My dog Freddy hurt himself jumping on the sofa. He’s 7 years old and a dachshund, and he was diagnosed with having hurt his spine (IVDD) which is a very common problem with sausage dogs. The vet basically said that our only options were to put him down or see if he will be happy in a wheelchair and us manually expressing his pee and poo. They said he could have surgery (£7k-£8k) but that it’s unlikely it would work. They also just suggest an MRI (£3k) but that there would be no point if he is not eligible for the surgery anyway. We bought some nappies for him and was learning how to help him go to the toilet, and looking into wheelchairs for him.

Well it’s been a week or so and he’s moving around on his own, he’s using his back legs to itch himself, he’s wagging his tail, he’s walking around. He very clearly can’t use his legs properly but he is definitely not paralysed. We are moving house and going to move vets and get a second opinion in one weeks time.

I was wondering what the next steps for us should be? Can he recover from this with therapy? Even if he can’t fully recover, is it worth going through some at home rehabilitation? The vet seemed pretty adamant that he won’t walk again, but we think that if he’s not in pain (which he shows no signs of), then should we spend the money to do the MRI to have a definitive diagnosis?