Five Steps

Five steps.

We moved several months ago and now have a deck off of our back door that has five steps to the yard.  Five short steps that we walk up and down every day when we go to the garden, play with the dogs, or walk around the back yard.

Five small steps.

We have a dachshund.  Dachshunds are prone to back problems.  I've known dachshunds with back problems.  They've all been chubby.

Tyson is not chubby.


Despite this, he herniated a disc in his back recently and gave me a quite a scare. 

You see, Tyson is MY dog, my little baby, my snuggle bug and momma's boy.  He knows when I am sad, happy, or tired.  He is my little shadow and always tries to cheer me up.

Matt bought him for me just a few short weeks after we were married when we were still living in Texas and away from all of our family and friends and their pets.  Tyson kept me company at a time when I was a newlywed living apart from the only people I knew and when my brand new husband had a job that required him to travel for three weeks out of the month.

I love this dog so much that when he hurt himself, I wondered if it was sinful to love an animal this much. 

I love this dog.

I had noticed that over the last couple of months, he had been slowing down a bit.  He was becoming especially slow on the days following a good round of ball chasing and was also starting to become hesitant about going up and down the steps of the deck.

You see, Tyson L.O.V.E.S. his ball.  If you have been around this dog, you will know this one thing about him - he will chase that ball until his legs fall off.

Or, until his back seizes up.



Which is what happened one sunny day after I got home from work.  Upon my first throw of the afternoon, Tyson took off full speed for about 6 feet and then stopped.  Hunched over and obviously in pain, he froze.

I took him to the vet first thing the next day.

They told me that he had herniated a disc in his back (probably stage IV disc disease) and that I should take him to a specialist, an orthopedic surgeon about 40 minutes away.  The vet thought that he would hopefully be able to heal on his own without surgery if he was kept on a stringent 6 week crate restriction, but suggested that I get a second opinion because his back legs were partially paralyzed.

I cried.

The orthopedic surgeon (along with one of my girlfriends, who graciously shared her expert (veterinarian) opinion) relieved many of my fears, and was cautiously optimistic that we could avoid surgery and permanent paralysis.  We just have to keep Tyson crated around the clock.  We carry him out to potty, but are allowed to let him sit on the couch with us (if we have his leash on and make sure he doesn't try to jump off). The remainder of the time, he is confined to his crate.

The vet said that even a few steps can be extremely hard for a dachshund.  Our five steps were probably just the right amount of extra stress on his already problem-prone back.

Tyson is getting a little better, but still stumbles with his back legs. 

We're going to be even more diligent about keeping him from jumping up onto things and will also try to slim him down a little more than he already is. He'll be getting glucosamine and fish oil supplements with his meals and we're going to try to monitor his ball chasing time a little more closely.

Matt is also going to build him some ramps so that he can access the back yard without having to climb the steps anymore.  No more steps for this doxie!

Once recovered, he should still be able to do the thing he loves most.  I couldn't stand to not let him chase the ball ever again, but from now on, it will be in a little more moderation.

In the mean time, he has been very sweet about his confinement.  Matt rigged up some caster wheels for his crate so that we can wheel him into whatever room we are in so that he's not left alone in the laundry room all day.

He's been a good sport.

I love that dog.