Ruby is a 2 year old spayed Chiweenie who presented with an inability to move her hindlegs. She didn’t seem painful according to the owner and has been producing pee and normal bowel movements. On her neurologic exam, we found a normal mentation and cranial reflexes meaning her brain was working and not causing the problem. She was able to feel pain and pull her legs back when stimulated but one leg has no conscious proprioception and one leg had delayed proprioception. This means she couldn’t feel or know where her hind legs were but she was able get some feed back like when they were hurting. Her other reflexes were normal. She was keeping up with her hydration and a little overweight.
We took x-rays to ensure no obvious trauma to her vertebrae had occurred. Given all her clinical signs and her signalment we ascertained she likely had intervertebral disc disease or IVDD. This is a condition common to dachshunds and beagles but other dogs can get it, too. The discs that normally cushion the vertebrae harden and move up to push on the spinal cord. When this happens suddenly, dogs can become acutely painful. Depending on where it occurs in the spinal cord, it can cause paralysis like we were seeing in Ruby. Some dogs do well with surgery to remove the disc; this is something we refer to PVSEC in Pittsburgh for. Some dogs cannot recover the ability to walk or pee on their own and are euthanized, especially when we cannot control their pain.
Ruby was treated with strict exercise restriction and steroids. This decreased the inflammation in the spinal cord and gave her time to heal. She has recovered her ability to walk but still has weakness in one of her back legs. She will have to be limited in the future so that she does not retraumatize her spine.
Obese dogs are prone to IVDD so keeping dachshunds and other breeds prone to this disease lean and trim is a good idea. Training them to use stairs instead of jumping off porches and furniture will help prevent disc issues and also will help when they have problems and need to be limited in the future.