It's been a while since I was on this site-- way too long, in fact.  Stanley is now just over 5 years old and has been having a lot of fun and play, despite his early onset osteoarthritis in his front paws.  We've been managing it with cosequin and duralactin for the past 4 years and things have been going fine until recently.

The second week of December, Stanley suddenly started having trouble walking and was in a lot of pain one evening.  The next morning he was worse and actually ended up stranded on a step outside during his morning potty outting because he essentially lost the use of his back legs.  We rushed him to the emergency vet and they told us they believed it might be IVDD and referred us to a local neurologist/neurosurgeon who had an opening that afternoon to do an MRI and potentially surgery if needed. 

Long story short, Stanley had back surgery for a ruptured disc (Type 1 IVDD) and came home about 5 days later.  The doctor told us he thought Stanley's prognosis looked good since he still had deep pain sensation, artificial pain (first time I've been told by a vet that the fact my dog is in pain is a good sign) and some motor ability in his back legs.

We've been doing his physical therapy at home and once a week we've been doing underwater treadmilling sessions at the vet to help him recover.  It's been about 4 weeks since his surgery and we're still having to support his back legs with essentially a sling-- not totally, but enough to keep him from falling and hurt himself when he gets wobbly--while walking.  He's getting better at standing on his own but still sometimes wobbles after about 20 seconds.

Anyone who has been through this have any advice on anything that can help his recovery or what to expect?  I'm hopeful he'll be able to return to walking on his own in the next couple of months and hopefully even playing with our other dogs eventually but since I've never been through this, I really don't know what to expect.  The surgeon gave us tons of discharge instructions, but I know every dog is different. 

Also, since he's still stuck in a crate for about 20 hours a day, any suggestions on ways to occupy him?  I think I have every food toy under the sun at this point and he enjoys them but clearly is still bored and wants to be able to play outside.