I'm after any information at all really!  River was diagnosed with a prolapsed disc in June, not  as bad as it could be - she still has full movement, no scuffing of feet or funny gait etc.  She was swinging her back legs a little but she's been going to rehab since August and she's now walking nicely :-)

But, she does have pain from it and surgery is an option.  Within that there are two options:

1) widen the sacro-iliac canals for the nerve roots (congenital narrowing) to ease the pressure from the disc)
2) take the roof off the vertebrae, hold the nerve roots to one side and burn off the prolapsed material.

Both are tricky, risky surgeries of course, and 2) is the best option of the two for her.  The prolapse is past the end of the spinal cord.

The consultant didn't give me any information re. prognosis, recovery, risk factor etc etc - basically he explained what the surgery was, said it could wait until she renews next May (not enough cover left this year, it's a £1500 surgery minimum) and that was it.  So I opted for rehab this year to start while I research.

So if anyone has any information or experience at all I'd be grateful - I want to do what's best for her, I don't want her to be in pain for the rest of her life and ideally I'd like her to be able to charge about again!  I know she'll never do agility again - I'm not bothered about that, even without the disc that was off the cards anyway because she has a deformed toe on each from foot which have both gone arthritic now.  But that is another factor - she can't be taking too much weight on her front end because of those toes, this year they are starting to hurt her for the first time.

Thanks for any help :-)

Hi,  I breed mini wires so sadly know of a few dogs that have had various spinal operations.  You do need to find a really good specialist, clare rusbridger's site gives lots of good information  <http://www.veterinary-neurologist.co.uk/spinal_surgery.htm>

Also this place has lots of information they ran a breed seminar for the dacschund club  <http://www.dickwhitereferrals.com/pet-owners/specialist-referral-services/neurology-and-neurosurgery.aspx>

Any vet who recommends surgery shoudl be able to give you a sort of percentage estimation of recovery ie 90% chance of full recovery or possibly less.  The lace that my vets refer to is in the wirral and they are not only really experienced but also will give you rough prediction on likelyhood of full recovery although of course there are no guarantees.