Full recovery, but afraid of it happening again
Long post, happy ending but with final Q!
First signs
My girl’s name is Lea, she’s a 10 year old Shih Tzu. In March I noticed she had back pain, she was walking in a hunched position and trembling a lot. We took her to a vet and she gave her some pain meds, since we thought it could be muscular pain (she’s a crazy dog!). We never saw her falling down hard or something, but she loves to jump around and run as if she was a young dog!
The day after the vet visit I woke up to her dragging her back legs, I was immediately scared. I knew of a neurology vet clinic close home that had ER, so we took her. They told us it was probably something in her spine and they needed to apply pain meds and some meds that might help her spine injury. If she progressed she could go home and start therapy.
At the vet
Two days later she got progressively worst, to the point she could no longer use her back legs anymore. They told me she had to have a scan to see exactly what was going on and if she could or needed to have a surgery.
I was still hopeful everything would be fine, she feels young, but she’s not! And she has some heart issues so putting her under for a scan and then a surgery was something that scared me to death.
Well, bad news, she had a ruptured disc and needed surgery asap! I was devastated.
But here is where there good news started!
That same day she had a surgery and it was successful. After three days she started to show improvements!! She could pee on her own and she could finally come home!
After surgery
I made a fenced area in my living room with only her bed and food/water bowls. They asked me to have them raised from the ground. That is the only place in my apartment that has a carpet, we didn’t care if it was ruined after this.
We bought a special harness that supported her back legs. It helped a lot! But she got it wet with pee all the time, so I think a belly band would have worked better.
A week later she started therapy. She was to have 15 sessions before being given the all-clear. By then she was already walking with little support! I thought maybe she would need less therapy, but then realized the more the better.
By session 10 she was almost back to normal and by session 15 it was clear she was fully recovered.
After the all-clear
So she was deemed recovered and all was fine. But nope, she feels SO well she’s back to her crazy self. And that’s a no go!
I adapted my home. At first she could only be in the living room area, then when she finished therapy I allowed her in the rest of the apartment. I put baby rails in the spare bed (which she used to sleep in, but is super high), so that is totally blocked forever.
I bought a ramp for my bed and put tatamis all around it, so in case she jumped, at least she would have adding and the fall wouldn’t be so hard. She learned to use the ramp quickly and now uses it 90% of the time.
I also blocked the sofa, she can’t jump on it anymore.
So… all better right? Nope. As soon as I arrive, she starts jumping like crazy, she slips and falls and it drives me crazy. I’m so scared this happens again!! Sometimes she goes down the ramp so fast and hard it has fallen down with her!! How has it been for you? Has something like this happened again to your dogs? What would you recommend?