Last night Baby Girl got out of her bed to come for dinner. She was walking funny but approached her plate. Suddenly she backed away from it and hid under the table. Clearly, something was wrong.
Bob and I think of our dogs as our children and it instantly causes us pain and worry when something happens to them. Roxie was shaking, looking like maybe she wanted to vomit, not raising her head, her tail between her legs. She followed us to the patio but got on her bedpad out there. As I leaned down to pet her she pee'd. Almost like she was incontinent.
That worried her more. Still shaking, she was trying to clean herself off; she had pee'd and was now laying in a wet spot and her legs were wet too. Bob got a warm wet cloth to help her but she just wasn't acting right.
Off to the vet for an emergency appointment.
Luckily Dr. Putt was working, although all the other vets are nice too; but Dr. Putt has been with us through four dachshunds, Lady, Hannah, Rocky and now Roxie. We are comfortable with her, and she puts up with my neurotic worrying and insistence on the dogs having good pain control. Hopefully she doesn't have too many moms like me!
Exam showed neck tenderness and pain with movement. Two cervical xrays failed to show disc problem, although that doesn't mean there isn't one. A better diagnostic tool would be CT or MRI scan which we are putting off for now. The working presumption is a sprain or pull in her neck muscles, which is a conservative first approach. There weren't any overt neurological signs such as muscle weakness, lack of pain response or paralysis. We're hoping that she had a stiff neck and then just slept on it wrong before dinner.... something that will fix itself with time and not have major long-term implications.
Roxie got a shot of the good stuff for pain. I think it's called Buprinex, but I don't know if that's the correct spelling. That puts these little short long dogs to sleep for the night! Good stuff.
She also is taking prednisolone on a tapering schedule for about two weeks and tramadol for pain for the next few days. Or until she doesn't need it anymore.
There was one funny moment when we got her home. The pain injection had started to work and Rox was in a stupor. I tried to give her the prednisolone tabs but she was so out of it at first she just let the piece of medicated cheese sit on her tongue. Had to fish it out with my finger and talk her into waking up a bit so she could swallow. Lesson learned: if you have oral meds to give, give them before the pain shot.
Stairs are out for the foreseeable future and Rox was passed out in a stupor in her dining room bed. It would have been painful to her to lift her to carry her upstairs.... so Bob went to bed and I made a bed of chair cushions and lots of pillows on the floor beside her bed. She seemed to be aware I was there. She would cry on and off during the night but it didn't seem to be from pain as much as being confused by the pain med. Sometime while I was sleeping she got up and made a pee-pee in the family room.
We were happy to see that for two reasons: first, it means I did get some sleep at some point during the night, and second, she was able to get up and move around a bit.
This morning she started on the tramadol for pain, every 8 hours. It seems to be working for her. She is moving around gently and ate her breakfast, although I did have to hand feed her. Perhaps a bit of The Diva coming out? She loves the pampering and is getting plenty of it!
The only time she's been whining today is when those pesky garbage trucks came by. I know she wanted to chase them but felt too bad to get up to make any effort.
I am known for not having much patience; I want her to feel better now. But this is going to take time, rest and meds. We're crossing our fingers that the acute stage will be over in a few days and she'll have no pain.
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