Dog with a slipped disc

[Chuckaluck]

My dog started yelping and screaming last weekend and after a trip to the vets we were told he had slipped a disc in his back.
He is a 12 year old cocker spaniel and otherwise healthy. We were sent away with lots of pain killers and told he should make a full recovery after 3-4 weeks. He has since been back to vets and he said nerve damage is limited. Dog hasn’t been scanned and this is just from an examination.
He’s just made no improvement since last weekend. He’s obviously in pain all the time and he’s very sorry for himself. Does anyone have any experience of a dog with this kind of injury? Do they recover? I am concerned that he is in pain and I should be thinking about putting him to sleep

I would ask to be referred to a specialist vet for this myself. Something similar to the Supervet, Fitzpatrick referrals. I would want a scan and an expert opinion of surgery would be an option.

He needs an mri I would think? Can your vets refer you? Do you have insurance?

We thought our dog had damage to his spinal cord after a big injury. Fortunately he started to make some recovery so the specialist vet said rest for a couple of weeks and he did fully recover.

Are you insured? An operation for a slipped disc would have set us back about £5500 a couple of years ago and obviously then you have to factor in emotionally how much trauma and recovery it would be for your dog.

I would though as PP said be asking for a referral to find out all your options as well as getting better pain killers in the meantime.

We are insured but because of his age it’s not great cover so doubt it would cover an operation but should cover a scan.

Sorry posted too soon! I don’t think I would put him through an operation. He’s old and I don’t think he would cope well. We are back to the bets on Monday for a follow up so will ask vet about scan then.
He has been resting but maybe not enough as he does like to potter around. I just feel awful as he looks so sad

We had something similar with our terrier last year - he crocked his back repeatedly limboing under a baby gate. The vet x-rayed him, found a collapsed space and told us the 'fix' was for the surrounding discs to grow bone to bridge the gap, and that DDog could either undergo an operation to do that immediately, or have nuclear painkillers while his body did the same thing, but over a period of time.

We weighed up immediate solution + crate rest + age of dog (11) + stress of operation + impossibility of keeping him quiet vs uncertain length of recovery + impact of pain meds on his liver, etc + relatively normal life, and eventually went for the pain meds/physio/massage route. Six months on, he's almost back to normal but hasn't been able to keep up the swimming because of lockdown, so we haven't tapered off the meds on schedule.

TL; DR I would ask for an x-ray or MRI if it's not clear, and much better painkillers. DDog is on Gabapentin and Galliprant and paracetamol (and has regular checks to make sure we're not overloading his system).

Our dog was older (14) and we agreed with vet that it wasn’t fair to put him through any treatment above pain relief.
He perked up a bit for a few days of coocodamol and gabapentine but then sadly went downhill rapidly and had to be pts.
I’d get another appt with vet to discuss options but maybe be prepared

Our old dog had a slipped disc and was indeed referred to Noel Fitzpatrick who operated. It wasn't cheap but the insurance covered it.

She made a full recovery but the recuperation period was quite lengthy during which she had to be tethered both inside and out. I think that was more stressful for her than the actual operation. That said, she was in tremendous pain pre-op and could not have continued without it.

Hope this works out for your boy.

He’s on gabapathine, tramadol and naproxen (the dog versions). It’s not really helping him as he’s just shivering and seems to be in constant pain

I have just rung vet and going to see them in the morning instead of waiting until Monday

@Petalpup that’s exactly what’s happened. Perked up until Tuesday and then has been downhill ever since

Our dog was about the same age as yours when it had a similar neck injury three years ago. It was awful to see him in such pain. He was prescribed tramadol and cage rest by the vet, but as he didn’t seem to be improving, the vet referred him for an mri scan. The consultant also thought it was a slipped disk when he examined the dog before the scan, but it turned out not to be. He was prescribed a more suitable painkiller for his nerve pain ( gabapentin), and the injury sorted itself out with time and tlc. Anyway, he is still here to tell the tale and has had a few more years of happy life. My advice, based on that, is have an mri scan or whatever is needed for a definitive diagnosis before you give up hope or make a decision about treatment. The mri was expensive, but I am very glad we had it done. I would not have wanted the dog to suffer unnecessarily if there had been no prospect of improvement, but the mri scan showed that it was something treatable and worth persevering with treatment.

@Chuckaluck really sorry to hear that.
Our decision was made quite ‘easy’ when he collapsed and couldn’t move and and couldn’t stand at all.
See what the vet says x

Well we went back to the vets and they have given him some anti inflammatories. This vet seemed surprised the other vet hadn’t given them before. She said to try them for 3-4 days but if not then we would need to consider putting him to sleep. They said that even to have a scan would be traumatic for him so try these tablets and see. He’s a bit more sprightly this afternoon as she gave him some injections to keep going so will be interesting to see how he is tomorrow. Thanks for all your replie

Have been thinking about you and your poor old boy - hope he's responded to the anti-inflammatories, and isn't in so much pain. It's horrible when you can see them suffering and can't even tell them you're doing your best to help. BIG sympathies, and fingers crossed the vets have come up with something.

I'm not sure why a scan would be distressing when their anesthetized, are they particularly nervous or have condition that makes it risky?

My 10yr dog had a CT & MRI at ortho vets when couldn't move from standing to laying & clearly in lot of pain. She had gone to vets some years before when hunched in pain and luckily for us the orthopedic specialist was covering shift and believed had tweaked a spinal disc as she improved after few days on meds he recommended to put on full crate rest & toilet only for a month for disc to have chance to recover which worked and avoided scans.

We are back to vets tomorrow. He’s no better and if anything worse. Gone off his food and still seems to be in a lot of pain. He moves from front room to garden for a wee 3 times a day and that’s it. Not sure what else we can do for him

So sorry OP. It's so hard to see them suffering