IVDD - A Dachshund Parents Worst Nightmare

Cody - Before Surgery

This is Cody, our beloved dapple Dachshund. My husband and I adopted Cody from Small Dog Rescue of Minnesota after falling in love with him as a foster and earning the title of 'foster failure"

I decided to document our journey after reading Nathan's blog that documented his journey. It will be interesting to see the similarities and differences.

Where It All Begins

Cody sleeps with us and every morning wakes us up by showering us with kisses. Unfortunately that didn't happen Tuesday December 4th. We didn't think anything of it at first other than commenting to each other how 'unusual' it was.

I proceeded to let both dogs out to go potty (we also have a Yellow Lab) and noticed that on the way in Cody came to a dead stop right in front of the small stair into the house. (red flag #1) I lifted him into the house and gave them both breakfast. After breakfast Cody normally goes back into the bedroom and hides under the covers. Instead, he laid on his brothers bed. (red flag #2) When I called him to come over to me he didn't want to move. (red flag #3) By this time my husband agreed something was wrong. Back injury came to mind immediately but then wondered how that could have happened. We are so careful, we have doggie stairs and ramps everywhere and he was in a puppy mill for the first 5 years of his life. After our second potty break I knew 100% we were dealing with a back issue when I saw he was very weak in the back-end. I called the vet right away. We use Chanhassen Vet in Minnesota - awesome place!

The vet did his exam, and did an X-RAY (worthless in detecting IVDD, more on that later) Since Cody still had some neurological function the vet thought there was a possibility things could improve treating him with 24/7 crate rest and meds. Of course that was in the event he did not get any worse. Which of course he did.

Wednesday December 5th

Cody was no better. In fact; he was worse, as the day progressed his back-end became completely paralyzed. I knew from reading that once complete paralysis sets in time is of the essence. For the best recovery success rate after surgery you have a window of 12-24 hours before the possibility of walking again dwindles greatly. I immediately called our vet, gave him the update and he called the University of Minnesota Veterinary Center.

We arrived at the UofM at 7:00 (9 hours since the complete paralysis symptoms set in) They took him back to be examined right away doing some of the same tests our local vet did. Their recommendation was to do a CT scan and that would tell them if his injury was one that could be corrected surgically. We asked why not an MRI and they told us that no one was available after hours for an MRI but assured us that the CT scan would tell them what they needed to know (Which turned out not to be the case) My husband and I had to leave Cody there, we had agreed to proceed with surgery if necessary.

I knew I would be in for a sleepless night, leaving my baby was VERY difficult.