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.