Expert: Dawn Spoolman - 11/14/2006

Question
Hello!! My year and a half year old chiuauah/yorkie mix just recently developed some sort of lower back injury, "probably from jumping onto or off of the couch the wrong way". The vet says that part of her spine was pinched due to swelling, when i found her the other morning she could bearly feel her back legs and had no hip balance. After a round of prednizone, a muscle relaxer and a pain killer introveinsly, she was sent home to take these meds orally and to be confined to a kennel for a month to promote healing. My question is: are these meds just treating the symptoms now and will have to be taken forever or most of her life to prevent this flare up again. Or should the steroids prevent this from happening again. What are the changes of me waking up one morning to a paralized dog? And will i have problems later with authritis? Im almost totally in the dark about this and would appreciate some answers so i cant take better care of my baby.

Answer
Hi Zoe, The meds are treating the symptoms now to give the back a chance to heal.  The steroids will not prevent the disk from being pinched again, and there is no guarantee that the dog will completely heal.  Confinement is the most important thing here.  Keeping her still gives the back a chance to firm up and also give the prednisolone time to work.  Yes you could have problems with arthritis as that will possibly be a weak spot in her back as she gets older.  Hope this helps,

Dawn