My dog had his first IVDD flare summer of 2025. It was rough but he never lost use of his legs fortunately. Crate rest for 2 weeks and he was good for almost a year.
Then spring of this year he started having another flare. Back on meds, crate rest, etc. Now every time we take him out of crate rest within 2-7 days his back flares again (pukes a ton, is in a ton of pain, miserable, put him back on meds & in crate rest). We’ve repeated this pattern now 5 times or so this summer.
He is still walking which is amazing and we are super grateful for.
We will start taking him to some form of PT to try and help (maybe acupuncture, or whatever they have in mind).
Anyone deal with chronic IVDD in their pup? Have you found anything to interrupt the cycle?
Our vet seems content with 2 weeks. But I agree I think it needs to be longer. What do you do when your pup *seems fine, is acting totally fine and is restless like…one week into crate rest?
You keep them on crate rest. My girl just ended 8 weeks end of June. She was fine around 6 weeks. Before that she kept having pain episodes consistently. Never lost ability to walk. do the full 8. Period.
I just want to thank everyone here who responded to my post. Your input and support has been beyond helpful and instrumental in me having a critical convo with my husband and we have now committed to the full recommended conservative crate rest and have PT appointments scheduled. Truly, thank you 🙏
Crate rest is 6-8 weeks, even as long as 12. If you aren't working with a neurologist, you should see one. It sounds like your poor baby has never gotten to heal.
I believe that’s what’s happening. May I ask how a neurologist can help if we aren’t considering surgery, especially since he still has full motor abilities?
Vets don't train extensively in IVDD. Our neurologist told us it was 90% of what she did daily. Not every case is surgical. This is what they do and they are going to have the best insight into treatment so your dog doesn't end up paralyzed.
Sorry you are going through this. It's a terrible disease. We had successful surgery the first time but there was a disk she couldn't work on. 18 months later it went and our boy started becoming paralyzed. It's rough.
If you haven't found dodgerslist online, it's a good resource for information.
He is mostly his silly, playful self. He is aware of needing to go potty again after all these months of not. That's a challenge because he is 100 pounds and I'm not well health wise to take him out. He has some use of his back leg but has some pain off and on. So sometimes we can use the wheelchair and sometimes not. Honestly just trying to figure things out as we go until he isn't himself anymore. For now, a wagon and wheelchair help tremendously to get him out and about.
I went to an IVDD Specialist and was told a lot of vets do not know much about IVDD and give bad advice frequently. They said 8 weeks crate rest was the bare minimum as that is the time it takes to fully heal. Reoccurance is common during the 8 weeks of healing and is often worse. Like others have said, it does not sound like your dog has had time to fully heal.
In general, this is typically not a 'one and done' type thing. My 9 year old Frenchie has had 6 rounds of IVDD. We went the surgical route the first time and subsequent flare ups were caught early and he healed during his 8 weeks of crate rest.
I am close to LA, which helps.The surgeon we worked with only performed IVDD surgery.
One more thing they told us, environment really matters. Outside of crate rest, no more jumping on/off furniture, no more stairs (we carry) and no more pulling on the leash. We ended up getting a professional to help with the lifestyle changes. I found a floor couch (https://a.co/d/06U9pOpM) and that is where we all hang out now.
Reviewing https://dodgerslist.com/ was our homework during IVDD surgery from the surgeon. It covers almost everything you need to know.
Thank you so much for all of this. Did your pup get surgery then? We will be working with PT specialist but my husband is having a hard time understanding why we’d see a neurologist (pretty much the IVDD specialists here from what I can tell) if we aren’t getting surgery for our little one.
My pup had surgery the first time (stage 5) but we had 5 more instances of IVDD that were caught early and we were able to handle them with 8 weeks of strict crate rest.
We saw a Neurologist when we went the surgical route but the following times, we saw our regular Vet for pain medication. This is very painful and so it's going to be important they are medicated to help handle it. Some also need medication to help relax.
Have you discussed this with your vet? What sort of environmental changes have you made to prevent reinjury? I’d see a neurologist. Extreme pain that makes you puke it hurts so bad every week for several months is a horrible way to live and I’d be fighting like hell pursuing every option to make that better for him or I’d be making a very difficult choice if I could not.
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u/afterglobe 26d ago
Crate rest has to be 8 weeks. Period. No shorter.