On Wednesday, I had a very good friend and established Siberian breeder over to my house. She was finally meeting Delilah and all was well until she touched her lower back and Delilah snapped. Which scared the crap out of both of us. She has always been really finnicky about her lower back/tail and back legs touched and I just thought she was being dramatic. My friend started watching her mannerisms and walk and felt her back. Direct quote "your dog walks like a 14 year old with arthritis. She is in pain."

So, I took her to the vet the next day. She has a slipped disk according ot the doctor it will consistently go in and out the rest of her life. This means: No rough play, crate rest when it real pain, pain meds and muscle relaxants.

I guess what I want to know, is if anyone else has ever had this happen? Another breeder, and friend uses Boswellia for the pain and joints and it works wonders. I DO NOT want to use pain meds if I can avoid it. They are harsh on the kidneys and I am not going to kill her kidneys and liver and shorten her life.

Help!?

Gah I'm sorry Megan. That's terrible. My heart goes out to you and to Delilah.

I can't, and won't, speak for Delilah.... people with more insight into dog anatomy can chime in and hopefully help you on this one.

What I can offer, if it helps at all, is my own experiences. My job requires me to get into some strange and uncomfortable positions. Because of this I slipped a disk in my lower back two years ago and it has never healed. It won't, and I have slight to moderate pain every day. Sucks but I live with it and it has never stopped me from being active and happy.... I refuse to let it.

So that being said I can tell you what works for me in hopes that it might for Delilah as well.

Heat:
I don't think my two would ever allow me to place a heat blanket on them so I can't fathom how you could go about doing it.... But if you could it may help loads.

Not only does your back hurt when this happens, but if you've been living with it for any length of time, your daily routine is altered by it. You sit differently, you walk differently, ect. Simply because it hurts too much to do it normally.

It causes muscles all over your body to over tax themselves and become stiff a lot simply because you are over compensating so much.

Heat helps me greatly. if you can find a way to apply some (warm water, heat blanket) from time to time or if she will let you all the time it may help a great deal. How you could go about doing that for an Arctic pup, well I'm not sure.

Maybe turn it into training or some kind of reward based thing??? After the initial discomfort she may come to realize she likes it???? I hope anyways.


Massage:

This one should actually be easy.

Tika for the most part isn't a cuddle me or pet me dog... She likes her bubble. However she loves a good massage.

If I really dig into her muscles on her back or legs she will extend them and stay there for a long time.

As I understand it most pups do. Doing so to Delilah hind quarters, back, and joints may help a lot. Above heat it is the best thing for me and Kelly does my back and shoulder all the time.

Like you said she is sensitive in certain spots, and so am I... If someone touches two certain points on my back I want to bite them too... But moving my muscles around those spots and really digging in deep on my over taxed joints make those spots feel tolerable.

Exercise:
The best thing for a slipped disc is really to strengthen the rest of your back by doing exercise, carefully and slowly. SWIMMING IS GREAT FOR THIS!!!! not only does work out your back but your also weightless during the process, making it that much easier on your joints... I don't remember if she likes to swim but you could give that a try somehow if she does...

Apart from that walking everyday will help her as I know you already do.

It goes without saying if she is in pain I would not walk her that day and simply let her relax.


Rest:
There are days I'm flat out... Those days are just best to let me lay on my back and just get moving the next... I assume it would be about the same for her at some point. If you notice her slow one day take it easy on her and let her relax the day. Separate her from Cato even so she can get a full and healthy rest for the day even.


I refuse to use pain meds as well.... Never have... I'm not the type to overtax myself on meds when my body is telling me I need to slow down.


Again I'm sorry I can't help more for doggy anatomy... I wish I could. But as someone who deals with this everyday I hope anything I said helps in the slightest.

~Chris~

I'm sorry Megan =( I don't know anything about it, so I can't be very helpful. But you can bring Cato over to play anytime you need him out of Delilah's hair =(

Hope you can come across some satisfactory methods to help with her pain. Do they know if something caused it or is it something she's always had?

Thank you both - We are going to try supplements, but I won't give her the meds long term. I am NOT going to let her go into kidney failure because of excessive use of rimadyl and deramaxx.

I am sorry to hear about the disk issue for Delilah. I hope to learn some stuff from others on her while I watch you post because I need to keep tabs on what/how to do things for her when she is over for a week with my furkids.

