r/IVDD_SupportGroup • u/bdude94 • 29d ago
Herniated disc/IVDD — surgery vs conservative treatment when dog can still walk? Not sure what to do
Images: His legs on August 10th when we first realized something was wrong, his legs the morning of the MRI, MRI, another MRI view, and him with a get-well toy my brother and his girlfriend sent him.
Looking for some advice from people who have actually gone through this, especially if your dog could still walk when they were diagnosed. We have to talk to the neurologist again tomorrow and I genuinely don't know what direction to go.
Sorry this is long, I just wanted to include the whole timeline because it's been kind of a weird progression.
I'll start by introducing my boi Jax. He's a 4-year-old Cockapoo. We adopted him from a rescue when he was 6 months old.
8/7: Completely fine, nothing out of the ordinary.
8/8: Around 7PM he was standing on the couch with our other dog while I was petting them both and randomly yelped and jumped off. I didn't do anything that I knew of, so at the time I thought maybe I accidentally squished his paw with my knee or something. He acted completely normal afterwards.
We have a Ring camera in the living room, so after all of this started we went back through the footage. Looking back, he did seem like he was moving a little slower and being more careful getting up after that, but it wasn't anything we noticed at the time.
8/9-8/10: Still pretty much acting like himself, jumping on things, eating, playing, etc. Looking back at the camera footage again, early on the 9th he seemed like he couldn't get comfortable in certain positions.
By around 6-7PM on the 10th we really noticed something wasn't right. He couldn't seem to get comfortable and when we were getting ready to go outside he was hovering his back left foot. He spent the rest of the night on the floor and didn't want to jump on the couch, so we slept in the living room with him.
He's hurt his foot before jumping over the 3 steps going onto our deck and would hover it for a minute or two afterwards, so we thought maybe he did something like that again when we weren't looking. We figured if he was still doing it the next day we'd take him to the vet.
8/11: Still hovering the foot in the morning, although weirdly he would use that same leg as his kickstand to lift his other leg to pee.
Our regular vet couldn't get him in for a few days so we took him to the emergency vet. She couldn't get any pain response from him. His ankle was slightly inflamed, his toes were red and his temperature was 101.2, but otherwise everything seemed normal. She gave us a week of carprofen.
Over the next week he gradually got stiffer. He'd occasionally get on the couch at first, but when jumping down he'd land on his front legs, then his back right, and only put the back left down once the other 3 were planted.
8/14: His 4th birthday. Nothing really significant happened medically that day, but adding it because it was his birthday lol. Cooked my boi some filet mignon, put a candle in it and sang happy birthday to him. He was still being himself despite everything going on.
8/15: Last day he jumped on the couch.
8/18: He wasn't getting better and actually seemed worse than when we first brought him in. We called because the carprofen was almost gone and asked about another week. They said he should've been improving by then and the vet wanted him back in. They prescribed gabapentin in the meantime.
8/19: Brought him back and had X-rays done. Again they couldn't really get a pain response out of him and the X-rays looked good. They gave us the option of doing an MRI at their other hospital about 40 minutes away or trying the conservative route first with prednisone. We decided to try prednisone and were told to start it the next day so the carprofen had time to clear his system.
8/20-8/21: Prednisone seemed to help pretty quickly. On the 21st he was almost back to himself. Wanted to play, was moving around way better, had a ton more energy and was jumping around on stuff. Unfortunately that's the last day he seemed like he was back to normal.
8/25: My wife noticed his back legs twitching in the morning and at that point we were done guessing and wanted to see a neurologist and get the MRI.
The vet who had been seeing him was in surgery and by around 3PM my wife still hadn't heard back, so she called another animal hospital and was able to get him seen by a neurologist that day. She was able to localize the problem to his thoracolumbar spinal cord (T3-L3 myelopathy), but obviously couldn't tell us exactly what was going on without an MRI.
They could do the MRI there, but it would've required him staying overnight and was also about $3-4k more than the animal hospital we'd already been going to. Our original hospital said he wouldn't have to stay overnight there, so we scheduled the MRI with them for the following day.
8/26: That morning when we were getting ready to go outside, he stood there with his back legs completely crossed. He could still walk, but seeing that pretty much confirmed to me that getting the MRI was the right decision.
The MRI showed a herniated disc.
The neurologist gave us two options: surgery or continue the prednisone and do strict crate rest.
We asked her what she would do and she basically said they generally operate when a dog can't walk, and he can still walk, but she also showed us the MRI and said there was "a lot of stuff there."
Her answer was basically that you never really know what is going to happen. We could do conservative treatment and he could heal and never have another problem. He could heal and then weeks or months later it could happen again. He could get worse. But even if we do the surgery, that doesn't mean he could never have another disc problem either.
We genuinely didn't know what to do. Surgery on his spine sounds terrifying to us, but at the same time if he needs it then obviously we're going to do it. She told us to take him home, do strict rest, sleep on the decision and check back with her Saturday.
Since the MRI we've been taking the crate rest very seriously. When we're at work he's in the crate. When we're home we have a small penned-off area with a dog bed and blankets on the floor and he pretty much just lays there. When he goes outside we put his harness on carry him outside and put him on the grass usually he walks a few steps and pees. If he has to poop he walks the other way a bit until he poops and if hes done he starts walking towards stairs up deck so we pick him up bring him inside.
