Intervertebral Disc Disease in Dogs

I have a 6 year old, 6lb yorkie-poo that has recently sustained an injury in what we thought was his back. He would shake and scream in pain. We took him to his Vet and he started him on a strong round of prednisone and pain medicine. It seemed to help some, but eventually seemed to quit working. We couldn't put him down, so we were referred to a Veterinary University. They done an MRI on him and he had 2 ruptured disc, around his neck. We decided to move further on and they done surgery to remove the disc and he was on his way to recovery, but a week later started screaming in pain again. It breaks our hearts so bad. We know he can't go on living like this and hes to the point now of not wanting to eat, dink, or use the potty from the pain. Putting him down isn't an option for us, but we don't know what else to do for our little guy. I just want him to be better and back to himself! We took him back to the University and they have hooked him up to a cath and seem to have his pain under control. They suggest another MRI to see if hes blew another disc, but he has been kept confined since hes been home from surgery. Is there anything we can do for our boy!?

My dog hachi was fine until he started screaming in pain and hiding while arching his back. He also lifted one of his front paws. The vet said it could be a pinched nerve or herniated disk and prescribed a pain killer and 3 weeks bed rest. Even with rest he’s in a lot of pain and the screaming just hurts my heart. What can I do to help him? Nothing happened that I think could have triggered this and I don’t know what to do? Should I take him to another vet?

Pumpkin has always been actively, sleeps a little more these days, but still barks and runs to the door when she hears someone/thing.

Two weeks ago she cried when we picked her up. Took her to the vet, prescribed her some medication. Not much improvement. Went back several days later and she got xrays, blood draw, etc. Vet said a few discs had less space between them but wasn’t overly concerned. She prescribed Pumpkin Prednisone. This has seemed to help. We also took the cushions from our sofa and put them on the floor so she wasn’t tempted to jump up and laid low on walking and carried her outside. She has improved. Wondering what the future might look like?

I took Loki my chihuahua for a routine teeth cleaning and to get get her nails cut, she had no issues at alll perfectly healthy. When I picked her up from the vet I noticed that she was limping, she also had a little bit of blood on her paw, I thought she might be limping because she got cut while getting her nails cut or something. A few days went by and she was still limping, she wasn’t using her left back leg at all, only when going outside to pee. I took her back to the vet and they told me she had a patella luxation? I had no idea what that was or what might have caused it. They gave me pain meds for Loki and sent her home. It’s been almost a month now, I took her in for X-rays and they stated that she now has degenerative intervertebral disc disease. Is this something that would cause my dog not to use her leg. I am very confused about this situation and I don’t know if I need to take her to a different vet for a second opinion. Please advise. Thank you

My 5 year old dog - chiweenie had back pain suddlenly last year. the vet injeted his steroids and prescribed prednisone and gabapentin(she said it could be a disc hernia) he got better and was great for 4 months until the same thing happened again. he got another injection and meds and recover fully but 6 months later (July2018) he showed same symptoms and this time we took him for an full spine MRI. his diagnostics is a "large mieline to left sided chronic disc herniation at L3-L4". The neurologist sugested surgery impling that the hernia can rupture at anytime. my dog has been resting a lot and shows pain only during the morning and the rest of the day he behaves 100% healthy and walks around fine. some days he keeps his head down as he walks and ramdonly he will cry/scream. He is still taking prednisone and gabapentin.he seems much better but i am afraid the disc will rupture and also i am afraid of the risc of the surgery and the possibility of adhesions developing, losing his movement. i want to make sure he will be fine if he gets surgery. i am taking him to another neurologist for a second opinion . but i need more advice

Intervenal dis disease within the TL spine dis herniation causing the signs would be suspect but aditional imagin such as a myblogran ct. my dog already had de xray and this the resul and vet conclusion are this the TL spine aligned there is significant disc space narrowing identified at the level of T12-13 no endplate lysis is seen. At this time he is feeling his legs. My question us he will be walk just with recovery as a vet said

A year ago my dog was injured from a fall; neighbor said he fell on his back several times trying to jump the fence. He had some weakness in his rear legs, not too bad at first but then gradually worsened. We have tried several different medications; Prednisone seemed to help the most for a while but is no longer working. For the last three months he has been getting acupuncture weekly with laser therapy a few times showing no improvements, if anything he has only gotten progressively worse. He does have use of his rear legs but they are extremely weak and really has no control over them. When he walks his paws knuckle over and he falls a lot and his body goes sideways, he has even started to just drag his legs behind him at times. He did have a CT scan on the entire spine and the findings were:

•Possible extruded non-mineralized disc material at L7-S1,
punctate areas of very faint mineralization is also seen in
this region
•Mild dorsal wedging of the lumbosacral disc space
•Spondylosis at several sites in spine, most severe at L6-7 and
L7-S1
•Equivocal evidence of a small amount of non-mineralized
extruded disc material at L6-7
•Cervical spine and all of the intervertebral disc spaces in
this region appear normal
•Incidental finding of very faint ossifying pachymeningitis
•The vertebral bodies and end plates are normal
Conclusion: Suspect extruded non-mineralized disc material at L7-S1. There is also possible extruded non-mineralized disc material at L6-L7.

