Holly’s Disc Disease and Paralysis

Meet Holly.  She is a 5 year old Dachshund who woke up one day and couldn’t use her back legs thanks to a bad disc.  Naturally, her mother was frantic and immediately took her to the vet.  The vet was not optimistic about her recovery and told the owner that she may want to consider putting her down if she doesn’t start using her rear legs within 48 hours.  The vet recommended a trip to the neurologist and surgery as the only option to alleviate her intervertebral disc disease (IVDD).  Her mom couldn’t afford the recommended surgical route and went to google to find an alternative solution.

Fortunately, she found us!  She called, and we immediately gave her a few tips to help slow the inflammation and secondary damage that results from a disc bulge.  We also gave her a few rehab exercises to stimulate the injured nerves until we could arrive the next day.  When we showed up, she was starting to use her back legs again!  Sure, they weren’t working optimally but we knew with some care and rehab she should return close to 100% of her previous self.

After evaluating her spine, we found some muscle guarding, restriction, and spasm in the mid spine region right where her disc disease was suspected.  We addressed these issues, as well as some problems in the hips.  With the dysfunction in these areas now corrected, it took stress off the parts of the spine pushing on Holly’s injured disc.  We are happy to report that after about a month she is pretty much her old self!  She is running around and as spunky as she has been in a long time.  Now, we are on a plan to check her periodically just to help stabilize the spine, so we don’t have any future issues.  We look forward to seeing her live another 10 years as healthy as her first 5! Check her out below 🙂