u/AggravatingWill2053

Last year, my dog had stage 4. She couldn't use her back legs and had some incontinence. She is older, and I didn't do surgery. I also didn't do any further testing outside of a specialist consult and x-ray. She had a herniated disc. I thought we would have to put her down because she was so depressed and in pain. Fast forward, and she is doing so much better. I'm so grateful we stuck it out. Maybe it was an extremely bad flare, I don't know. She definitely gets flare-ups, but none since have been as bad as they had been. She can walk again. She can't go like she used to; i let her tell me how much and for how long she can walk, and we still have to help her back end some, but overall she is much improved. She is on senior dog food with omega 3s, takes carpofren 2xs a day, rests when needed and when she shows signs of a flare, stretches, massages, warm soaking epsom salt baths, castor oil on her back. I dont know if any one thing helped. Some might be bs, I just tried all I could think without surgery. I wanted to share in case it offers any hope or help to anyone else. I get how awful and scary this can be.