How is Joeri doing?

Several people asked recently about Joeri so a short update is in order. Joeri is doing very well though his gait is not 100%. But he can run freely off-leash and use his nose on rabbits again. This picture was taken in our 11-acre enclosure a week ago or so.

We are not going to use him for tracking wounded game as we do not want to put him at risk. When you track a real wounded deer you never know the terrain and cover that you will be tracking in. Sometimes the brush is so thick that we have to crawl on our knees and elbows. We have quite a few dogs that need a real experience in the field, and Tommy, now 5.5-years-old is a real pro. Joeri can enjoy his life without stress and pressure of expectations. We are so happy to have him as he is a great companion with a lot of soul.

Celebrating Joeri's 5th Birthday

As regular readers of this blog know, Joeri suffered a herniated disc on August 27, 2012. He underwent a surgery almost immediately, and then on November 15 he went down again. At the time we were very close to putting him down as he was paralyzed and he lost bladder control. We put him right away on prednisone and some other drugs such as tramadol, methocarbamol and gabapentin. He also received several acupuncture sessions and cold laser treatments. Luckily Joeri responded well to this conservative treatment and has been improving steadily.

This picture was taken this morning in my den on the day of his 5th birthday. We both are so glad that he is with us wagging his tail and slowly regaining his life.

The video below was taken today as well. A direct link to the video is click here. You can see that he is not 100%, not yet, but we are optimistic. He feels very good, would like to jump and run. It's been now only three months since his relapse so we are still restricting his activities. He gave us a scare the other day when all of sudden he tried to jump on the couch. He did not reach the top, fell down on his back (on the carpet), but it seems that nothing happened. He was disappointed that he did not succeed but was not in pain and did not suffer any damage. We hope that by mid-April he will be able to resume normal life.

 

Joeri's road to recovery: 10 days after surgery

We received some inquiries from people asking how Joeri is doing so this is an update on his condition. As you recall Joeri underwent a surgery to repair his herniated disc 10 days ago. Details about what happened are given here.

Joeri is doing really well, but I have to admit that we had a couple of days that were very tough on him and on us. When he came home on Wednesday afternoon (August 29), he started to improve steadily. But when on Saturday evening we removed a back patch with pain medication as instructed by Joeri's surgeon, he regressed. On Sunday and Monday he was in a lot of pain even though he was getting pain killers orally. He did not want drink or eat, just stayed in his crate. He could move but you could see that he did not want to. So far these two days have been the most difficult, maybe because we did not expect such a sudden setback.

On Tuesday, after the Labor Day holiday, we called the vet to report his slightly elevated temperature, the lack of appetite and general malaise. Dr. Fitzpatrick reassured us that Joeri is going to get better and there was no need to bring him in. We were told to take him off Tramadol (oral pain medication) as probably it was suppressing his appetite. I have to say that I was very sceptical, yet on Tuesday afternoon Joeri indeed started to improve quite dramatically.

Joeri on Tuesday afternoon resting on the blanket in my den.

On Tuesday afternoon Joeri's appetite came back.

His eyes were bright, and he started to feel much better.

When you look at this picture carefully you won't be able to see Joeri's tail. The tail was wagging so fast that it is just a blurr. Joeri spends part of the day, when the weather is right, outside in a small pen. His interest in his surroundings is back.

Day #10 post-surgery. I took a leash off  Joeri to take this picture, but he walks only on the leash now. We are afraid that if he saw a rabbit he could try to go after it. He does a lot of ground sniffing and territory marking. And he started to lift his leg to do it.

Looking pretty scruffy early in the morning. He is overdue for grooming but for now we are not going to worry about it.

On Monday, September 10, Joeri is going back to Pattersonville clinic to have his stitches removed. Hopefully from now on he is going to improve steadily.

Many, many thanks and deep gratitude go to our good friends who provided a much needed support. I don't think we could do it without you!

Joeri's ordeal: disabling disc disease one month from tracking season

It looks like August 27 is not our lucky day. A year ago Tropical Storm Irene messed up our house, and now, a year later to the day, we found ourselves in a difficult situation again.

