Dog suddenly paralyzed.

My beloved Pug, Newt, passed away last October.She was 12 years old. She developed a sudden onset of complete paralysis of her hind legs. When I took her to the emergency vet I was told that she had some type of neurological problem. Surgery was an option but there was no guarantee that it would be effective. She was in a great deal of pain and I made the difficult decision to put her down. I know that you did not know my dog but I have been feeling a tremendous amount of guilt over this.

About a year and a half prior to her death Newt had taken a tumble down a flight of stairs. She walked off the edge of the landing due to her poor eyesight. She was almost blind at the time of her death.She did not seem to have suffered any ill effects from the fall. During her last few months she had slowed down quite a bit. She walked very slowly and sometimes could not even complete a walk around the block and I would have to carry her, but she never seemed to be in any pain. She also had developed a subluxing patella to her left hind leg a few weeks before she passed.

The emergency vet gave me a few ideas on what she thought might have been the problem and I have done some research on the internet. I would like to know what you feel could have been the cause of her sudden paralysis?

Thank you so much for your reply. I have read about intervertebral disc disease. From what I understand it is not likely that her fall a year and a half prior would have caused the disease and that a small dog like Newt would have been more likely to have IVDD. From what I have read it is also likely that since she was already paralyzed, she would most likely have still been paralyzed after any surgery. Newt was not a young dog but I still feel like she was too young to die. I thought that we would at least have had a couple more years together. I just don't feel that it would have been good to put a 12 year old dog through spinal surgery and that her quality of life would not have been very good after.