# Our Mini Dachshund Got the Infamous Neck Injury



## jlzimmerman (Jan 10, 2009)

Out of the blue last saturday our lil' weiner looked up just the wrong way and BAM, he starts screaming, spazzing out and leaks on himself  Over the next hour or so my wife and I coddled him and discussed what just happened, why, and our course of action. It was just shortly after that that he had another "episode" and it was then my wife called the on-call vet. Our weiner, Sampson, was diagnosed with a ruptured or bulging disc. He's on various meds to help him heal and the neurologist even upped the valium and pain killers, but it may take up to 4 weeks to know if it does heal on its own. If it doesn't, surgery is required.

It's been a week and yet we see no progress as of yet. There has been zero running, jumping, or walking on a leash. As immobile as we have im, he still has episodes of terrible pain and it's gotten to the point that the poor guy doesn't even want to get up in fear of triggering the pain. His very worst bouts of pain are always in the morning, after a long night of rest. When he has these episodes, they're followed by long periods of panting and short, rapid breathing. Everything he has exhibited has been explained by the vet and neurologist as being "normal," but it still extremely difficult to see our pet like this.

To anyone who has gone through this with their pet, do you have additional advice, comments, or things that you would do differently/same during or after the treatment? Thanks.



Sampson is 7 years of age, 12 pounds, and is usually an active, well behaved pet.


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## ambercober (Jan 1, 2009)

OMG that sounds so terrible  , I wish I could offer something.... I don't know much about neck injuries with dogs. I'm just sorry your cute, incredibly adorable, pup is in such pain.


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## myminpins (Dec 20, 2008)

Have you thought of checking with an alternative vet? Only reason I suggest this is my ex and my daughter both get neck spasms and are in horrible pain yet a chiropractor can take 90% of the pain away in 15 minutes then it just has to heal. It's not often it happens but it's just a pinched nerve.

Did they do x-rays or something to confirm he hurt his disc? 

I'm so sorry this happened - poor little guy  I hope they can get him back to as good as new one way or the other soon. He looks like such a sweetie


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## jlzimmerman (Jan 10, 2009)

myminpins said:


> Have you thought of checking with an alternative vet? Only reason I suggest this is my ex and my daughter both get neck spasms and are in horrible pain yet a chiropractor can take 90% of the pain away in 15 minutes then it just has to heal. It's not often it happens but it's just a pinched nerve.
> 
> Did they do x-rays or something to confirm he hurt his disc?
> 
> I'm so sorry this happened - poor little guy  I hope they can get him back to as good as new one way or the other soon. He looks like such a sweetie


I took Sam to the neurologist to get a second opinion and she said the same thing as the vet. The neurologist is VERY good, people come from 2 hours away to see her, so she seems as if she knows what she's talking about. Because he can still lift his head and is moving with sure steps, the neuro and vet both said it's best to keep him on his meds and allow the injury to heal itself. I dunno, they're the experts.


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## myminpins (Dec 20, 2008)

jlzimmerman said:


> I took Sam to the neurologist to get a second opinion and she said the same thing as the vet. The neurologist is VERY good, people come from 2 hours away to see her, so she seems as if she knows what she's talking about. Because he can still lift his head and is moving with sure steps, the neuro and vet both said it's best to keep him on his meds and allow the injury to heal itself. I dunno, they're the experts.


Wow, glad to hear you got an expert opinion. That's definitely the way to go. I'd definitely do as they say as well. Good for you!!

I hope he recovers soon


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## jlzimmerman (Jan 10, 2009)

Just to give you all an update from my last post....

Another week goes by, no improvement. It actually got worse, to the point of after each agonizing episode he wouldn't move and just stared at the ground. We brought him back in to Dr. Blackmore (the Neurologist) for a Mylogram. Upon the results, she said she was impressed that Sam was walking at all. The ruptured disk had been compressing almost 50% of the spinal cord.









Surgery was performed two days later. While in there, the Neuro took the initiative and scraped out ALL of the internals of neck disks. Sam remained there for a week, under 24 hour observation.

Sampson still experienced pain during the week of recovery, or so we thought after the surgery, which the Neuro said wasn't common. She put him under for another Mylogram to confirm everything was scraped out. She even sent his x-rays to other Vets and Neuros for another pair of eyes. After some research she discover a few cases where the pain was so accute that the pet's brain still "felt" the pain after surgery. In addition, he was depressed and wouldn't eat. Only on one of our visits did he attempt to eat the roast beef and cheese the Neuro bought for him.

