Dachshund incontinent and parlysis in hind legs affter disc

[JMaxine]

New to this site. Just brought Lexi home from surgery. Any info about ruptured disc surgery and her chances for walking again would be helpful. Surgeon gave her an 80% chance of walking again before surgery. Anyone out there with similar?????? She is also incontinent and has no use of back legs.

[critters]

You will want to see viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10626 for loads of ideas for expressing and the like; it's a really good start on the questions you'll need to ask, etc.

[JMaxine]

critters

[Dianne]

Good Morning JMaxine,

Do you have your doxie on CRATE REST? It's VERY IMPORTANT to rest the spine after IVDD surgery.

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

Are you expressing urine?

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat

[k-9cart]

Hi JMaxine,
The 80% figure that your surgeon gave you is right on the money as far as statistics go. If your doxie still had deep pain prior to surgery and the surgery was performed within the first 24 hours, the prognosis is usually very good. Unfortunately, not all dogs read the stats. The surgeon should have had a feel of the amount of damage s/he saw to the cord and or protruding disc material when doing the laminectomy surgery as well. So keep your fingers crossed that you are in the good 80% and worry about good nursing care for now. Hopefully, you won't need anything more for Lexi.
K9 Carts

[JMaxine]

thanks for all the replay's everyone. Lexi is not releasing her urine when being expressed. That's the problem. She is a small dog and has a small bladder so she holds it for hours. We have been taking her to the vet to get the urine out. Frustrating .................... We have seen all the videos posted here and are doing it correctly but no urine. I am giving her more water, but since she is not active she is not thirsty, am giving her ice chips and sugarfree popscicles as well. The surgeon did say she had bruising on her spine from the rupture. I will be seeing him for her first check up July 2nd. Any ideas for the expressing would be helpful.

[Tinker's Mom]

JMaxine,

It sounds like Lexi might benefit from some meds to decrease the sphincter resistance and bladder tone so that you can express her more easily. My dog Tinker went through disk surgery 4 years ago and we had him on a commonly prescribed drug, Bethanechol for about a month after surgery, which helped to make him easier to express. There is also another drug, Phenoxybenzamine, which relaxes the urinary sphincter. Ask your vet about prescribing these or similar drugs. And don't be shy about asking the vet to show you again how to express her- it takes some practice to get the knack of it.

Every dog heals at their own rate, and that includes the return of bladder function, either partially or completely. The rule of thumb I have heard about it is that after 3 months you'll have some idea, and after 6 months you will know for sure. In our case, Tinker now empties his bladder about 3/4 of the way himself, and we express the rest... although on some days (w/slightly longer walks) he does it all himself (and we just double check before taking him inside), and other times we do all the work. But, whatever the eventual outcome for Lexi, expressing her bladder is something you will learn to get good at and it will become second nature to you as you ease into the routine of her care.

Best of luck!

~Tinker's Mom

[Joan]

Girls are always harder to express than boys. If you get her drinking more, it really helps. We give all our handicapped pets water with a pinch of tuna in it (anything they like will work, some use baby food) 4-5 times per day. Amt will vary with your dog, our pugs weigh 20-24 pounds, and we give 1/3 cup of water at a time. After a while, they will think its a treat and look for it if you can give it at regular times.

Our only spinal female, Sarah, never drinks without this, and if we do not get her drinking this way, I am lucky to get urine expresses once or twice a day. With drinking at regular intervals I can easily get 4 per day.

While drugs can help, the reason why this is a last resort, is that the tighter the sphincter, the less trouble you have with infections, particularly with females. Having said that, if you are not home most of the day, or for some reason your dog will not drink even with temptation added, then you do what you have to do with relaxants etc.

[JMaxine]

thanks for the info all.............lexi started peeing on her own this weekend. She is paralyzed in the back legs but with towel support she started squatting and peeing. Wow, were we surprised. Also,she loves our neighbor and when he comes over she pees when she sees him. So, he has been coming over twice a day lol. We are only in day 8 of post surgery. We had a very difficult time expressing her and had to keep taking her to the vet to have them do it, as she would go 17-18 hrs without peeing. They said we were doing everything right ( in terms of expressing), but not much would come out. I added watermelon,popscicles, and thanks so much for the tuna in the water idea, she loves tuna anyway.