Back problems ?
 

My little guy, Auggie got very listless and was having some problems moving around starting Thursday. This morning(Friday) I took him to the vet and he told me Auggie had a slight fever of 101. He checked him over real good and took blood. He said it appeared Auggie may have hurt his back and that dogs like Yorkies can have some back problems and that sometimes back problems can cause a low grade fever.

He gave me Baytril for the infection/fever and Dermaxx for the back problem. I gave Auggie the pills and he pepped up a couple hours later but now he's back to being a little listless. I'm supposed to call tomorrow morning for the blood test results. I'm just wondering what to expect. We just lost our Westie a couple years ago to the bad dog food and I sure don't want to lose this little guy. I've only had him a couple months but we've really bonded. He will be 3 yrs. old this summer and that seems a little to young to be having back problems.

One thing I'm going to do is build a small set of steps so he can get off the bed witout jumping. I'm thinking that's how he hurt his back.

Good idea about the steps! I've read that little dogs can have a lot of trouble with back problems from jumping off furniture & beds :( One of my friends had Pomeranians & they had to have back surgery because they kept jumping off the bed & they broke their back from doing so. I hope your bby feels better soon.

-Amy

Definitely get the steps. My vet told me with little dogs this is the most common problem. Their Definitely in the spine isnt made for that kind of impact and if you dont see problems now you Definitely will when they get older with disc and arthritis.

My daughter's yorkie, Kirby, had a ruptured disc in his back and he was 3 years old at the time also. He got so bad that more than once, we thought we would lose him. I'm happy to say that he recovered...it took about 7 weeks before he started showing improvement and probably nearly 3 months before he was almost back to normal. The one VERY important thing with a dog that has a back problem is to keep them quiet and not let them exercise...only let them walk when you take him out to potty...then pick him up an bring him back in. Our vet had us keep Kirby in a cat crate to keep him from moving around. If Auggie's problem is with a disc, you don't want it to rupture or you will be looking at a very long recovery time. By keeping them quiet and not allowing him to move around, it should heal, rather than rupture.

I am not trying to sound like a know-it-all, but I just don't want to see you go through what we went through with Kirby. Maybe it isn't even the same type thing, but it couldn't hurt to baby him and keep him quiet. When we kept Kirby in the cat crate, we'd take him out often and just hold him on our laps because it's heartbreaking to see them caged up like that.

Good luck with Auggie and I hope he gets better soon!

Also Yorkies are know for having Atlantoaxial Instability. This is a congenital defect in the neck.. SO please ask your vet about this too. He will need to do xrays(digital xrays) to be sure.. And some vets do not hear of this very often but believe me it is out there.. My Babybear is one that has had it, and we have a few others on here that have Atlantoaxial Instability(AAI for short) you will see many of us using the AAI/AAS instead of the Atlantoaxial Instability.. If you would like to read more on this defect you can go to Babybear's webpage on Dogster and read his diary the information is in there and in his story on the right handside of his page.. Just got to Dog profile for Wheelie Boy Babybear, a male Yorkshire Terrier.. If you need any more help please do not hesitate to pm me..

I've been giving Auggie his Baytril and Deramaxx and he's doing real well. About two hours after his first dose he started getting better, then he relapsed a bit but now he is almost back to normal. His blood test was all good news and I'm glad the vet did bloodwork because now if we ever have to have it done again, he'll have something to go by.

The next thing on the agenda is a set of steps so he can get on the bed. We just got a new bed and it's higher than the old one and I'm thinking this could have caused his problems. He's here now bugging me to go to bed. He can sleep for a couple hours but around 1:30 am he starts pestering me and won't stop until I shut everything off and go to bed. Some nights I can't sleep and don't want to go to bed and he pesters all night long. My back is shot and some nights I can't lay so I wait until I'm completely wiped out and can fall to sleep fast. Otherwise I just lay there in pain. Maybe I should try his doggie meds, they seem to work good for him.:)

Cali has back problems, and grade 4 LP. We have always used ramps and short stairs for them to get up on furniture. After her back problems we switched to ramps and one set of low stairs. So far Cali hasn't had any further problems. So definately look into stairs or ramps. We have the scamp ramps.