IVDD Management and Possible Relapse

[CBC - Honeysuckle]

Our Beagle was diagnosed with IVDD 15 months ago. She had surgery, and learned to walk again, but it took some time, nearly a year for her to really get her feet under her pretty well. We did acupuncture, home Physical Therapy, ROM and massage type therapy. She had been doing great as of late, even starting to run again with a nice rhythm, she was even out running our older Beagle!! but the last few days I've noticed a significant decline in her rear leg strength, where today she is doing more dragging than anything. She did have a couple of pretty active days earlier in the week.....so maybe that's it??, I don't know, but anytime I see her struggling I start worrying. I've been having her rest more the last 2 days, only going out for potty breaks, we still haven't seen the vet......we spent alot of money on her last year, but this year our financial situation has significantly changed and I haven't been able to run her to the vet or do check ups, like I'd like to.

For people who have had multiple pets with this disease, or have gone through multiple years with this, is this something that I should expect from time to time? Is this maybe a result of extra active days earlier in the week? I know that no one can probably give me a definite answer, but what have been your experiences that caused this? and then what did you do to help your dog get better?

Also on a side note, has anyone here used a product called Phycox?? If so did you see that it helped at all?

I'm big into natural remedies, good food for good health sort of thing, are there any other people here that use natural foods, herbs or that sort of thing for treatment? and if so what and for what?

Thanks in advance for any replies, this place has been great to come and read and learn.

Sincerely,
Lirio

[CarolC]

I can't really answer this. Objectively speaking, if it is a disk problem then you may be able to detect a delay in reflexes in her hind feet. A vet would stand your dog up and flip a hind paw so she was standing on her knuckles and see how long it takes her to flip it back to the correct pads-down position. The vet would have enough experience to know if the dog's reflex looked normal or slow. You could try this, but a lot depends on whether you can tell what is normal or not, I'm not sure I could unless it was really obvious. If the reflex seems normal, then it may be something else (not neurological) that is causing the difficulty walking.

Here was an observation I made once about my dog, who suffered a spinal fracture (not IVDD).

My dog is like yours, she learned to walk again after being paralyzed but it doesn't take much to throw her off. When she has a bladder infection, her walking goes all to heck. She sits, scoots, and drags. I will notice problems with her walking before I see or smell anything in the urine. It might be a good idea to have the vet check her for a urinary tract infection.

In general, I feel that with dogs that are kind of borderline for walking to begin with, it does not take a lot to throw them off their game. It could be a urinary infection or some other fairly minor complaint, but it shows in a big way in the walking.

If you're not sure if it's a disk problem, I would crate her right away to prevent her dragging around and possibly making it worse. If there is any way you can get her in to be checked, at least you might be able to find out if it is neurological or not. Here is a link to conservative management.

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

Hope this helps a little.