Oscar + acupuncture

You may remember my blog post from last fall when Oscar suffered his 1st episode of IVDD (paralysis of his back legs caused by a herniated disk). At that time we opted for the surgery (not knowing we had other options). He made a full recovery and was back to his old self within a few weeks. A few days before Xmas, Oscar got up on his 2 hind legs to investigate the cat, that was perched on the couch, and unfortunately lost his footing. This little fall was the catalyst for his 2nd IVDD episode. This time around, we opted for acupuncture instead of surgery. Miraculously within 4 weeks, he was walking again with only a slight limp.

About 6 weeks ago, I left the dog alone for 10 minutes while I showered. When I came out of the shower, Oscar had a guilty look on his face. I thought maybe he had eaten cat food or maybe he had an accident in the house but I couldn't find any evidence. A few hours later, someone knocked on the door and he didn't even get up (usually he would go bonkers). I knew from that moment, he had another back injury. We started weekly acupuncture treatments once again but this time his progress is much slower. He has movement in his back legs but he's still unable to stand or walk. Despite this fact, he's still a pretty happy dog and can scoot in the kitchen at lightning speed when he hears a banana being peeled.

If he shows no progress within the next few weeks, we'll stop treatment and get him a cart (aka dog wheelchair) for his back legs. I've heard that once dogs get a cart, they no longer make an effort to walk so we're leaving this for the very last option. In the meantime, we have daily physio and acupressure exercises to do with him to help stimulate the nerve endings in his back legs.

I'll keep you all posted on his progress :)

Taking a nap under the covers




Oscar getting an electro acupuncture treatment.