. They stopped the steroid treatment after 24hrs. Should they still be giving those to her? Can we bring her home to recover or should we keep her at a vet's office? She has no broken bones or internal bleeding and is using the bathroom on her own.

[CarolC]

Hi leannjoey,

I am not a vet, and I have not had a dog with this exact condition. I had a dog that hurt himself falling getting into the station wagon, and he was on steroids for about a month while the neurological signs slowly improved. There may be some reason why your vet does not want to keep your dog on steroids, I don't know. If it was my dog I would probably want her still on prednisone, but again I'm not a vet. If she is emptying her bladder fully on her own, then I would be inclined to be more optimistic about her prognosis. It is still early and there is still a lot of time for further improvement. Recovery from spinal injury is often in terms of weeks and months, rather than days. I think you might want to ask the vet where exactly her injury is. If it's a neck injury, did they do any kind of imaging? You have to be really careful with neck injuries, you would want to know how they are lifting her and turning her to protect her from aggravating the injury. If she is urinating on her own and you can ensure she eats and gets plenty of water, and you have a place where you can keep her quiet and be sure she is turned and toileted as needed, she would probably be better at home, but that's just my . How is she doing now?

[leannjoey]

We visited her twice today and she is still using the bathroom on her own and has started trying to crawl more. They are just saying it is a spinal cord contusion and we have no idea where the injury is other than on her back and not her neck. We got her to drink some water on her own today. They said she hadn't had significant improvements in the last 12 hrs. but like you were saying I think this is just going to be a long recovery and not something that is going to be overnight. They are also pleased that she doesn't seem as stiff as she was the first 24 hrs. She has bad separation anxiety and I think that has a lot to do with her not wanting to eat or drink. We are hoping to get her home tomorrow and see how she does in the next few weeks.

[critters]

Personally, I like longer-term steroids for spinal cord injury, but all of this sounds promising!