As most of you know Joeri is a 4 1/2 year old wirehaired dachshund that we imported from Germany. He was a very precocious puppy with a great conformation and nice temperament. He also showed a real talent for field work, especially for natural blood tracking, so for the last couple of years he has been John's number 1 tracking dog. The two are very close. Joeri did not fare as well as a producer, and we stopped using him for breeding two years ago.

On August 20 I noticed that Joeri's gait was a little different and he walked with caution. Not knowing what the reason might be, we crated him and observed. From the way he acted we thought that it might have been Lyme disease or a back problem. Two days later John took him to our regular vet. He tested positive for Lyme and was put on doxycycline, but at the same time he was put on prednisone as he showed some tenderness in his back. He was in some discomfort but not a great deal of pain. He wagged his tail, ate his food. He was put on a strict crate rest.

On Sunday, August 26, Joeri felt much better, but when I put a leash on him for his last bathroom walk, he jumped up, his body twisted a little, and he yelped. I could see that things were worse. He moved very slowly and with difficulty. By Monday morning he had deteriorated. We made a phone call to orthopedic surgeons located 50 minutes from us and got an appointment at 1 PM. This was emergency. Unfortunately John had a personal medical appointment that he could not cancel so I drove Joeri by myself to the Pattersonville clinic and I could see that he was really hurting.

He was examined, and luckily he still had some deep pain perception in his hind legs, but when I left him there he could not use them to walk any more. A CT scan revealed a herniated disc behind his last thoracic vertebra. The ruptured disc material was filling approximately 40% of the spinal canal and there was a severe degree of spinal cord compression.

The sooner a herniated disc is treated surgically the better, and odds for a full recovery decrease with delay. Joeri was operated on Monday evening, and the vet’s report said that “the herniated nucleus pulposus was carefully removed from the spinal cord and the spinal canal to decompress the spinal cord”. According to Joeri’s surgeon, around 80% of dogs recover after this kind of procedure. There are no guarantees that this is not going to happen again. As far as I know Joeri's problem was not caused by any injury, and according to his doctor Joeri’s disc would have ruptured sooner or later.

We picked Joeri up on Wednesday afternoon, and the final bill was $3954. The first couple of days were very challenging. Even though Joeri had been on pain medication and muscle relaxants, you could see that he was in pain, especially in the mornings. As far as medical issues go, I have always believed (and still do) that when a dachshund's back goes down, this is the most traumatic experience that a dog and owner can go through.

John and I have been extremely lucky over the years. When you read statistics that 1 in 5 dachshunds will experience a back problem at one point in life (some very mild that respond to crate rest), our experience has been more like 1 in 50-60. Since we joined our breeding programs 18 years ago we have not owned a dachshund with a back problem (until now), and we probably produced 4-5 that had to be treated (one was put down). But there is no doubt that the dachshund is predisposed to premature aging of spine, and Intervertebral Disc Disease (IVDD) is  the number 1 health issue in the breed.

We have been selecting against disc disease in our breeding program, and have been trying to stay away from it. It is not easy as not much is known about heritability (genetic control) of the disease. However, there is hope and progress is being made. It looks like Scandinavian countries are leaders in this field, and I will write more about it in another post. Another complicating factor is that since our breeding is based on imported dogs, there is usually limited information available to start with. Joeri’s breeder responded to the bad news by writing “We are surprised to hear bad news. The feeling of surprise is intensified through our breeding experience (more than 30 years) – our own dogs showed no back problems”.

Joeri’s recovery has been going really well. He could take small steps on Wednesday evening when he got home.  Now, three days later, he can come out of his crate on his own and can walk to the main entry door. He has a long way to full recovery but so far his progress is quite remarkable. One thing is certain – he is not going to track this fall. We are fortunate that Tommy will be able to assume the role of John’s main tracker.

Joeri, 60 hours after surgery, was not feeling great. This was Thursday morning, and he was much better in the afternoon.

Joeri on Thursday morning.

I am going to write more about IVDD in dachshunds in the near future. This post is dedicated just to Joeri and his surgery. We'll keep you updated on his progress. For those who’d like to read more about disc disease in dogs a good presentation of basic facts is given here. The most comprehensive website about IVDD in dachshunds is at http://www.dodgerslist.com/, where you can order a DVD for just $3.00.