Devasted our little dog has ruptured a disc and needed emergency surgery.

[Lozzie12]

I'm looking for advice / reassurance, our beautiful 8 year old little dog jumped onto a bed on Saturday and yelped. Over the next few hours she developed a limp, became wobbly and collapsed in the early hours. We were waiting outside the vets when they opened and she was referred onto a specialist centre. They have been fab, MRI and emergency surgery for an "exploding disc". She's now 4 days post op and has not regained any movement in her back legs or tail, she is incontinent of urine and needing help with her bowels. My questions are: at what point will we have to accept that she will not gain movement, is it possible for her to live a happy life in a doggy wheelchair and how much care would she need? I'm sorry for so many questions, she is our world and we are reeling from all this.

Genuinely no experience, sorry, but this sounds dreadful :(
Has the vet given any prognosis? Any suggestions for physio or hydrotherapy?
I'm guessing for a spinal surgery it's still early days, so don't give up hope yet.

Horrible situation. I would speak with your vet and see what they advise.

I would think the specialist vets are best to advise whats likely in your dogs case, but it is early days and likely they'll be some inflammation from surgery to go down. I see few post spinal op dogs at the hydrotherapy centre , they are all different but many have gone from needing assistance on the water treadmill walking hinds to doing it themselves. They usually come 2-3 times a week for hydro to start as they tire quickly & physiotherapist also gives them massage and exercises to do at home to help. There is a basset that's about 18mnth post op and he still needs some assistance to pee, there's movement in hinds and can push up but doesn't have the strength to hold himself up to walk (i'm sure his shape doesn't help), however he's a happy chap and just drags himself about at an extraordinary speed so would probably do well with dog wheels. I expect a full recovery gets less likely the longer the time frame but we've still seen small changes over time.

Thank you so much for your answers. She's at a specialist centre and has been receiving physio from the day after surgery. It's a 100 mile round trip to her so I've been going alternate days. She's really happy to see me. The positive news is she managed to move her tail yesterday when I arrived, I got a little wag 😀. Today the nurse said there has been a small movement of one of her legs. They are telling me to be patient, it's early days. I'm so full of hope now. I'm going again tomorrow. Thank you for taking time to reply. Xx

That sounds a bit more hopeful then , hope she gets well ,and home , soon .

After having watched way too much Supervet, two weeks seems to be the litmus test as to whether the spinal surgery was a success. If by two weeks post op there is spontaneous feeling/movement/some use of bowels and/or bladder then there is a reason to be very hopeful. I guess before that there is inflammation and nerve shock to contend with. Sounds like your little dog is doing well though, I really hope she makes a full recovery.

Thank you for the replies. The 2 week window gives me hope as she's only one week post op today.