My sister's Great Pyrenese is having problems

[JackieMaya]

My sister has a 4 year-old Great Pyrenese (wonderful, sweet dog) who has arthritis (which she has him on meds for). He lives out with and guards her flock of sheep in Texas.

The other day she went out to feed the animals and his back legs were paralyzed! She was afraid she would have to have him put down, but her vet said it might be a ruptured disc. So the vet had her put him on steroids for now and see if that helps. He thought that it might take care of the problem without having to resort to surgery.

Has anyone ever had a dog with a ruptured disc? What did you do? Did the dog recover without surgery?

[Lokipups]

My close friends Irish Setter had not one but two ruptured discs in his back, with steriods and total bed rest for three weeks, he came through it fine. The hard part is keeping them quiet for three weeks :o .
But just as a precaution, I would also suggest that your friend have bloodwork done to check for tick paralysis as well, just to be on the safe side, as the dog does work with livestock.

[imported_Kat]

Ruptured discs usually require anti-inflammatory drugs and rest with surgery as a last resort. Does the vet have any idea what caused it?

Loki is right in saying that the dog should definitely have parasite tests done as with working with sheep the dog could easily have picked up a parasite (tick/worm) which can cause paralysis.

[JackieMaya]

My sister's dog, Eli, is improving slightly. He has movement in one of his back legs. She's going to ask the vet today if that's enough improvement that he wants her to reduce his steroid dosage. The vet is convinced that it's a ruptured disc.

She doesn't think there's any way it's a tick related problem, as her setters are covered in ticks most of the year, but she's never found a single tick on Eli...and she's really looked.