Bennie, my 13yr old spayed female beagle, was found paralyzed in all 4 legs the morning of Aug 5, 2023. The vet diagnosed her with cervical IVDD. As she had both deep and superficial pain in all 4 paws, and due to costs and her age, we chose conservative treatment. The conservative treatment was strict bed rest for 6weeks plus medications for inflammation, physical pain, and neuropathic pain. We did the meds for 4 weeks and they were all well-tolerated.

Luckily, Bennie kept bladder control and was able to defecate on her own, although she held her bladder for 12hrs at a time for the first week.

On day 10 she wagged her tail for the first time, and that was my first day of having hope she might fully recover as I knew it meant signal was getting beyond her injury site. Every day since then, she has had small improvements like being able to lift herself to a sphinx-like position from lying down (day 12) to scooting (13) and crawling (14), standing with support (15), taking small steps with support (16), scratching her ear with her left hind leg (17), etc.

Every day since that first tail wag, there was something she began to do again that she hadn’t done since her injury. In week 3 she was able to sit up on her own, at week 4 she was very wobbly walking w/ rear support for short periods, and at week 5 she stopped knuckling in front (or at least corrected it when it happened). Now, in week 6 she is wobbly walking with sling support for normal periods of time including squatting to urinate/defecate.

Her right legs are weaker than her left ones, and her rear right leg is weakest of all, but every day she is getting stronger. Today I took her to a pool and held her while floating her and encouraged her to swim, she did really well and I plan to do this for her a few times a week.

I have no idea if she will ever walk on her own again, or if she’ll always need support, but I do know the intensity of the first few weeks is now gone. The only hard part is trying to keep up with how motivated she is now that she has regained so much mobility,

If your dog has IVDD paralysis, don’t give up on them. They can improve, but the first few weeks will be hard for both of you due to the intense effort required of you to be everything for them until the injury heals over and they can begin improving.

It’s worth it, and the costs for the conservative treatment totaled about $400 for vet bill, medicines, and the sling.