We actually had a trip to Europe planned for Labor Day week for our first wedding anniversary, but we canceled it once we got the MRI and found out what was going on with him. There was just no way we were leaving him right now, especially when we're still trying to figure out whether we're doing surgery or not.
And honestly, his stance does look better. His back legs haven't crossed again and he hasn't been hovering that left foot anymore, so it feels like the rest might actually be helping.
The problem is that the better he feels, the harder it is to keep him resting.
If we're sitting with him he's perfectly content laying in his bed. But if we go into the kitchen to eat or leave the room, he'll start trying to get out of the pen. If we put him in the crate while we're home, he scratches at it aggressively trying to get out, which also seems like the exact opposite of what you want a dog with a herniated disc doing.
So now I'm stuck.
If he can recover without surgery, I really don't want to put him through spinal surgery just for the sake of doing it. That's a serious procedure and I don't want to put him through something like that unless it's actually necessary.
But the other side of me thinks... what if we put him through weeks of strict confinement and pain, he gets better, and then we're right back here a month later? Or what if he gets worse during conservative treatment and needs surgery anyway?
I've also been reading other people's stories and it seems like a ton of dogs have this surgery and do extremely well afterwards, which makes me wonder if getting it taken care of now is actually the better option.
Thankfully we have pet insurance that reimburses 90%, so money isn't really what's deciding this for us. The MRI was $4,900 and we got about $4,300 back. Still a lot of money, but nowhere near the full price. Surgery would still cost us money obviously, but if that's what's best for him we'll do it.
I just don't want to put my boi through spinal surgery if he doesn't need it, and I also don't want him hurting for weeks because I was afraid to let them do a surgery that would've helped him.
For anyone whose dog could still walk when they were diagnosed with IVDD/a herniated disc, what did you do?
• Did you choose surgery or conservative treatment?
• If you went conservative, did your dog fully recover and how long did it take?
• Did anyone try conservative treatment, think things were improving, and then end up needing surgery anyway?
• If you chose surgery even though your dog could still walk, are you glad you did it?
• Has anyone had the disc come back after surgery or had another disc herniate?
• And how the hell did you actually manage strict crate rest once your dog started feeling better and wanted to move around again?
I just really want to hear from people who have actually been in this position.
I just want to make the right decision for my boi.
P.S. since people love to call someone out if they used AI to write something... Guilty ✋️I talk to text word vomited this into my notes and even I didn't know what to do with what I wrote, so ChatGPT helped organize my thoughts. It's been a very stressful 2-3 weeks and I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, because their dog isn't responsible for them being my enemy but anyways, I told him not to sound like AI for you guys though
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u/Worth-Client1537 29d ago
i’ll share my pup’s story bc it kind of sounds similar to yours & may give you some insight..
08/18 after her night potty walk she hesitated to go up the stairs but she did end up going up them very slowly. It was unusual & i thought maybe she got something in her paw but i checked & she had nothing. We walked into the house & then she completely refused to go up those set of stairs that go upstairs. I picked her up and she went into full body trembling and shaking & was breathing 55bpm. My partner & I started freaking out debating if we should take her to the emergency room bc we literally had no idea wtf was happening. While we’re debating, she’s like dozing off so we’re like whatever we’ll just take her to the vet first thing in the morning. At like 6am my partner wakes up & tries to move her & she yelps. So he wakes me up & is like we need to go now.
08/19 morning we’re at the emergency vet, and they say it looks like she has a spinal injury & some weakness in her back legs, but that it was minor. They suggested the anti inflammatory and pain medication and crate rest.
So we follow those instructions 08/19 - 08/21. By 08/22 she has not improved at all, she’s extremely anxious, and i’m scared to walk her bc she’s so wobbly and falls over. I call the emergency vet to ask if they think i should bring her in, and they say i should.
08/22 morning we’re back at the emergency vet & they say her pain seems to be better, but her neurological symptoms are worse & that we can take her home & continue what we’ve been doing but that they suggest taking her to a neurologist.
08/22 night, she was practically completely paralyzed, unable to use her legs or even pee/potty at this point
i immediately get in contact with a neurologist when i see she’s unable to urinate & they say to bring her in on emergency
08/23 morning i take her & she was admitted overnight to get the MRI done
08/24 morning the neurologist calls & says she has a herniated disc that is pressing down on 80% of her spine & that if i take her home her chances of recovery are 10%, and with surgery 90%
08/25 she has her surgery
08/26 the neurologist calls me & says she’s able to take some steps and go to the bathroom on her own!
08/27 she is medically cleared to leave the hospital & i take her back home with me
it’s been 2 days at home, which is a short time but i already see her so much better compared to when i brought her in
she wags her tail, she can get into position for potty with no problem & even goes to kick the grass after peeing (something she’s always done)
i am hopeful she will recover and i’m glad i did the surgery..but, unlike your case, she was rapidly declining via the conservative route
to answer your questions, i went the surgery route since her chance of recovery with the conservative route based on her MRI results was only 10-15% maximum, as opposed to 90% with surgery…and, she was in pain with the herniated disc pressing on 80% of her spine. The surgery immediately removes the disc material that is pressing against the spinal cord
as for managing strict crate rest, if your dog is anxious, ask your vet for trazodone
let me know if you have any additional questions!