IVDD?,Prednisolone,Robaxin cause bloody diarrhea
 

My otherwise healthy baby Annie (6yrs) was diagnosed with IVDD (Intervertebral Disc Disease) 2 days ago and given Prednisone & Robaxin. Dr. said she has to be in her crate, or on my lap being perfectly still for 3 weeks.

Her symptoms were limping and screaming if she got her shoulder or back out of place while trying to walk. She didn't want to play, or jump, or walk very much and there was an occasional yelp from pain. I had been trying to keep her still, thinking she jumped off the sofa and hurt her leg or shoulder for a few days prior. Then two days ago she had been lying on her pillow napping and she woke up and tried to stand up. The loudest, most pitiful scream she gave while trying to run down the hall towards me. I picked her up, called the vet and took her in for a check.

That's when the Dr. did an Xray and told me she had IVDD and it could end up with her becoming partially paralyzed or worse, if she injured it further by wrong movement. Dr. also gave her Prednisolone and Robaxin. I kept her still and quiet the whole next day and she was eating and pottying just fine. But last night she had bloody diarrhea all night long. Poor thing, I felt so sorry for her. She walks with a stiff back and then tries to squat to poop and I can tell it hurts her. I went ahead and fed her a little this a.m., but have not given her any more medicines until we hear from the Vet this morning when they open.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever heard of IVDD (nobody I know has heard of it) and was it a wrong diagnosis, or is it easy to diagnose? Anyone know if Prednisolone or Robaxin could be what cause diarrhea?

She's finally sleeping on my lap right now...precious. I'm just so scared. :(

Thank you for any info. :)
Emmy

You need to call your vet and let him know what is going on.

# Adverse effects [of prednisone]include increased thirst and appetite, panting, vomiting, restlessness and diarrhea.

# Some animals may develop stomach ulcers from prednisone use.

Prednisone / Prednisolone

Thanks Ladymom, yes I had already called my Vet when I posted previously and was waiting for her return call.

She called back and her reply was to lower the dosage of prednisone and also take Imodium.

I sure hope this works. :confused:

I hope your baby feels better soon. If Annie continues to show worsening problems I would get her to a specialist or an ER hospital.

Thank you Patti :)

I am watching her constantly, all day, every day and if she shows the slightest sign of getting worse, I'll get her more and better help. So far though, she has stopped having diarrhea. So either taking half dose of the Prednisone or the little bit of Imodium helped. Not sure which one, so maybe both.

I feel a little bit of relief. Now if we can both get a few hours of sleep tonight.....we will be doing lots better.

Poor baby! Sending hugs and kisses for her to feel better soon! It sounds so painful! Let us know how she's doing.

Thanks for your concerns. :)
After starting the Imodium and lowering to 1/2 dose of her Prednisone, she is doing better as far as the poop, but last night she whined a lot. I kept getting her up to see if it was an emergency.....but I think she was just lonely, or hurting. :(
xox

You might call your vet and let him know about the whinning. Maybe she is in pain. Poor Baby. Hope she feels better soon.

Yes, I certainly will. Thank you Manolo's Mom. :)

FYI for anyone interested, I just found this site about IVDD. What an awesome website, telling us every single thing to do and how to do it, when our babies get it.

Crate Rest Recovery Process

or just go to Dodgerslist Home Page


It says it can happen to Shih Tzus and Yorkies as well as Dachsunds.

I recently went through this with one of my fosters. She too was put on prednisone and was on crate rest. She is fine now.
I am sure your vet told you....if they start to show any increased neurological symptoms it is an emergency and they need to be taken to a specialist immrediately.
Hopefully, your little Annie will recover without any problems! :)

Thank you LadyJane! :)
It's so nice to hear your baby made it through this ok. How long was she on crate rest?

About this: "I am sure your vet told you....if they start to show any increased neurological symptoms it is an emergency and they need to be taken to a specialist immediately."

No, my Vet didn't tell me that! I think she's rather new at her position and maybe she just forgot.

Annie's already acting spacey, but that's the drugs I think. Thank you for this info. I'm really watching her (and she's really watching me lol). I just hope I don't do anything wrong, or anything to injure her further.

Sometimes they do not respond to steroids and do need surgery. I had that happen to one of my pups years ago. He had surgery at Texas A&M and recovered. Just watch for any weakness in her limbs. That would be a sign that she is having increased problems. This can lead to paralysis, so at the first sign of any problems walking, they need to be seen immediately. Once they lose the deep pain reflex, the chances of surgery being successful go down considerably.

