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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on August 3, 2010 at 6:46pm

Hi Rebecca, I'm assuming Havoc have type 1 IVDD? It really depends how severe the condition is, hard to say without all the details. Here's more info on IVDD.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca on August 3, 2010 at 7:13pm

Hi Sam
I'm not sure. I was guessing 1 because of the breed, but it could also be 2 since he started with the back pain when he was a senior. Thank you for the info!

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Permalink Reply by Aber, Ragnar and Kelso on August 3, 2010 at 6:49pm

Aber was disgnosed with it last November when he had 2 discs rupture, paralyzing him in the back. We think this might have been the 3rd time it happened, but the other two cleared themselves up in a few days, so they were probably minor ruptures and in between there was absolutely no indication of pain. This time was a rapidly progressive, obvious decline--foot dragging, then wobbles by that night, then completely down in the rear legs. The vet tried steroid shots and pills, but he only worsened and, when he lost control of his bladder, we had to take him in for surgery. They did all the tests and he ended up having a hemilaminectomy (he was 9 1/2 at the time). Sadly, he's still not walking. Our regular vet said there's no reason why he couldn't get around on 3 legs, but he just won't. He's not taking to his cart very well either, but that's just because he's a stubborn corgi and he's decided it's much more fun to have us carry and wheelbarrow him about. He'll get over his cart issues! :). The surgeon really didn't follow up with us or offer much in the way of advice--I even had to find out about the cart on my own---so I wonder if he didn't get enough in the way of real rehab. The emergency clinic also went out of business about a month after his surgery, which didn't help. I think there's a chance, with proper follow up, he might have gotten use of his left leg back, but that's my own speculation. Otherwise, he's not in pain, he's himself and happy and is quite adept at dragging himself around the house like a seal. It sounds terrible, I guess, but he seems fine with it. He was never an active dog anyway, so I think the lifestyle suits him---not every dog might adapt so well. We do have to be more careful about what he eats, as in chewtoys, as he really can't push to poop as well as he used to. But other than that, he's certainly as happy as he ever was and he's not in pain. I hope that helps some :)

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca on August 3, 2010 at 8:32pm

Thank you so much for your reply! I find in very helpful. I'm happy to hear your corgi is living a happy health life, pain free..=)

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Permalink Reply by Carol Rea on August 7, 2010 at 3:12am

Hi Rebecca. Lucky was completely paralyzed 4 years ago and had surgery by a neurosurgeon post myeolgram. I was surprised at his recovery! I understand that once the disc ruptures you have 12 to 24 hours to surgery. I recently joined the yahoo wheelcorgi group and have learned a lot and have been offered a lot of support. Most of the dogs in the group have DM and not IVDD, but there is a lot of information on the site about IVDD, incontinence, etc. I found the link from CorgiAid when we applied for a cart for Lucky.

Lucky came out of surgery with the ability to walk for the most part, he did some dragging of back foot. The dragging has worsend over the years. He began needing ramp to get up the steps a year ago and then began seal walking about 4 to 6 months ago. He is now on a cart part time and we let him seal walk the rest. The vet says he is not in any pain at this time. At the time of surgery, they "clipped" the vertebrae all the way up his spine (the rupture was at the very end of his spine) to prevent further ruptures. We were in the process of moving from Corvallis Oregon to Central Oregon when he had surgery and he had no physical therapy. I do think he would have benefited from therapy, and I think that it is recommended. There is also hydortherapy (he is teriffied of water and this would not have been something he could have tolerated)

I hope that this is helpful! We went into all of this blindly and I wish we had had information beforehand. I don't know if there is a way for people on this site to get ahold of others? I did not check to see where you lived.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Krawczyk on October 19, 2010 at 3:17am

My corgi/chihuahua mix Vector had a disc rupture just over 6 weeks ago and is now well on his way to a full or near full recovery. No IDD that we know of - just some kind of fluke injury. It caused him severe pain and within a day of when he started crying he was losing control of his hind legs, though he could control his tail and bladder. His vet started him on steroids but then he tried to run down the hall and screamed and then got really bad and was pretty much unable to walk, so we took him for a myelogram to see if surgery was necessary and that showed a rupture bad enough that the neurologist thought it would not heal without surgery. (They did it to see if surgery was necessary, not just because they were going to do surgery.)

They did the newer kind of surgery (~3 days after the rupture) that they do on humans, where they just go in and scrape out the disc material that escaped. Pain was gone within the first week (mostly due to incision I think) and within two weeks he was walking again though he looked like his back end had had a few too many. 6 weeks later he can run again though he's still a little uncoordinated since he was on very restricted activity for the past 6 weeks. He's happy and the vet expects a full or near full recovery, though he has recommended not allowing any furniture jumping for the long term.

The myelogram was expensive, as was the surgery, but if you get the myelogram then at least you would know exactly how bad the problem is. I wish you and your pup well!

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