As told by Tucker’s owner:
Tucker is a handsome 5 year old mini Dachshund living with his Momma Susan in Georgia. He is a trained service dog and a vital part of his Momma’s life. In early May, 2022 he went to sleep and the next morning he was unable to get up or move his back legs. His owner Susan took him immediately to his vet where she was told it was IVDD and more specifically one or more bulging or ruptured disks. Given the owner’s financial situation she opted to try the conservative method of crate rest with pain medications and steroids. However after 4 weeks it was clear that he was not healing.
Tucker’s owner spoke with another dog owner that Bandit’s K9Care had helped with a similar situation in 2017 (See Zoey’s story below). Thankfully we found a wonderful neurologist at that time and five years later Zoey is still walking and doing great for an older girl. Tucker met with the neurologist who determined that Tucker did need surgery and as soon as possible. So just a couple of days after applying for help, Tucker had an MRI and surgery.
The neurologist reported that there had been a lot of bleeding due in part to Tucker being on prednisone for a month. Surgery otherwise went well and Tucker was sent home early than expected because he was having so much anxiety being separated from Susan. Two weeks later Tucker had his sutures removed and he was told to rest up. The neurologist wanted to ensure that the spine was healing properly given the extensive damage he had.
Although there was hope that, with time and physical therapy, Tucker might gain back some mobility, there was no assurance that this would be the case. But during Tucker’s 6 week return visit, his owner received some wonderful news! The neurologist was so please with the progress he was seeing, including Tucker wagging his tail on his own, that he stated that Tucker might actually be walking within 6 months. His owner had been working with Tucker’s mobility in a cart (provided by KC’s Cruisers) and never gave up on him, and neither did our organization! We will continue to update you on Tucker’s recovery journey as we hear more.
