Ruptured Disc...

See our little red dog... He is now in the hospital recovering from surgery. Two weeks ago, he started acting a little strange. He yelped when I cam close to him and was walking with his tail between his legs. A day later, I took him to a local vet (not his) that had hours on Sunday. Wurstig was so curious about the vet's office that he looked like he was fine. The vet gave him a steroid shot and sent us along our way. By Tuesday, he seemed worse. His legs were trembling and he was grunting like he was in pain. I took him to his regular vet the next day. After giving him an xray, we found out he had one or two slipped discs. So we had instruction to keep him confined and give him steroids and pain killers. Also, we made an appointment with a Veterinary Surgeon for yesterday (1.5 weeks away). We kept him as still as possible but he seemed to be getting worse with some good days in between. We had to carry him everywhere including outside to go to the bathroom. We had to pinch his back legs to see if he had any feeling in them. He always had feeling. Sometimes, he had a delayed response but we did get a response. It was so sad seeing him drag his feet behind him. And of course the mommy guilt set in - We should have carried him up the stairs, we should only let him be on a leash in the backyard, we should have not let him on the couch. It was very hard to see him like he was and not feel guilty. Yesterday, Wurstig went through back surgery and he did great. So far we have been told that he has about 95% of being completely back to his old self - that annoying barking dog! Gosh, that dog is so bad but I would not wish the pain on him that he had suffer. He was such a trouper.. He grunted through the pain but did not cry.. It just broke my heart. He should be able to come home in a couple days. Vienna sure does miss him and is being more clingy than usual.