Heidi was on crate rest for about a week and a half. She responded quickly to the meds. She also is a fairly quiet girl anyway, so letting her be out of the crate was not an issue. She does not jump on and off of furniture.

Oh my gosh LadyJane thank you for the info...she falls sometimes...it's like her leg (I think it's a different leg sometimes) just gives way, but she catches herself. I'm sort of worried now! I thought it was due to the Robaxin (a muscle relaxer) or Prednisone...but am I wrong?

I've been picking her up and setting her on the potty paper but she has to circle around a few times before she can poop. I think it's because she's not getting any exercise while sitting in her crate all day, every day. So I can't really keep her from trying to walk or stand. I also pick her up (out of her crate) and set her in front of her feeding dish and water dish when it's time.

As long as she is not getting worse, I think everything is fine. My foster was not able to stand on her back legs when it started. She improved on the meds! She did not get worse.
Sounds like you are doing all the right things!

Forgot to say that when she circles around on the potty paper, she never trips or anything. Sometimes she walks pretty fast.

You're lucky Heidi is the quiet type and took well to the meds. My Annie is the liveliest (sp?) yorkie I've ever seen. Always right in the middle of everything.

Ok, thank you so much for helping me. I love this forum and everyone in it. It's such a precious, loving place and we all love our babies SO much! :)

It really IS a great forum! I think you are doing fine with Annie! If she is circling and having no problems, sounds like she is going to be ok! :) I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers!

Thank you LadyJane and all of you, SO much! :love:
I cried all afternoon, thinking I might lose my baby, but now I am feeling sooooo much better about everything. You're awesome!

Hopefully tonight will be a wonderful night for Annie (and me) and we will actually get a little sleep. :)

Hi! My Layla has IVDD and was paralyzed quite quickly. I'm glad you caught it before it progressed too much! Keeping Annie still is VERY VERY important. I see you already got a link to Dodgerslist... I have been a member since April but I haven't been active lately! I will go and check for posts there. Everyone there is so knowledgeable about this disease! Stay strong, it gets better!

Oops, I see YOU posted the link to Dodgerslist! Lol, sorry about that! But I'm glad you found it!

Thanks Linz,
I'm sorry about Layla being paralyzed. :( Is she able to get around pretty well with her cute little cart? Precious.

When, or how did it happen? All at once, or had she started with a limp, gone to the vet, taken meds, or did you just notice one day she was paralyzed?

I'm keeping her still as best I can. The drugs help keep her a little sleepy. We both slept the whole night through last night. My husband put her crate up on the bed where she could see me and she went straight to sleep. :angel:

Edit: forgot to ask you, I love that Dodgerslist site; does it help to become a member? It's a lot more helpful than another site I was reading.

It happened over a couple of days but we didn't really realize the symptoms when we saw them. We had just moved to a new house two weeks prior and had been unpacking and she was acting abnormal but we thought it was just her new surroundings.

On a Sunday she was laying around a lot, not wanting to move. She would go partially up the stairs and then just lay down on them. That night, she was walking around with her tail down and she was VERY clingy, needing to be with me constantly. That night, she didn't jump on our bed to sleep with us like normal.

Monday morning she was still not herself, and her stomach was bloated so we thought she was just gassy and had an upset stomach. She was still eating and drinking normally so we'd see how she was after a day of rest. She went outside to pee in the morning and Scott carried her back up the steps when she didn't want to come in.

I worried about her all day and when we came home from work, she came running to the door with her tail wagging - the last time we ever saw her tail wag. She was walking very stiffly with an arched back, and she would NOT sit down. Scott called the vet in our new town, and I called her old vet in the city. The new vet was not in, they had just closed. Her old vet said she probably has a slipped disc, I could bring her in and they'd crate her for the night and look at her in the morning, or we could take her in to the emergency hospital in the city. Before I could make a decision, the town vet called back (Scott left a message) and said she'd meet us at her office in 10 minutes.

We took her in and she was able to walk, although she looked drunk. She still had feeling in her back legs. She put her on Metacam for an anti-inflammatory, and sent us home telling us to keep her still. We had troubles keeping her still because we didn't own a crate and she just walked and walked and walked. Scott took her to her pad to pee and her legs just gave out, they were rubber. We frantically called the vet in tears, and she met us at her office again, close to midnight. She did x-rays and suggested we bring her in the next day to be observed. She still had deep pain sensation and could feel her legs... a great sign.

Layla cried all night long and I was awake all night long. The vet called first thing in the morning and gave us our options, saying surgery gave us the best chance of recovery at that point. She arranged EVERYTHING and I was hysterical driving Layla to the emergency vet hospital, and she had her surgery. A disc had ruptured pretty badly and it did enough damage that so far she has not regained any feeling. But that is all that has changed, she is still the same dog, and she is so strong and gets around very very well! Animals adapt to these things very well!

