Pain in Dogs

I am a reluctant dog owner.
There, I have confessed it. I think that if someone has a dog as a child, then they want their children to have a dog as well. Being in a 'mixed marriage' dog wise, my hubby and I have different opinions on the importance of having a dog in the family for the children.
So now you know that I cannot win a disagreement with my husband either. Because we have THREE dogs.

This past week has been quite dog centered, and I learned that I actually care more for our dogs than I normally admit.
One of the dogs suffered a ruptured disc this week, and of course, our regular vet is on vacation.
My middle son told me that he thought that his dog needed to go to the vet as he was trembling and walking stiffly. It was Memorial Day, naturally, as most crises in life take place when the facilities to deal with them are closed. Is that part of Murphy's Law? I gave the dog an aspirin and tried to keep an eye on him.

Tuesday morning, my hubby told me that this same dog was outside in the rain at 2 AM, and didn't seem to want to come into the house through the doggie door. He moved stiffly that afternoon, and when I returned from running errands, he had stopped walking entirely. Our son's dog was COMPLETELY PARALYZED FROM THE WAIST DOWN!! No wagging his tail, no anything. He still felt pain back there, but paralyzed none the less. When he did try and walk it was just dragging his hind quarters, feet flopped over and pointing in the wrong direction, much like the painting "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth.

All this time, we were searching on the internet for the symptoms and thinking that maybe he had Lyme disease. We called the most knowledgeable person in dog issues we know, a dog breeder. She strongly advised that we not hospitalize the dog in an after hours clinic. Do a tick test and get some meds to get through the night.

My son and I took the dog to a Pet ER, and that trip simply did not go very well. The vet gave me three options for treatment, and I chose to bring the dog home with some medications for the situation with instructions to follow up with our regular vet the next day. We all prayed for him when we got home.

That evening and the next day, we began to realize that this dog was in bad shape. With our vet on vacation and a holiday week end just passed, finding an available appointment was challenging. I finally found one with a 6 PM slot, and I let them know that we might be putting the dog to sleep.

Several times in searches, acupunture was mentioned, so I started to search for canine acupunture in this area. There is only one, so I called that office only to be told that there weren't any openings for at least a week. They later called back and asked us to come in early the next morning to try to help this dog.


It won't be a quick fix, but two days later, we are seeing this dog begin to try to walk again. We are so happy to see him make a few steps!
It is not expected that he recover 100% and his back end is not stable right now when he is on all four feet. His boy is thrilled that his friend is still with us.

I said all of that to say this.
I did not recognize the signs of serious pain.
A dog that has suffered a disc injury will exhibit symptoms such as: yelping when handled, lethargy, shivering, whimpering, poor appetite, inability to urinate, clumsiness, reluctance to climb steps, walking “drunk,” hiding under the bed, unable to move, paralysis of back legs. The faster you can get treatment for your dog, the better.
Perhaps one of my human failings is that I find it difficult to sense serious situations, and always hope that things will just sort themselves out, given time for natual healing to take place. It would have been helpful if the discussions with the first vet would have included a phrase such as, "This is a serious condition in this case." Or "He will be fine, just give him time."

We are glad that you are still with us, Cookie!
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