My husband took Maggie (our 5yr old golden retreiver) out the other night to go potty. She was running around and apparently slipped on some ice, fell and started yelping in pain. He carried her into the house and she was shaking uncontrolably and couldn't stand or use her left rear leg at all. He took her to the emergency vet (which is riddiculously expensive.....not good timing with hubby recently laid off) and they did some x-rays, and kept her overnight.
Turns out she had a fibrocartiliginous embulism (otherwise known as FCE). It is sort of like having a stroke in her spine.
It is unsure whether the fall caused the FCE or the FCE caused the fall. Either way, this is not good. She is paralized in her left rear leg and has a small amount of paralysis in her rear right leg. She may or may not have a full recovery. Only time will tell. There is some physical therapy we can do with her as well as some massage. We also need to figure out how to help her go potty as she hasn't gone since coming home yesterday. She is going to see our regular vet this afternoon. I'm sure that they will be able to cath. her, but we really can't afford to go to the vet daily to help her go potty. All I know is from everything I've read about it, it seems like a long hard road to even partial recovery. Honestly there is just so much that is going on lately that I'm just feeling overwhelmed.