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Old February 24th, 2008, 12:06 PM
SnowDancer SnowDancer is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 1,900
Auburn, I am very sorry for your loss. But I have to tell you that when the full neck/body surgery works - despite having 3 prior full paralysis "events" and you see the absolute hell your dog goes through - the joy on your pups face - and your faces and those of all of the vets - it is worth it. This is what one of my vets at the time told us when we went with the surgery in 1989 when it was still a new procedure in Canada. She had been living in California and had seen the positive results - if it worked. There are absolutely no guarantees. Jump forward to 2003 and our just turned 6 Dachshund and my breathing a sigh of relief (our first guy paralyzed the first time at age 1 and had surgery at 3) - when he balked at doing something normal. He as it turned out had Stage 2 disc disease but neither we nor the surgeon knew that and since he paralzyed in 15 minutes he had to be rushed to the Vet School with the on-call neuros (in Toronto the specialists need a 24 hour work-up period). The surgeon was very optimistic, but due to Stage 2 he only came back to 70% of his body function - which was more than enough, but we were warned he would suffer another event within a year and a second surgery would not be successful. We had 10 months to the day of his surgery with him, which I would not give up for a moment. Had I known this would be the case, No, I would not have gone ahead with the surgery, but we had no time to think it through due to the nature of the paralysis and of course things looked good. Our neuro's 2 dogs were at home recoving from same surgery. If I had a Dachshund now, of if my Eskimo should develop a disc problem, I would have the surgery in a heartbeat, provided that circumstances were not as they were with my second guy - I knew every single sigh to watch for which was confusing because Stage 2 doesn't present quite the same way. Also to be considered are the number of discs affected - in both my cases it was every single disc in my guys' bodies plus the neck - and neck is very serious. To me, as I am sure you can understand, one or two discs is like day surgery. Just a different perspective. Actually, my Eskie pulled a back muscles last May at age 3 and I was at the vet pronto - hadn't seen him do it and had just read of 2 Eskies who had paralyzed from disc problems. Fortunately it was not that, but I was ready for the surgery all things looking good. We did not get another Dachshund because the back problems suffered by this darling breed are on the rise if that is at all possible. We couldn't put ourselves or the dog through it knowing going in what was likely in store for the dog. Every dog can develop a very serious, very expensive health problem. We just wanted our guy to have a fair shake. So far, so good. I hope you don't ever have to go through this again. But I have to tell you, when the surgery works it is so wonderful. When he died, every system failed over night - except his heart - and his back - it was still going strong.
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