Sorry for writing a novel! But I want you to know that you can prevent it from going this far by being educated and taking measures to help Annie, because she doesn't know how to help herself!

Oh dear! I should also mention the bloody diarrhea is probably from the Prednisone, which is very hard on the stomach. Ask if you can give a stomach protectant 30 minutes before the Pred. Buy some Pepcid AC. Remember to ask your vet about this first, but many people on Dodgerslist recommend it.

Oh and YES! Join the mailing list and let them know who you are and Annie's story and they will jump at the chance to help you out. They are angels and very knowledgeable. There are thousands of members who have all gone through the same thing. MANY of them have had great results with conservative treatment - crate rest alone. I would definitely recommend joining! I made a seperate folder in my email just for that list because it gets overwhelming getting so many emails a day, but when you're needing some support they know their stuff!

Oh Linz, thank you so much for your story! You are so helpful. Such a sad thing happening really strengthened you didn't it! Little Layla would love playing with my Annie and Greta. :)

A lot of Layla's symptom's are the same as Annie's, so I've signed into Dodger's List and I'm reading as fast as I can read.

Until I can read their instructions and really find my way around in Dodgerslist, I'm wanting to find out if I can give Annie a teensy bit of Mylanta, or a teensy crumb of a Tums, or something besides Pepcid AC. Or is that the only 'safe' one for yorkies? If not, I can run up to the store (about 12 miles away) and buy some Pepcid AC. I don't want to hurt her little tummy. She hasn't pooped today at all, so I'm not giving her Imodium tonight.

Another strange thing is my Vet said 3 weeks crate rest, but Dodgerslist says 6 weeks minimum. Wow that's a long time.

With Layla we did 10 weeks, because after the surgery we had her in for rehab one day and the vet techs let her "scoot" out to us, WAY before she should have. So we added more crate rest just to be safe in case she did any more damage. But we'll never know. I know it seems like a long time but it is really for the best. Discs take a long time to heal.

I'm actually sitting here crying right now because it seems Layla might be having another flare-up, so I'm heading to Dodgerslist too now. We may be going back to crate rest.

I should really answer all questions in one reply...

I'm not really sure about what else you can give for the stomach, but the other people should know, and if you could call a vet they might know a little better too.

A lot of vets don't know a whole lot about IVDD, especially if they're not neurologists. Personally I like to be more cautious. More crate rest won't hurt anything, but activity too soon could. The neurologist and surgeon who did Layla's surgery told us she only needed two weeks. And vets all over will say different things. They will lose muscle on crate rest, but muscles can always build back up. Layla's back legs are almost as strong now as they were when she had use of them, but during crate rest they were skin and bones. Her front legs now are massive! She's my little Popeye girl!

Oh no! I hope Layla's not going to start having flare ups! I'll cry too!
I still have to figure out how to find my way around the Dodgerslist forum. It's so big!! I don't feel quite as comfortable as I do in YorkieTalk. :) But so far, I've already read so much helpful information.

Well, for tonight I just dabbed my finger in a teensy bit of Mylanta and let Annie lick it off. It wasn't enough to hurt her, but it probably wasn't enough to help her either.

I am so tired, I'm going to go lie down on the sofa and pray for our babies. :angel: I'll see what you found out tomorrow. :)

Hi Emmy,

Do you have Dodgerslist set up to receive all emails? You did get a reply from a moderator (and a small one from myself!) last night.

As for Layla... she now has a bulging disc in her neck. We are back to crate rest for the next 8 weeks. So I guess we can be crate rest buddies!

Linz I didn't have Dodgers List to receive 'All emails', so I just now changed it to do that...then I looked for your email and I'm not sure where to look. LOL I'm a doofus! I have to run and take a shower, but I'll come back and try to find it. :confused::p

Oh no I can't believe it...poor little Layla. Eight weeks is almost to Christmas. Is she in pain, or can you tell? Did they give you more medicine for her?

That's about how long Annie will be in her crate. I have a bad habit of letting her lie on my lap when I'm on the computer, but I probably shouldn't....it's so hard to leave her locked up all day. :(

I talked to my vet today and she told me not to give her Mylanta, but to use Pepcid AC or Tagament about 30 minutes before taking Prednisone. We got her a wire crate so she can see everything and then we use the pet carrier \'Pet Porter Jr.\' at night, to make her feel snug, safe and secure.

Yes, we\'re \'Crate Rest Buddies\'!! :D