Hello. I have a 15 year old Dachshund, Brody, who is currently suffering from a cervical IVDD injury. This is Brody’s third IVDD injury in his short life, however, it is the most severe. We are not sure what happened this time since Brody was injured when we got home from work. Today is day 7 since Brody went down. While Brody is able to right himself from the lateral position, he does spend most of his time on his side. Brody is able to lift his head and look around, he can scoot himself from one position to another, he has a fantastic appetite, he has feeling in his hind quarters and only deep pain in his front two. My poor boy is not able to consistently empty his bladder and has required cathing; as of today, with the help of lactulose, Brody has been able to empty his bowels, incontinent.

Brody is not a candidate for surgery due to his age and other health conditions, so we are managing him conservatively. Brody has been seen by his regular vet where he was started on prednisone, robaxin, & gabapentin; he also takes CBD and I just started him on tumeric paste. Brody has seen a holistic vet where he had acupuncture done with electro stimulation.

My question is, how long do I give him before we decide that enough is enough? Brody is not in extreme pain, but he does have occasional neck/shoulder spasms that make him scream. I just am afraid of putting him through more than what I should just because I am not ready to let him go. Brody has been my guy for 15 years and I cannot imagine life without him, but I don’t want him to suffer. I have watched Dr. Magnifico’s YouTube videos about giving IVDD dogs time, but what is a realistic timeframe?

For those of you Pawbly friends that have been following my progress and at times lack thereof, with the dogs….. this is where we are at today. Riva is out of her cone and Rontu has not displayed any possessive tendencies. I’m rolling with it having a watchful eye on their interactions. They’re in a good place today, so I’m using it as a training opportunity. And training activities you care to share are welcome.????????????

Good morning Pawbly friends-
Having a sudden – very sudden- change in behavior in one of our GSDs. We are trying to think back to figure if there has been any change in routine that might cause this. It is strange- Rontu will start to give a high grumble or start to “talk” now when you approach him, or his bed or his bone or his food. This morning just now, he did that with Butch (one of our others) when he came to me to get a head scratch. We promptly put Rontu in a sit and then told him “bed” which he went to a did lie down. We are going back to square one training and positive reinforcement. My thinking is that this not nipped in the bud right away will lead to full blown food aggression and possession issues, which we do not want. Any other advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!!

Our 2 year old Pitt mix recently suffered from a laceration to his front paw pad. We ended up bringing him into the ER for stitches, which he received. However, neither the vets or ourselves were able to get him in his cone of shame. For about 4 days we were able to deter him from interfering with his wound through careful monitoring and a sock with cayenne pepper placed over the bandage. Day # 5, however, is when things went to pieces. Sometime between lunch and when I get off work, he was able to get his bandage off and proceeded to gnaw at his stitches… We took him back to the ER last night, but given how he is with strangers (not good), we opted to forgo getting him sedated and re-stitched, and try to take care of him from home. He lets us change his bandage, but when I tried changing it this morning, some of the gauze had adhered to the wound. I’m afraid if I pull more of it off, I will make the wound worse, but I can’t imagine that leaving it on there is a good idea either. If we can avoid even more costly medical bills without jeopardizing his health, that would be great. That being said, I’m reaching out to the canine community for any advice available! Thanks for taking the time to read my post 🙂

i apologize i’m advanced if this is confusing to read its kind of difficult to explain what im trying to say. i have an 11 year old rottweiler named Roxy. she’s been more amazing than you could ever ask for. as she has gotten older she has obviously gotten slower and it got to the point recently where when she would sit down she would sit on the side of her leg, she needs assistance getting up, and when walking you have to support her back half for a minute then she can walk on her own for a while till she needs a break. She can’t really bend one of her hind legs anymore. i’ve took her to the vet but am currently looking for a new vet because this one kept her 5 days, he called on day 2 and told me she was responding to some medication good. then called me on day 3 and told me she seemed paralyzed in the back half, then called me on day 4 and told me she didn’t seemed paralyzed and was walking better and i could come pick her up the next morning. i get there and he is very short about Roxy’s problems, doesn’t tell me much of anything wrong with her just gives me $300 in medication to give her at home. i’m working with her everyday helping her walk anytime she wants to move and she does seem to be slowly getting better. She never whines or acts like she’s in pain when moving or if you touch the back legs. She’s still full of life, her back legs are just holding her back. I’m going to do anything it takes to make sure she’s living as happy as she can and was just looking for any suggestions on what her problems could be and any thing i could do to help her
Thank you for any help i’m advance!!

Hi Pawbly friends-
We have an appointment tomorrow to get drains taken out of one of our dogs. Just now on our evening walk, she either ripped or lost the bottom part of one of the drains. I’ve been cleaning them 2 to 3 times a day by flushing blue antiseptic solution through them. Just now when I cleaned them it ran through nicely. We have an existing appointment tomorrow… wondering if it is ok to wait until then?

Hey! Just found your page from YouTube, was wondering if it’d be possible to chat about my cat? Almost certain he has a nasopharyngeal polyp but I am having trouble convincing any vets in the Dallas area to sedate him and take a look without him first getting scans and tests that cost thousands of dollars. Is there anything I should be asking them for differently? He’s been fighting a URI for about 5 months now and we have done six rounds of antibiotics with steroids and antihistamines to help and nothing has stopped his symptoms from returning and we have only now made the connection as to why that is. He has the distinct snore noise while breathing and every other listed symptom associated, I just can’t afford the tests the vets are saying they require, it’s very heart breaking. Any help or wisdom is appreciated, we just don’t have the money to do much else and he is degrading quickly since his last round of antibiotics ended this week. I wish I didn’t sound so sure, we just are panicking that we have wasted so much time and money and may have missed our chance to best this this while we could and now may be unable to. Just heart breaking all around.

My wonderful vet gave us eye drops for our 6-month old 40lb. puppy. He just had surgery to address a “cherry eye”. Does anyone have any suggestion on how to administer these drops? Every time the dog sees the little white eye drop bottle, he gets very stressed. We are unable to keep him still long enough to put in the drops. Please advise any suggestions.

We have a beautiful beagle boy who is around 10, he has gained weight as he had gotten older and is currently on a diet. He has IVDD in his neck. He is still able to move on his own and has no issues with the bathroom however has spasms of pain during which he is very painful. Currently he is on pain killers, steroids and is taking joint supplements and is crated. The vet has also recommended getting an arthritis shot per week however the weekly trip to the vet seems to aggravate him and whenever we get home he has another spasm. We are trying to manage him conservatively for now and I am wondering if we should persevere with his diet while he is recovering and if we should stop taking him to the vet weekly until he is a bit better as these trips seem to set him back. Thank you!