Oh Kev, you know I will give youa detailed list! LOL

I hope so..lol. I figured you would, but still want to keep up on this. Got the room set and ready for em, just need new liners for the crates, probably get a nice bed for delilah and the keep it around in my stock pile incase something happens later on with mine or a foster.

Megan relating to what Kevin said when Anna had her spay I know this is different but I thought she was in pain. She would whine everytime she moved and had to have one of us sit on floor so she could lay in our lap. I actually tried putting my heating pad on the floor and she would lay on it. So it might not be as hard. Maybe sit with her for a while with the heating pad on her back and she might stay still. I say try a heating pad at first and move towards a heating blanket maybe.
I was at first thinking about the little heating patches you can buy from the store, that stick on your skin, and putting an underwear type thing on her so she is able to do normal activities with it on her back. Maybe the things they sell for girl dogs in heat? The underwear to keep it in place of course since you can't stick it to her back. The only thing I am not sure about is whether the heat will reach her back with all the fir. But then again if a heating pad works the patches should too. The patches will have the diaper type thing pressing it down so it should reach her actual back. But of course this is just an idea, you can try it if you want. Just figured it might help give ideas.

Whats worse for the dog being in pain 24/7, or the possibility of organ damage from proper medication.

Right Len.. but why put the dog in conventional medicine when my holistic vet (I have two vets) says she can manage the pain and strengthen the joints and muscles with something that wont cause organ failure?

Holistic vet consult was at 530: treat with boswellia powder, fish oil and arnica. Repair with glucosamone, chondroiton, msm and shark cartilage. The powder, oil and arnica are natural pain relievers and anti inflammatories. O actually take arnica myself for headaches.

I was going to suggest MSM as well, Odin has a bad back and his vertebrae have fused together towards the lower middle. The MSM has given him more freedom and less pain. I don't allow him to jump on anything and always lift him carefully for everything we do.

If you could get a belly bad and get a flat heated pad you could have her keep it on that way. May take a few times to get used to it.

Thanks kristina. The supplement she has me using does have msm.. its wholistic run free. Apparently its done wonders for a few labs and mini doxies at my vet ..she's good so im confident in the treatment

Is this boswellia powder safe for human consumption? I have spinal stenosis it never gets better it only gets worse (Dr.'s word). Presently consume more doses of Advil or Aleve then I care to subject my cast iron stomach to. More often then not just live with the discomfort to protect my innards.

Yes it is Len. This is one that is sold at my area health food store: http://www.zerbos.com/shop/product_view.asp?id=1455&StoreID=5DDC50E796734E49AEDE162FFC8CABF9&private_product=0

Here4thePics wrote:

Is this boswellia powder safe for human consumption? I have spinal stenosis it never gets better it only gets worse (Dr.'s word). Presently consume more doses of Advil or Aleve then I care to subject my cast iron stomach to. More often then not just live with the discomfort to protect my innards.

mheath0429 wrote:

Yes it is Len. This is one that is sold at my area health food store: http://www.zerbos.com/shop/product_view.asp?id=1455&StoreID=5DDC50E796734E49AEDE162FFC8CABF9&private_product=0

This is good info. I wonder if it works on nerve pain in addition to arthritic/orthopedic type pain. I'll have to look into it myself

I'm going to check if we can get that here, worth a shot for Chris's back, we have a few holistic places I'm going to check!

I just picked up boswellia, the one I posted in fact, gucosamine, chondroiton, powdered shark cartilage. and powdered msm. For the price of wholistic run free, I can buy a lot more if I make it myself.

Ill keep this updated. I have a lot.of faith in holistic medicine.

Alright, So far I have transitioned all but the cartilage into her diet. The Boswellia really worked overnight. She was like a completely different dog the day after having it in her diet.

I went with powdered MSM and I have been dosing pretty low and working up to full dosing. Kristina, how much do you give Odin?

That sucks to hear how old is Delilah?

She will be 3 in May

Gosh I must have missed this! So sorry Megan! Interesting to hear about Boswellia! Maybe something I should start with Kale for his shoulder issues.

Hoping that the supplements give her some relief!

So far so good, Brook!

Couldn't hurt to start. It's relatively Cheap (11 for 60 capsules) and I noticed an immediate change.

I'm so sorry to hear this Megan. Poor Delilah. I hope you can keep her comfortable.

1/2 tsp 2x daily of MsM for Odin. Or it may be 1tsp 2x daily... Don't remember what the scoop is lol