paralyzed? beagle/basidhound

[jschnepel]

My dog, a 76lb beagle/basset hound (11 years old and hes gained 10lbs in the past week) and has epilepsy, He just suffered from around 12+ cluster seizures on tuesday and wednesday. The vet prescribed valium for when he has seizures and brosomethinghide for his daily seizure medicine. Anyways, Long story short- He can't walk right now. He doesn't have the strength to hold up his own weight so my family has been putting a behind his front legs and a towel in front of his back two legs to take him out to do his business. This can't be good for his back and it must be hard on him to do anything with a towel basically squeezing his lower tummy/covering his penis. Is there any other way we can take him out? i've thought maybe one towel spread out to support his entire middle torso so it doesn't make an arc in his back or cover his penis.

[dachshunds4me]

Well the main thing is to get to the root of the problem, why is he paralyzed?
What has the vet said about that?

[Punkygirl0101]

Has the vet seen him?

We have dealt with 2 dachshunds who were paralyzed in the hind legs, but we had them on strict crate rest for several months and they are completely back to normal (they also got steriod and antinflammatory injections and pills).

To me it doesnt sound like hes paralyzed, but instead too weak to move.

Many dogs can lead normal lives when they have partial paralysis, but a completely paralyzed dog couldnt.

[Punkygirl0101]

Also wanted to add, you might want to think about his quality of life, and if he is suffering. I know its hard, we just had our 13+ year old chihuahua mix put to sleep a few days ago.

[Grab]

I'd be concerned about his gaining 10 lbs in a week...that's simply too much weight.

[Saeleofu]

Seizure meds can cause weakness if the dose is too high. My parents' GSD has had muscle weakness in the back end since he's been on Phenobarb. He's also started having accidents in the house. We dropped the phenobarb dose and he's been improving.

They do make special slings to take a dog out in if they can't move on their own. Usually pet stores will have them, but if not you can order them online.

[AGonzalez]

Originally Posted by Grab

I'd be concerned about his gaining 10 lbs in a week...that's simply too much weight.

If he has been given a steroid it could very well be fluid retention that caused the massive weight gain, but I also agree, 10 lbs in a week is an extreme amount to gain or lose.