Hi All!  I'm posting this to give people hope. It's been almost a year since Basil lost the function of his hind legs due to a ruptured disc.  He's currently 5 1/2 years old.  He's very active, was almost like a cat...leaping from one piece of furniture to another.  He has always been slim.  Now the story:  Last year, the day before Thanksgiving, we were heading out of town. I opened the car door to let him jump in (he typically jumped into the passenger seat) and he didn't jump in.  I didn't think much of it, picked him up and put him in the car.  We drove 8 hours that day, stopping once for a potty break.  Nothing unusual about the potty break, except he wouldn't jump back in the car.  This time I noticed, but  thought maybe he was tired. We got to the hotel, everything seemed fine.  By the next morning he was unable to take more than a couple of steps and then he would sit down.  He would not let me pick him up.  I ran to Walmart  (thankfully open on Thanksgiving), and bought a soft sided pet carrier (again, thankfully they had one large enough).  I was able to get in him the carrier, carried him down to the car and drove home.  We stopped once for a potty break.  He was able to take a couple of steps outside of the carrier, do his business, and went back in the carrier.  We got home and I crated him.  The next morning we went to our vet.  She told me he had ruptured a disc, would require surgery and the cost would be $5600.00.  Very matter-of-factly.  They would refer me to a vet in Seattle.  I told her that wasn't an option for me.  She then told me I could take him home and crate him for 4-6 weeks and maybe he would recover some function.  As you can imagine, I was devastated.  On my drive home from the vet visit I was thinking about quality of life (yes, I went there) and how would Basil feel...pain, frustration?  I put him in his crate and prayed and cried a lot.  For potty time I would put the soft sided carrier next to the crate door, he would drag himself in and I would carry him outside.  He would then drag himself out of the carrier, do his business and get back in for the trip indoors.  He slept quite a bit, but when awake he was an angel.  No complaining about being crated...it was like he understood.  A couple weeks later I was telling a friend about Basil, and she said her brother's German Shepard had a similar problem and acupuncture seemed to help.  I had never even thought about acupuncture for pets!  I immediately went to my computer and searched acupuncture for dogs.  And son-of-a-gun, our small rural town had a vet that did acupuncture!  She got me right in, spend 45 minutes educating me on alternative treatments, holistic supplements, etc.  My own vet spent a scant 5 minutes with me, and this angel spent 45 minutes.  She then did an acupuncture treatment and a laser treatment.  We then had treatments twice a week for a few weeks, and then she said once a week was fine.  The treatments were very, very reasonable.  We kept up the treatments for approx. three months.  She had also suggested water therapy so I did an internet search on water therapy for dogs and lo, my small town had a nationally renown water therapist.  We started with her once a week for the first two months.  During the first two months of his treatments, Basil stayed crated.  My back started to bother me carrying him out to do his business, so I bought a small wagon so I could wheel him out.  Much better! Carried him in to the vet, in to his water therapy.  Slowly during that two months I could see improvement.  He was able to more easily take a couple steps outside of his crate to do his business.  Then he would take a few steps, and then a few more when doing his business.  By appox three months I could tell he was as good as he was going to get, which was between 80%-85% of where he was before the ruptured disc.  At that time we stopped the acupuncture and laser therapy .  Today you couldn't tell he had issues, except he will occasionally fall over when lifting a leg, or his rear legs will get a little out from under him when he's running his fastest.  His water therapist says he doesn't have any tender spots anymore. 

I can surmise he ruptured his disc launching off a piece of furniture.  We now have ramps all over the house, including the bed.  It only took one lesson for him to use the ramps instead of jumping.(thankfully Corgis are smart).  We are still doing the water therapy every other week, more for maintenance...and Basil loves swimming!  He is still taking his supplements (CoQ10, Boswellia, Hyaluronic Acid, DHA, and others).  It took a village to get him back on his feet.  Both the vet and the water therapist cried when he walked in for treatment instead of me carrying him in.  We have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving!