I have a female welsh corgi 'sassy' and my male welsh corgi 'nitro'. and my son and I love animals. We have 2 horses Arabs, 1 mini horse, 2 cats and 2 Pembroke Welsh Corgis. Now my 'Sassy' woke up yesterday and was dragging her hind legs liveless behind her. I could not stop crying, she did not understand what was going on. I took her to the vet right away. They x'rayed her spine and hips, poked her with a needle, ruled out the tick disease and told me she has a slipped disc, which is known for corgis. I thought my life stopped. She was put on Anti inflammatories. That is it I thought, she has to stay confined for 6 weeks, no moving around at all, may be it is going to heal itself. My darling friend, she is a vet Nicole called me back and said, she needs more aggressive treatment. So I put 'sassy' back in the car ( I was crying heart broken) and drove to Nicole's vet clinic. She gave her steroids, special food, a pill (antacid) prednesone and another one. I will add the names later, when I get back online. I would so appreciate any input, if there is a chance for her to get her feelings back in her liveless backend. Help!!! Will she walk again? Are there any people with corgis who healed and walked again??

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I agree Jane, German is a pretty hard language, I think english is pretty easy. I will take her food away, she seems insulted. When you say plain food, what do you mean? Make some rice? That would be bland too? Lori is a people chiropracter also, but she has experience, with horses, dogs and cats. My son woke up this morning with a cold, so I have 2 babies to pamper. I have another corgi Nitro, he is so freaked out, he has been under the bed since yesterday. I hate that I don't have much experience with dogs, I try to read him. He is eating, just hiding under the bed, may be because Sassy is next to his kennel now in a pen?? Or may be because I am so worried? I will give Sassy the pill in some cheese and throw the can food with the meds away. Have a great weekend Jane, will talk to you later. Jane one more thing, how can I join the chat on this site??
Marika, I would leave some dry food in a small dish in her kennel. If you can I would cook up some rice with chicken and give her that a couple times a day in maybe 1/2 cup amount. and like Bev (??)said offer her plenty of water.Since she probably hasn't eaten much I would not worry about the poop too much unless she doesn't for over 24 hours. The idea with the towel sounds good! I'm sure this is tough for all of you and the dogs probably can't figure out why they can't be together but I think that is good that they can be next to each other! Sounds like you're handling the stress well and take care of yourself or you'll be the next to get a cold!

I tried sending you a note on the chat line...I have never done it so maybe someone else can comment if you don't get my message.
Marika, So sorry about Sassy's problems and I hope she has a good outcome! Just wanted to mention that the Prednisone makes them thirsty and they have to pee a lot! My Sparty is on it once or twice a year for allergies. She needs to drink lots of water and will have accidents. It sounds like you have your hands full. Best of luck to you.
Danke Bev. I put wee wee pads in her kennel. I am just concerned that she does not do no.2. Last time she went a little when I took her outside with the towel around her back. I let her hind legs touch the ground and she went, not much, but she went. Since then nothing. May be she does not want to go in her kennel?? I drove to Iowa with my son and got her (our first dog ever). She was a breeding dog and was retired. She needed a home. So she should be used to going in the kennel, but she might have forgotten her past, since we have had her for 3 years.
Hi Marika,

To join the chat, click on the little arrow that is at the very bottom right side of the page. That will open the chat window. There is a little person image with either a red or green dot. Make sure the dot is green. OOps, I just looked in the chatroom and I see you found it!

It seems German is a very hard language to learn. All three of my kids took it at school; my girls took 6 years of German, and they each spent 3 weeks with a family in Aurich (they flew into Bremen). They spent 2 weeks going to school and one week seeing Berlin and either Munich or Cologne. My son is in his 5th year of German and he will be visiting in June with a host family. For the first time (we did not have a spare room when my girls did their Germany visits), we will have a German student stay in our home in April. I am looking forward to meeting my "German son".

I am feeling so sad about Sassy and I do hope she shows improvement very soon. I hope you are finding good advice and support here. We had an English Mastiff with a slipped disc and I know how hard it is. He was way to heavy to lift to take outside, as he was 180 pounds. I'll pray for Sassy, and for you, your son and NItro too.
Hi Marika,
Our corgi, Token, had a ruptured disc (and several other protruding ones) about two and a half weeks ago. We were so freaked out when it happened. Same thing with her back legs collapsing. Token had to have surgery, but is doing great now. The biggest thing is keeping her from running and jumping. The surgery was very expensive, but it was what she needed. Good luck with Sassy!
Danke Stephanie for your mail. Did Token have an MRI or CT? Did you take her to a regular vet first? So she was totally paralyzed in the back also? Would she still use the bathroom, if you carried her outside and put her on the ground? I am sure YOU can imagine how terrible I feel, watching her and not having the money to fix the problem.
:-( She has been in a pen for the last 2.5 days. The panels for the pen are not that light, but she managed to push it into the door and get out. There is no door in it either and she sure cannot go over it, too high! So how she did it, I don't know. Push her nose under it and drag herself out?? I was upstairs taking a shower. Sassy is ALWAYS on my side, no matter what I do or where I go. We even take her to church :-) She is our church mascot. I wish I had a camera in the room to see how she did it. If the panel was resting on her back while she pushed herself out I thought, OMG. So I have to put something very heavy in front of the pen, so she does not get out. It was thundering also, she is very, very scared of storms any storm, even if it is just raining. I appreciate you writing me with your experience, I am so happy for you that it had a good ending Stephanie. This is really making me sick to my stomach. Have a great evening.
Just curious how Sassy is doing--the posts suddenly stopped. Our Aber had to have the surgery November 18 and he's finally standing fairly well for a half a minute or so and trying to walk. It's been difficult finding people with the same experiences, so I'm always curious. And he definitely did NOT go for the sling, the towel under the belly, the expensive "bottom's up" leash we bought--nothing worked, so we (still) have to hold his legs to prop him while he does all his business. He's just heavy enough it's rough carrying him and so short it hurts to crab around behind him while he wheelbarrows :)
Shannon, how did Aber injure his back? I didn't realize so many Corgis (both Pems and Cardis) ended up with back injuries. I knew it was a possibility but not as common as it seems to be. You'd think being working dogs they would be much more sturdy. I know everyone says Corgis should not stand in the "beg" position due to their backs but this seems to be Finn's favorite thing and it always makes me nervous.
He just started wobbling one day, then dragging his legs the next, then completely down in back the next day. No injury or event. Looking back, it seems he may have started with this about 3 years ago. He had a rash in his inner thighs--a little contact dermatitis from allergies in the spring. He stopped wanting to walk and I assumed it was because of that. The following year, same thing, and both times, it happened over a weekend and he seemed mostly fine--no pain and he just acted like he wouldn't walk, not that he couldn't. He's a bit dramatic over small things. We call him Drama Queen :). He got better in a couple of days and both things cleared up at the same time.

This time, though, it was mid-November, no rash no nothing. Just paralysis, and so off to the vet he went. They gave him prednisone and pain relievers, and he seemed slightly better the next day, but that night he started to lose bladder control. He had to go to the emergency hospital as his regular vet (who has corgis of her own, one paralyzed) doesn't do surgery. And $4300 later, he's going to be better we hope.

You would think they'd be sturdier, and they are pretty sturdy in lots of ways. He can whack his head off your shin or the coffee table while running racetrack full tilt, and he's fine. Your shin is broken, but he's fine lol. He's always been chubby and no matter what I and the vet tried, he's had trouble getting thin. Got into kitten food at 7 months and has been fighting his weight ever since. Nothing worked for him--not light food, green beans, he doesn't like exercise. At the time, the vet said these dogs have a lot of trouble, but I figured vets understand nutrition. Since then, I've done lots of research, and have moved him to a high quality, higher protein, no grain s senior food and he's lost about 10lbs. I'm also looking into doing something raw, especially with the puppy coming, but I think we need a real freezer for that, to make and store portions in advance. I think the damage of those extra pounds, however, has been done. The only thing now is to keep him from jumping off furniture, going down stairs, and not to let him gain any weight back and even get him a tad underweight.
Hi Joyce and danke for your mail. Finally a great outcome!! I am sooo happy for you. I know they get depressed, just like us. If we had anywhere for her to swim I would do it right away. We are living in the country and our 15' swimming pool we had last year got eaten by my first and only litter I had :-). So we had to throw it away. May be we will get a new one this year. I give Sassy DGP and I swear it helps. I know that is just a human opinion LOL. I am so glad for you!! Have a happy 2010 Joyce and a nice weekend. Right now Sassy is going crazy in the snow, pretty scary to me how she is running and hopping around like a little rabbit.:-)
I don't think there's anything wrong with begging - it's used as an exercise to strengthen back muscles in agility dogs, so I really don't think it will hurt them.

It's not that corgis aren't sturdy. They are. It's because of the short legs. The mutation that stops the legs from growing also affects the other cartilage throughout the body, including the cartilage between the vertebrae of the back. In achondroplastic dogs (like corgis, dachshunds, PBGVs, and MANY others) their discs age much more quickly and become prone to cracking and breaking when the dog is in the prime of life instead of in extreme old age like in most dogs.

It's just part and parcel of owning these dogs. I give joint supplement to try and stave it off as long as I can, keep them thin, and the good news is that most of them are going to be just fine for their whole lives, but there's not a lot you can do about it. It's not anything the owner did wrong or the dog did wrong.

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