Help! Not sure if my dog has FCE or slipped disc

[RebeccaB27]

My dog is a 5 year old terrier/maltese mix. He had sudden onset of paralysis in his front right paw on December 24th at 2pm. He seemed okay and not in pain so we kept him resting. About 4 hours later his back right leg went limp, too. He was now unable to bear weight on ether of his right legs. When we would put him down he would fall over if we did not hold him up. We took him to the vet ER and had his admitted. His vital signs were fine, his bloodwork was fine, his xray showed no fractures of trauma. The only notable things were the paralysis and swelling of his neck. We picked him up the next day, December 25th, because there was no change good or bad and felt we could monitor him the same at home. They gave us steroids and pain medication. It has now been about 12 hours since we took him home and there has been no change. He will eat and drink water and will pee when we hold him over his potty pad. His paralysis has not improved and it is difficult for us to determine if he is in pain or not. The vet believes it could be one of two things: FCE or slipped disc in his neck. We will not be able to rule out slipped disc unless we get an MRI but we already spend $1000 to have him admitted and bloodwork and etc..so we can't exactly afford to do an MRI. It makes it difficult to move foreward as with FCE you want to move them around and rehabilitate and with slipped disc you need to keep them still and resting in create for weeks. We don't know what to do.

[CarolC]

I am not a vet and neck problems tend to scare me, but this is my with no medical training. It seems like if he had a disk problem bad enough to cause paralysis, and the vet flexed his neck forcibly in every direction, it would be clear if he is in pain when moving it in some direction? Cervical disk problems are usually painful? Did the vet forcibly manipulate his head?

It makes it difficult to move foreward as with FCE you want to move them around and rehabilitate and with slipped disc you need to keep them still and resting in create for weeks.

I agree, this is always a quandary when the diagnosis is unclear between a disk problem and FCE. I think if it was my dog, I would begin gentle passive rehab by stimulating the paws while the dog is lying down, and do this several times a day. Massage the feet and legs, dig your fingers between the toes, tickle, and so on. Keep giving stimulus to fire signals to the brain. I would do that for a day or two. During that time (because you will be handling him for pottying and so on anyway) if you notice any signs of pain, then it's more likely a disk problem. FCE can be painful at the time it happens, but after a couple of days there should be no pain with FCE as far as I know. If your dog still seems comfortable after about 2 days, I would begin weight bearing rehab. Any pain and I would stop and assume it's a disk. I would recommend that you ask your vet if this sounds like a safe approach...?

If you need a source of funding for additional vet care, you could apply for a loan through http://www.carecredit.com. The terms are good and often you don't have to begin payments right away. They let you know if you are accepted immediately and it is widely accepted at veterinary hospitals.