His change in attitude alllowed us to take him home. Over the next few weeks he was on a huge coctail of meds, including doggy xanax (to prevent him from anticipating the pain that no longer exists). It was madness.









Recovery was slow, but steady. His stitches...









During the recovery, I made him a ramp for the bed. He's not allowed to jump down, play tug-o'-war, or thrash his head side-to-side (yeah, good luck preventing this one).









The steroids made him quite the tank, and the others make him spend most of his day in a haze. But now he's just getting done with all his meds, and is almost 100% again. The amount of attention our vet (Dr. Weigand from Palm City Animal Clinic) and Neurologist gave us during the past several weeks was absolutely amazing. Cost: $3900, but we'd do it again without thinking twice.


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## Mac'N'Roe (Feb 15, 2008)

Awww, so sorry to hear about your ordeal. Glad that he is in recovery mode and I hope the best for you and your family (furry family too)


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## Thracian (Dec 24, 2008)

Oh, WOW. What a scary experience! I'm glad the surgery helped and that things are looking up.


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## vickyparker (May 30, 2013)

How is your dog now? We are having the same problem now with our dog. He had surgery 4 weeks ago. He seemed to be getting better but yesterday and before that he had the hanging of the head. Not looking up at us. Then last night he just starting squealing with no one touching him. We took him to the vet where he had the surgery. The dr. On duty said it could be a pinched nerve or another disk injury. We can't figure out how. He's still on crate rest. She manipulated his neck and she said he has pain. Well, they give him a shot for pain relief, tramadol and a muscle relaxer. They checked him after 10 hours, pain meds should have wore off, and the surgeon twisted his neck all around and he's fine. No pain. They are keeping him overnight and letting the pain meds wear off more and having the night staff check him for pain. They think we are crazy. Dr. Said quit watching him. We don't know what's going on, but when he's at home he's a different dog. Any help is appreciated.


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## Gailp (Nov 2, 2013)

The same thing is happening with my 10 year old wiener. Been to vets two days in row now and acts perfectly normal while there, even when vet is manipulating him.


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## Fade (Feb 24, 2012)

We had really good success with having a chiropractor work on the dachs that get this issue. One of them snoop was paralyzed from the neck down it took almost 2 months of treatment and care to get him back to normal but he is 99% better he has a little weakness in his right front leg and occasionally has days were he needs to revisit the chiro for another adjustment. but we thought he would not recover but he did from the chiro adjustments.


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## jade5280 (Feb 20, 2013)

Poor baby! I've never heard of Dachshund's getting that sort of injury. Is it because of their body shape? Glad he has such good parents to take care of him.


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## luvsmymutt (Feb 22, 2010)

i'm so glad he is on the mend.. My sweet doxie, Daisy, has had one muscle spasm that made her howl and scream when I tried to touch her. I was in tears!. My vet gave us a few Rimadyl (sp) (doggy anti inflammatory) she was on it for about a week. and I kept her activity low. She has been good for a year now. 

I'm so glad your little guy has such a good family!


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## Wetherbys (Dec 4, 2011)

I do know one thing that works and has worked on every Dachshund that's come in to us with a spinal injury. Find a qualified canine hydrotherapist in your area and do a few sessions there. Watch and see what they do, ask them questions and then after a few swims if you can't afford any more, buy a dog life jacket from ebay and swim your dog in the bath. With a Dachshund, you can get away with swimming in a bath.

Its just a suggestion. You can research all the benefits of swimming on the internet so i wont bore you here about the advantages, like weightless, the warm water helping with the circulation, muscle building, aerobics, etc...

Good luck and if one of you guys do it and it helps, I'd feel so pleased with myself for taking the time to write this :redface:


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## ashermac (Nov 4, 2013)

Thank you for posting your story. So glad to hear Sampson is getting better. What a nightmare that must have been to see him like that. 

I have two dachshunds. Last spring Jackson was jumping out of the car and collapsed to the ground yelping in pain. He couldn't walk and spent the entire 4 hour ride to the emergency vet hunched over, panting and whining. It was awful. The vet said they felt something wrong in his back, pulled muscle or disc. He was on bed rest, pain meds, and steroids for a few weeks and eventually healed. 

We've tried to limit the jumping but it's so hard---he jumps on everything! The vet warned us that the the next time it happens, surgery might be required. Hoping we can prevent that for both our dachshunds.


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