advice..

You have said the words that many of us find absolutely, positively the ***scariest*** words out there in the realm of dog problems health-wise.

"super lethargic"

In fact, the word "lethargic" ALONE would have scared the tar out of me.

If it is a back injury - you have to be the judge of how much pain she's in.  Given that it's Friday, I would likely head for the nearest vet school **today** rather than allow the dog to be in pain until Sunday.  I realize you are in The City but you *do* have a good vet school right in the middle of NY City and I honestly would have a really hard hard time allowing pain to continue for another 36 hours or better before you seek help.

But before you even consider one other thing -- please go and sit next to Coco and *very* gently raise her head and pull up her upper lip so you can see her gums.  What color are they?  Are they nice and pink and normal??  Are they *at all* pale? 

Then .. take the tip of your index finger and press gently but firmly on her gum and then release.  Does the color fill **right back in** or does it take a while?  That's called a 'capillary refil test' and it can be really important.

Certain things can masquerade as simple injuries -- things like IMHA and thrombocytopenia and with those about all you will *see* is "lethargy" and they are deadly (and waiting 3 days literally could see them slip away undiagnosed).

I'm not trying to scare you to death -- just impress on you that lethargy -- ANY TIME you see it, is always the very best reason to take something extremely seriously.

If the gums are pale, take action **today** regardless of anything else.

But if there is extreme pain, I would be wanting x-rays in short order.  Just the stress of extreme pain can, in and of itself, cause *other* problems to occur (like irritable bowel, etc.).  You can always have records transferred TO your vet

Please don't think going to a vet school is super expensive or "weird" -- it can be far more cost-effective than a local vet simply because since you deal with some students they generally charge far far less than specialty clinics.  And their diagnostic means are usually incredible.

her gums and nice and pink.
they fill back in with blood right away.

on a pain scale of 1-10, i would assume shes probably about a 5 or 6.  she doesnt look like she's in agony, but you can tell shes uncomfortable.

we're going to call the vet and see who he would reccomend we go see today.  if he can't give us a referral we'll bring her into north shore animal hospital.

i have no problems with going into the student hospital in the city, but the weather is so awful, and allt he roads are flooded, the city is going to be a mess.  so we'll stick to the island.

 i'll keep you posted.

ok. just spoke to the vet.

we explained we werent comfortable waiting until sunday..so he's going to come in and see her as an emergency.

they're going to board her there.. they think having her rest in the cage will be the best thing for her.  they're anticipating she'll be there for 2 nights.

he'll see her today. he's having some of his staff come in to take care of her tonight, and then he'll be back tomorrow.

hopefully we know more soon.

Take her a couple of t-shirts from you resident humans-- or even the bath towel you used this morning so she will be surrounded with your scent.  If she has a snuggle toy take that -- AND I would wipe a wash cloth across Teddie's belly as well so she has familiar scents with her (it really DOES make a difference).  Take HER food and bowl if you can -- making her comfortable can be half the battlel

 It speaks VERY well of your vet that they would come in for this. 

It's a tough call knowing when to "press" -- but it's like I said -- when an animal shuts down enough to be termed "lethargic" it's ALWAYS noteworthy. 

And ... North Shore is a good facility.  Kate, who is Frisby's mom (now Mom to Sinbad the Sailor *smile* her new rescue) --- she works near there (she's a researcher) and she absolutely rocks if you ever need recommendation to good facilities.  She actually lives on an island but she works almost in the City so she's an incredible resource for you.

Good luck.  I will be lifting Coco (and you) up with prayers and good thots.  It's unnerving to have to leave them feeling bad.

it's the scariest thing, when you can see in their eyes how uncomfortable they are.

 the vet still seems to think it's a ruptured disc.   he's going to do an xray on her shortly to confirm.

i'm glad we brought her in when we did.. i was doing some reading on ruptured discs and they all said if you leave them untreated long enough, they can cause paralysis. 

 if its not too severe, he said he should be able to treat it with some injections and some oral medicine ... otherwise she'll need surgery.

Lady -- YOU ROCK!!!!

Coco is incredibly fortunate she has you for an advocate!!  Please holler if I can help in ANY way. 

Please look into acupuncture -- is can aid healing in a case like this like NOTHING else.  I don't mean *instead* of your vet -- I mean in addition to -- http://www.tcvm.com is the Chi Institute and there is a locator on the left.  I Know Kate has someone she uses but she may have found someone in the City as well. 

"healing" from an injury is one of the things acupuncture absolutely excels at -- it will simply augment whatever your vet does.  ASK your vet if they know of a good acupuncturist.  It's become VERY acceptable - particularly in cases of injury.

Keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't need surgery!! 

A lot of the info out there on disk problems (IVDD) is about dachshunds, but it applies to all dogs.  Dachshunds just have more problems than other breeds. 

A good site on disk problems:  http://www.dachshund-dca.org/discbook.html

Also see the links here: http://www.dreamrescue.org/IVDD 

A good site for you would be DogAware.com!  There is lots of info there, plus links to even more info.

Arthritis (or any skeletal issues) and pain:  http://www.dogaware.com/health/arthritis.html

Surgery care:  http://www.dogaware.com/health/surgery.html

Note:  "If you use NSAIDs, I think that Metacam (meloxicam) and Etogesic (etodolac) may be safer than Rimadyl (carprofen) or Deramaxx (deracoxib), though all NSAIDs can cause problems. Metacam may actually be more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems than the others, but I have heard more reports of Rimadyl and Deramaxx causing death shortly after starting them, due to liver or kidney failure. It is best if you do bloodwork to ensure that your dog does not have liver or kidney disease before using any NSAID (or anesthesia)."

janet_rose

Note:  "If you use NSAIDs, I think that Metacam (meloxicam) and Etogesic (etodolac) may be safer than Rimadyl (carprofen) or Deramaxx (deracoxib), though all NSAIDs can cause problems. Metacam may actually be more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems than the others, but I have heard more reports of Rimadyl and Deramaxx causing death shortly after starting them, due to liver or kidney failure. It is best if you do bloodwork to ensure that your dog does not have liver or kidney disease before using any NSAID (or anesthesia)."

Absolutely -- often with a young dog liver problems are just simply missed -- it may be kinda borderline and all it takes is the wrong thing to spin it off. 

When you have surgery like this some sort of anti-inflammatory is likely going to be used -- you just don't want it to be long-term.  AND it would honestly be a REALLY good idea to start Coco on milk thistle *right away* because ANY thing given .... whether NSAID or pain med -- they are ALL hard on the liver, and giving milk thistle along with it tends literally to make less of the drug do *more* (because milk thistle literally helps the liver function better so it processes the drug better so the body uses it better!)

email me if you want some help using the milk thistle --

Coco update:

 She's finally home.  She spent 4 nights in the animal hospital, which postively broke my heart. 

They were able to treat her non-surgically, with some injections and oral medications.  We have to bring her back in a few days for a follow up xray and a follow up blood test for liver levels (due to her meds).  She's confined to to crate rest for now at home (although, I take her out to snuggle with me on the recliner, which you can tell she TOTALLY prefers lol)

They have her on an antibiotic, an anti inflammatory/pain reliever, and something to prevent her from getting any kind of tummy issues from it. 

She's finally eating again, which is great.  and you can tell she desperately wants to play with Teddie, but when she gets up on her legs shes a little wobbly at first.  So, probably another week of crate rest, and then my girl should be good as new. :)

I'm still baffled how she managed to do this to herself.