I am considering surgery at this point, I would like to do some research but I am not clear on what his actual condition is (is it IVDD?) and what type of surgery he needs. I have been told that a myelogram or an MRI will need to be done for the surgery, is one more beneficial than the other?

Would a neurologist have to perform the surgery or could a board certified surgeon perform the surgery in this case? Either way, I will have to travel to have the surgery done as there is no one local, do you have any advice on the best way to select a surgeon? I appreciate your time.

My 3 year old beagle was completely fine until about 1 week ago. Out of nowhere she started yelping in pain when getting up. She walks with no problem, no issues eating and seems completely fine other than getting up or down. I have taken her to the vet and her diagnosis is IVDD. She is currently on an anti-inflammatory and pain medication to help her. I was wondering if this disease is treatable and she can live a long, healthy life or if this is something that will affect her from now on.

Our little Jerry had body and head tilt soon after he gets up, holding up forelimb and yelping when getting picked up. Took him to various vet and put him through an MRI and found below diagnosis.
1. C3-4 :

a. Mild left ventrolateral spinal cord compression by a protruding intervertebral disc, which partly extends into the left intervertebral foramen

b. Dorsal spinal cord compression by a bulging ligamentum flavum.

2. C6-7: degenerative intervertebral disc disease with collapse of the disc space, but no significant spinal cord compression.

3. Dehydration of multiple other intervertebral discs.

4. Incidental findings:

a. Small supracollicular fluid accumulation

b. Mild ventricular enlargement and asymmetry with right larger than left.

The vet has suggested to go through CSF analysis to rule out meningitis before his spinal surgery. All of a sudden before we make decision, Jerry was back to normal without treatment and almost symptom free (but still hold up forelims). We could not explain why.

After he's back to normal for 2 weeks, we found him started eating his own poo and threw up one day. Put him on quarterly worming medication immediately and 1 day later after meal, he threw up again. Should we be concerned about if the vomiting is related to his disc rupture, or something else? Now how should we treat him for disc rupture now as we concern it may come back one day? Many thanks!

11 yr old Cairn Terrier. 4 days ago, started falling going up steps. 3 days ago noticed that his front left leg was sliding out from under him as he moved and he was favouring it. 2 days ago it started affecting all legs. He would stand up and fall down. He walks gingerly and any leg might slide out and away at any time. No change in personality or eating habits. No circling behaviour or tenderness to touch anywhere on body. Took him to vet and blood work came back normal. They put him on pain meds as they also noticed reaction to being touched in shoulders. Physical exam was fine and said we could move to x rays and MRI if we wanted. Any thoughts?

Panda is a 9 year old Bassador. Last week she was moving, running, and acting normal. A few days ago, she began having what we thought were issues with her back knees. She was placed on a few pain meds and was slow, but showed brief signs of her old self. This week, she went to the vet for a follow up. Coming out of the car, he hindquarters stopped working. She still has movement and feeling in her back legs. After an xray, the vet mentioned that it could be IVDD. After researching the symptoms, we are fairly convinced this is what it is. She has been placed on a steroid and been told to have restricted movement. We are torn whether or not to gracefully let her go or to continue to fight. How long into the treatment do most dogs respond? We want to remain very optomistic but also want to be respectful of her quality of life. Thank you.

Last week- till today she has been limping and we took her to the vet last week. They gave her a shot and meds to help with swelling it helped for about a week but she started to walk slowly 2 days ago again and today we took her this morning and the vet said something about disc in her back? And surgery may be an option. Right now she seems to be dragging on her back and seems like she’s losing the feeling in them. Is surgery still an option even though her back legs are like that? Her front legs are working just fine and I believe she is experiencing pain , she doesn’t yell but she groans & I read that not experiencing pain is in severe cases.

My daughter's mini doxie is now paralyzed from what we think is IVDD. reading this information and talking to the vet, there is no guarantee the surgery will work, the only other option we were given was to "put her down" I am at a total loss because we cannot afford the surgery but my daughter will be distraught. Any recommendations of alternate options?

I am wondering what we should do about our husky, she has the symptoms of IVDD but the vet we took her to says that he thinks it could menegitis or possibly even our dog having seizures. She has been put on a medication called previcox for 4 days now but is still screaming in pain, should we try the medicine a bit longer or take her somewhere else?