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Hiya Friends
It has been many many years since i been on this forum. first, good news! i'm still here and kickin'!! I am now 12 yrs old. and I look very different than my puppy pics. finally figured out how to log back in and write a post. this forum looks super different and very nice and updated! thought i should give an update here, esp in case any basset has to deal with what I did. hopefully not! but disc disease does affect basset hounds.
so... i wuz a pretty active basset hound, trained in agility and other basset performance events. i am a smaller/skinnier basset who likes to run real fast, i climbed A-frames automatically at a dog park when i wuz one year old. so the person put me in agility. i did agility from age 3 until age 11, when my injury happened. on the one hand, i think agility and running has kept me fit my whole life. on the other hand, agility prob does stress the back a little bit. hard to say what is better/worse. but i'm glad to still be alive at 12.
about a year ago, (this is another good thing for basset owners to know)-- i wuz eating outside with the peeples and I put my paws up on the seat, wanting to get up. that is improper restaurant etiquette so the person pushed my chest down. apparently that wuz a big mistake!! she compressed my spine (think of the basset body like an accordion, ya don't want to press inward, cuz it compresses the discs) and one of my discs blew up! well, officially, it's called ANNPE (Acute Non-Compressive Nucleus Pulposus Extrusion). basically the jelly inside my disc got pushed out and hit my spinal cord directly (ouch! it wuz a big ouch!!)-- causing bleeding, inflammation, pain, bruising of my spinal cord, some blood vessels were broken in the area-- and then it bounced back in place.
physically, i yelped very loud and then my back wuz bent 90 degrees and kind of "frozen" in place. I give this descriptor becuz the more common 'slipped disc' and 'going down in the rear' is clinically very similar. Disc impinging on nerve, etc. in fact, that's what they thought it wuz initially and treated me as such. basically, my left leg wuz paralyzed and right leg wuz somewhat paralyzed. i also couldn't pee or poo for a coupla dayz.
the timing of everything wuz bad. it wuz a Thursday night going into Labor Day weekend, which is a long weekend holiday. becuz i could still somewhat pull myself around and walk a little bit, no one wanted to hoppitalize me for the long weekend and then the soonest Neurologist could see me would be Tuesday. it would cost lotsa $$ to be in the hoppital all that time from Thurs-Tues just sitting around.
i went to my main vet ER and wuz disappointed cuz despite all the pains (i'm not a howler but i wuz shifting and moving and in alot of pain) after 1 hr 45 min of not seeing the vet and asking a coupla times to be seen, we decided to leave an go to the specialty vet ER. figuring that main vet would refer us to specialty (Neurology) anyway. the specialty vet ER emptied my bladder for me with a catheter and gave me some steroids and IV pain meds. and sent me home with a frozen right-angle spine. my basset poppa wuz angry, so we called back and what they said wuz, "You need to see a Neurologist ASAP." In Sept 2021 still in the pandemic and shortage of vet help, they said "our soonest appt is end of November." Wait 3 months to get my frozen spine fixed? what???? (to be continued, i see there is some limit here)
It has been many many years since i been on this forum. first, good news! i'm still here and kickin'!! I am now 12 yrs old. and I look very different than my puppy pics. finally figured out how to log back in and write a post. this forum looks super different and very nice and updated! thought i should give an update here, esp in case any basset has to deal with what I did. hopefully not! but disc disease does affect basset hounds.
so... i wuz a pretty active basset hound, trained in agility and other basset performance events. i am a smaller/skinnier basset who likes to run real fast, i climbed A-frames automatically at a dog park when i wuz one year old. so the person put me in agility. i did agility from age 3 until age 11, when my injury happened. on the one hand, i think agility and running has kept me fit my whole life. on the other hand, agility prob does stress the back a little bit. hard to say what is better/worse. but i'm glad to still be alive at 12.
about a year ago, (this is another good thing for basset owners to know)-- i wuz eating outside with the peeples and I put my paws up on the seat, wanting to get up. that is improper restaurant etiquette so the person pushed my chest down. apparently that wuz a big mistake!! she compressed my spine (think of the basset body like an accordion, ya don't want to press inward, cuz it compresses the discs) and one of my discs blew up! well, officially, it's called ANNPE (Acute Non-Compressive Nucleus Pulposus Extrusion). basically the jelly inside my disc got pushed out and hit my spinal cord directly (ouch! it wuz a big ouch!!)-- causing bleeding, inflammation, pain, bruising of my spinal cord, some blood vessels were broken in the area-- and then it bounced back in place.
physically, i yelped very loud and then my back wuz bent 90 degrees and kind of "frozen" in place. I give this descriptor becuz the more common 'slipped disc' and 'going down in the rear' is clinically very similar. Disc impinging on nerve, etc. in fact, that's what they thought it wuz initially and treated me as such. basically, my left leg wuz paralyzed and right leg wuz somewhat paralyzed. i also couldn't pee or poo for a coupla dayz.
the timing of everything wuz bad. it wuz a Thursday night going into Labor Day weekend, which is a long weekend holiday. becuz i could still somewhat pull myself around and walk a little bit, no one wanted to hoppitalize me for the long weekend and then the soonest Neurologist could see me would be Tuesday. it would cost lotsa $$ to be in the hoppital all that time from Thurs-Tues just sitting around.
i went to my main vet ER and wuz disappointed cuz despite all the pains (i'm not a howler but i wuz shifting and moving and in alot of pain) after 1 hr 45 min of not seeing the vet and asking a coupla times to be seen, we decided to leave an go to the specialty vet ER. figuring that main vet would refer us to specialty (Neurology) anyway. the specialty vet ER emptied my bladder for me with a catheter and gave me some steroids and IV pain meds. and sent me home with a frozen right-angle spine. my basset poppa wuz angry, so we called back and what they said wuz, "You need to see a Neurologist ASAP." In Sept 2021 still in the pandemic and shortage of vet help, they said "our soonest appt is end of November." Wait 3 months to get my frozen spine fixed? what???? (to be continued, i see there is some limit here)