Monica’s Story
Monica, posing as usual!
Anyone that has had a look at my page will have seen the picture of Monica, our long-haired miniature Dachshund. She is a sweet little rescue dog which we have had for about 5 years. More or less we ended up owning her by accident.Monica used to belong to one of my clients and as so often happens with these long backed breeds, she suffered from a prolapsed intervertebral disc in her back. This is where one of the padded, shock-absorbing cushioned discs between the bones which make up her spine burst and then caused localised pressure on the nerves in her spinal canal. The result was complete paralysis of her rear end. Not only was she not able to move her back legs (which she would drag behind her), but she was doubly incontinent as well. Obviously a bit of a problem!
Initially Monica’s owner gave her to the practice to look after and subsequently told me that I could keep her. The good news is that she recovered pretty well completely, although it took around about 4 months. All she has now is the occasional weakness (she’s a bit wobbly) in her back legs.
Often a surgical approach is used to deal with these problems, however in Monica’s case, the problem was dealt with using homeopathy, acupuncture and physiotherapy. The first homeopathic remedy we used was Arnica 30c and this was followed with Hypericum 30c over the following weeks and finally the remedy Causticum 30c as her recovery was nearing completion. I am not at all sure what the recovery rate is for this condition in terms of surgery v conservative treatment, but for Monica the complementary medicine approach worked very well. Acupuncture has a pretty good reputation in helping with spinal problems and is certainly an approach to be considered where surgery is not an option for whatever reason.
Posted: June 29th, 2010 under Tim The Vet says....
Comments
Comment from Bethan on July 7, 2011 at 1:50 pm
My Gsd has been diagnoosed with lumba sacrel disk diease, in her lower back, this story is very intresting , would i use the same remedies for amber? she is on glucosamine and chrondrotin, omega 3 oil, multi vit, and green lipped muscle , she has not got to have surgery but is on six weeks house rest , i would be intrested in trying remedies for her if you could let me know what i wud have to give!
Comment from Lena on August 6, 2011 at 1:54 pm
I was so cofnuesd about what to buy, but this makes it understandable.
Comment from Tim Couzens on September 12, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Hello Bethan,
We are not quite sure what happened to delay this, but Tim will be in later ijn the week and we will make sure that he gets back to you.
Comment from Tim Couzens on September 20, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Hi Bethan
Your post has been delayed because of a computer problem so I am wondering if you still need help? The supplements that you are giving are fine but I would suggest giving her homeopathic Ruta grav 30c drops as well. You can find these on our site. Please do let us know how Amber is doing?
Comment from Vicky on August 8, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Dear Tim, Monica is absolutely gorgeous (we have a lovely cream mini long dachshund too called Holly) and I’m so pleased she has recovered so well following her ruptured disc. I’m the very proud Mum of a 7 year old black and tan miniature longhaired dachshund called Scooby. He suffered a severe ruptured disc back in December 2009 and had emergency spinal surgery. Following surgery he at firt remained completely paralysed in his back legs and back end but over the past 6 months and with a lot of help from his Hydrotherapists (and he also sees a physio) he has made wonderful progress and he can now get up onto his feet and wibble and wobble his way around on all fours
He can run quite fast now too! He still has a lot of weakness in his back and there is still lots of improvement yet to come but he’s getting there, albeit that like Monica he will probably always be a rather wobbly boy now bless his darling heart. He is so very special 
I know that Scooby’s other vertebral discs are also damaged (so common in IVDD) and I was wondering if you give Monica any supplements to keep her back as strong as possible and help to prevent a recurrence of the IVDD causing a rupture in another disc? Best wishes to you both Vicky and Scooby