So..
I have five dogs. Four doxies and a beagle. The four doxies are adorable and I love them. We got them all from reputable dog breeders. The beagle is regal looking and very pretty. We got him from a pet store in a local mall near me. He's almost 5 years old now and has had two surgeries on both his back knees on separate occasions. He's cost a fortune but we love him. His name is Toby.
Yesterday morning, he started whining and walking around the house, plopping down randomly and spreading himself out. We watched him for a bit and noticed a subtle limp on his back legs. We decided we'd take him to the vet that morning and took him outside to go potty before the trip. Once outside, he began walking normally and stopped whining, but began eating grass.
Well, emboldened with him at least feeling better, we held off on the vet. I went to work and my Step-Mom stayed with him. I come back home from work and they're both gone. His limp had gotten worse and he had been whining louder, so she had decided to take him in herself.
Now he's a big beagle, for a beagle. About 30ish pounds. We both had to work at getting him out from the car, but even then, he made one of those long moaning "Oh god the pain" noises that only animals can make. The vet had said ambiguous things and that it could be any number of ailments. They gave us a muscle relaxant and two two types of pain pills for him. He wasn't walking well at all. At one point he went out his doggy door, which leads to a deck with steps. He fell down the steps and rolled across the deck to fall another half-foot into the grass. We got him up and back inside since he didn't seem inclined to move.
Which brings me to today. At 3:30 am this morning, the house alarm system blares off because my Step-Mother got up at that time to give the beagle some more medicine, and accidentally set it off when she rushed to a phone. (There are motion sensors inside the house that were tripped). Toby's back legs are paralyzed and he couldn't move. We called our emergency animal clinic and they said "He's fine, don't do anything now, wait to take him to the regular vet in the morning."
Ok. Well, we do one better. We get a mobile pet vet neurologist to come out to the house, who gives his opinion. The poor dog is going in for surgery in less than two hours.
