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We had a dachshund named Suzie; yes, after me, but it had originally belonged to friends before it came to us. When she was about 6, she developed that problem that doxies sometimes have where she became paralyzed from 'the waist' down. She wasn't unhappy, but when she was playing, she would drag herself around to the point that she was developing sores on her belly. We took her to the vet to see what could be done for her. We didn't want to put her down because she wasn't in any pain we could see other than the sores. The vet suggested a cart that was advertised in the back of one of his magazines. When my Daddy saw it cost about $300, he went out the the metal shop of the plant where he worked and asked them if they could make something akin to it. They created a frame on which we could hang a piece of an inner tube and which had wheels on the back. We'd put Suzie in it, her upper body was free to move so she could walk, and her back legs were suspended in mid air by the innertube and she rolled as she walked! The neighbors would all come out to see her as we passed when we took her for walks!

She died about a year after this paralysis; she crawled onto the metal bed of the dolly in Daddy's workshop one night and just went to sleep. She was such a cutie! Rosie's Fiona looks like one of Suzie's puppies. We named her Pumpkin because her litter arrived just before Halloween and she had that black and orange coloring!

When she was about 6, she developed that problem that doxies sometimes have where she became paralyzed from 'the waist' down...

We had something similar happen to a terrier/mutt we had. She developed some sort of paralysis (at one point the vet referred to "Coon Dog Paralysis"). She was about 10, but my dad couldn't bring himself to put her down.

We lived on a hill. So every morning we'd put her out in her pen. She would manage to pull herself out and down into the yard to do her business. When I got home from school I'd walk her back up the hill. After two months of that, she finally recovered, but always had problems with arthritis and her bark was never the same. She live another 5-6 years and died when I was in college.

Suzi, I can't recall...was your dachsie a standard or a mini? I've heard standards are more likely to have back problems, but I guess some minis do too. I'm don't know how I'd handle something like that...sounds like you guys made out OK, but I would be heartbroken...

Fiona's family background (pedigree, I guess I should say - she's a DOG, not a person!) seems to be pretty healthy that way. But EVERYONE has to bring up back problems when they hear I have a dachshund...it's aggravating. People don't react the same way to Labradors, for example, though there are FAR too many poorly bred Labs around here with hip problems. I know of a whole litter where multiple dogs had to put down before they were two...but no one brings it up the instant they hear someone has a Lab.