My 10-year-old pug Sophie had back surgery in 2015 for degenerative disc disease. She was losing control of her bowels, which was what tipped us off, and also had something not quite right in her hind right leg when she walked. She's done pretty well since her surgery, mostly regained control of her bowels, but does drag her hind right leg a bit despite physical therapy. This past year she has had several UTI's. She has been on phenoxybenzamine since shorty after her surgery as she was having urine retention. That did the trick until recently, and we are now playing around with bethanechol, trying to find the right dose where she is able to urinate, but isn't leaking all over.
But my question really has to do with her hind legs. She has an issue that I can't find anywhere on the internet. Her neurologist has told me that she may be taking a turn for the worse, but I still would like to find more information about this. Occasionally when Sophie is sitting, her hind legs go up in what I can only describe as looking like a rabbit. They rise up high on her chest and she has to rock herself forward to get them back beneath her so that she can stand. Usually I just help her up and then she's fine, but yesterday she got herself in that position and I couldn't get her legs to go down. I could get her to a standing position, but as soon as she started to walk, she fell back on her butt and her legs would go up. I was very upset and thought, this is it. In the morning, thankfully, she was fine again. I'm very relieved but am afraid that this is a warning of things to come.
Has anyone heard of something like this? I'm wondering if this is from the surgery
Thanks for any advice you can give me.
Laurie
Frozen back legs
Re: Frozen back legs
Hi Laurie,
I have never heard of this happening as a result of surgery, or 2 years after surgery. It sounds like she is getting contractures in her legs, and it does sound neurological. I am not a vet but I would assume she would need more tests to see what is going on. I had a similar situation with my mini-rex rabbit which became permanent. You can see the description in this post, where I was having to be creative getting a diaper on him because his legs were tucked up as you describe, and I ended up diapering him with his knees inside the diaper. In his case, it was caused by a spinal tumor. That does not mean your dog has a tumor, I am just saying what my bunny had. I know there is a spinal defect that is common in pugs called hemivertebrae, but I do not know if it can cause contractures, and it seems like if they did an MRI or CT before his last surgery, they would have seen it if he had one. The best advice I can give is, be sure to keep the diaper on your dog for skin protection even if she does not need it for urine, because scooting on a bare bottom will cause a raw sore on her skin, and it might be hard to heal up if she keeps scooting on it.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2021
If you find out what is causing it, I hope you will post the information.
I have never heard of this happening as a result of surgery, or 2 years after surgery. It sounds like she is getting contractures in her legs, and it does sound neurological. I am not a vet but I would assume she would need more tests to see what is going on. I had a similar situation with my mini-rex rabbit which became permanent. You can see the description in this post, where I was having to be creative getting a diaper on him because his legs were tucked up as you describe, and I ended up diapering him with his knees inside the diaper. In his case, it was caused by a spinal tumor. That does not mean your dog has a tumor, I am just saying what my bunny had. I know there is a spinal defect that is common in pugs called hemivertebrae, but I do not know if it can cause contractures, and it seems like if they did an MRI or CT before his last surgery, they would have seen it if he had one. The best advice I can give is, be sure to keep the diaper on your dog for skin protection even if she does not need it for urine, because scooting on a bare bottom will cause a raw sore on her skin, and it might be hard to heal up if she keeps scooting on it.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2021
If you find out what is causing it, I hope you will post the information.
Re: Frozen back legs
Some of mine have done that legs-up-by-the-ears thing, but I THINK it was one or 2 of the brain damaged ones. Like CarolC, I wonder about contractures, which I would think could come with any spinal cord injury. Only 1 of my SCI boys has ever had significant contractures, though, and his were EXTREMELY difficult to deal with. We even tried surgical release, and the contractures did lead to skin breakdown.