Thank you Marilyn for your compliments on our pups. Zoey died of lymphoma - a pretty aggressive cancer in her case. Karma our cat is okay with it. The boys did feel her loss more into the second week than the first, but they are pretty well adjusted now.

You never stop missing her. But she is happy now and painfree!!

Hello! I just noticed this thread now. I am glad you caught this early and I'm sure he will get better with just meds and rest!

As you can see in my avatar, my yorkie was paralyzed from a ruptured disk. Even after emergency spinal surgery, too much damage was done. She now has no use of her back end and can't even do her business on her own - we have to express her bladder for her. If only I had known how extremely important complete rest is, we might have avoided the worst! But please don't feel sorry for her - she is the happiest dog you'll ever meet :)

When you have a bulging or ruptured disk, there is a lot of pressure on the spinal cord which is excruciatingly painful. When the back is at rest, the disk can start to heal. But when it moves, the disk can tear or become more inflamed. It is sometimes described as being like a scab on a knuckle - the more you move the joint, the more times that scab will start to rip and bleed again. With pain medication, the dog doesn't feel the pain and continues to move, which is more dangerous to the back (even though pain meds are great - they allow relaxation of the back as well). So you'll have to be the voice of reason and make sure your dog stays resting, even though he might seem to be okay!

About 8 months after my dog was paralyzed, she had another episode with a bulging disk in her neck. We saw the signs immediately and after consultation with the vets, we took her home and put her in a crate immediately for 8 weeks (the vet said 5, research on the web said 8, so we decided to be safe because extra rest won't hurt anything!). She came out of her crate just to have her medications and to go pee, and even though it seemed like FOREVER, she healed completely and hasn't had another issue since (knock on wood!). Next month will be 2 years without any disk flare-ups!

Good luck to you and your little guy, and please keep us updated!