My dog has problems walking.

[beanie]

I recently took my dog to the vet because he is having difficulty walking. He was beginning to stumble, especially in his front legs. The dr. refered this to knuckling. We were refered to a specialist and they said they would have to do a spinal tap and / or ct scan to define the problem. We brought him home with the dr's assurance that he did not have to have any surgery immediately. He had become worse and can not move with in the next day or two. We called the dr and they changed his medicine and today seems to have better results standing and some slight walking with some difficulty, but much better. I have not ever experienced this before so if any of you can give me some suggestions on how to handle this, it would be appreciated. Any thing specific i should ask the dr?
My dogs name is Beanie and he is my baby. Any advice would be greately appreciated by both of us. thanks

[Anonymous]

http://www.dodgerslist.com/faqs.html

The situation you describe with your dog is very serious and you are right to be concerned. You need to crate your dog right away. Pick your dog up very very carefully and put him into a crate or kennel only big enough to turn around, and too small for him to even think about walking. All he needs is a bed and water. Any time you handle him, pick him up slowly and carefully and support his head if you can so it doesn't bob when you lift him.

It sounds like your dog may have a problem with a disk in his neck. This can be determined by the type of test you mentioned. If you let your dog move around, the disk may get worse and he will lose more function. He may lose the ability to urinate. With disk problems in the neck, it can also affect the functioning of the major organs including the lungs if it gets bad enough. If it is not a disk problem in the neck, you are better safe than sorry.

If you have access to good veterinary care this weekend, I would take your dog now. If not, then be absolutely sure he does not move around and get any worse, and get him seen first thing Monday. And be really careful with his head when you take him in the car.

Here is a link showing how to do crate rest.

http://www.dodgerslist.com/lit/After_Surgery.htm

I'm sorry to sound so serious, but it sounds like you have a borderline emergency right now. Please crate him right away.

What kind of dog his he, what breed and how much does he weigh?

[Cindidoxiemom]

What kind of dog do you have? Age?
What meds is he on?

What you are describing sounds like IVDD, a very serious disc disease that can lead to paralysis. I have never heard of a "spinal tap" for a dog, but you may be describing a meylogram, and I do think that would be a very good idea for your dog.

I agree with Carol. I have IVDD dogs, and you MUST put your dog in a confined area. Preferably a crate. NO walking.
You NEED to take your dog to a neurologist and let them determine exactaly what is going on.

If you can't get your dog in before, first thing Monday morning you should be in a neuorolgist's office.
Cindi

[karkorny]

My dog, Bully, had a spinal tap during the diagnostic process of trying to figure out why he became progressively more paralyzed in a matter of hours. I think they needed to rule out meningitis. His condition turned out to be FCE, a stroke to the spinal cord. Is Beanie in pain? There's no pain associated with FCE. Did they do X-rays? It does sound like an emergency situation and you should probably treat it as such. Step one is finding out what's going on, then you can deal with it.

[Dianne]

Hello Beanie,

I also lived in Memphis for 16 years. Do you have a good vet or need some assistance in finding one?

My friend was a vet assistant with Dr. Shelley Antey, Germantown Farmington Animal Hospital, 1975 Exeter Rd., Germantown. (901) 754-4870 Dr. Antey did IVDD surgeries frequently. I would recommend her, as my friend spoke highly of her work.

Listen to the advice to crate rest, now.

Dianne

[Dianne]

PLEASE,

If Beanie is having difficulty urinating (or is leaking urine) it is VERY important to express his bladder manually or have a vet catherize him. Paralysis *could* lead to loss of bladder control, and possibly a urinary tract infection, or even worse... kidney failure.

Instructions for bladder expression:

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat

Another suggestion for a vet is : Batey, Leonard M DVM - Germantown Farmington Animal Hospital, (901) 754-4870,
1975 Exeter Rd, Germantown, TN (near the Kroger, off Poplar Ave)

If you live in Memphis, or Cordova, or Bartlett, it is NOT that far to drive, and this practice has a *good reputation* for spinal surgeries at decent prices. Here in the Northeast, prices are nearly double what they are in YOUR area.

Dr. Batey is also at the same Germantown practice as Dr. Antey, and has a lot of experience doing spinal surgery. I called my vet tech friend this morning, and she actually recommended Dr. Batey over Dr. Antey, but they have also done surgery in tandem, and both are good.

I would take my dog ASAP tomorrow morning.

Dianne

[beanie]

Thanks for your info. Beanie is a male min. pincher about 10 yrs old. The baby in my life. I plan on bringing him to the vet on wednesday to find out what is wrong. I am trying to make sure this is the right decision because i am told that the spinal tap they will do can cause him further problems if not done correctly. But i have no choice but to do everything i can to make him better. Since not doing anything would make him better, i have no option but to do the tap or ct scan and proceed from there. Thanks for your concern and will let all of you know what happens. Hopefully it will be great news.
thanks again Eric & Beanie

[CarolC]

Hi Eric,

If you don't feel comfortable with a spinal tap then don't feel you have to do it. I know there are risks with big dogs, so I really wonder about it in a small dog. There are other options, such as strict crate rest and medication for a number of weeks.

There was a Yorkie named Dukie here who had a cervical problem and they treated it with rest and long term steroids and physical therapy and a lot of TLC. He improved and never had surgery or a spinal tap.

You did not say what kind of medication they put your dog on a couple of days ago that caused improvement. Was it steroids? Some dogs with symptoms of knuckling are treated with steroids and crate rest. If he seems to be responding to the medication, then maybe the vet would let you try that for a while and see how much improvement you can get.

I hope you are still crating him. While he is on crate rest, you might want to think what you can do to prevent him from jumping off of furniture/steps/etc. in the future. I had a ramp built for my back door. You might also think about a harness instead of a collar.

Here is an interesting chart showing disk problems and their treatment for over 1000 dogs. It lists whether they are back or neck problems, and you can narrow it down with the search feature.

http://www.dodgerslist.com/alldata.asp

[connie]

hi, first, like the others here said, CRATE!!. my cricket, a yorkie mix had a ruptured disk and the vets said if i had crated him at first, he would not have needed his surgery and would have recovered. next, >>> he had his surgery in memphis because arkansas vets didn't do that kind. i strongly recommend DR. MOSLEY, AT SOUTHWIND ANIMAl clinic, on winchester rd.
he did cricket's surgery, he called me every day to update me, he showed me everything i needed to do and still after 9 months inquires about him. his heart is as big as texas. he also let me pay out a 3000 dollar bill, and he had never met me.
That vet is cricket's angel, i have no doubts that cricket would not be with me , if not for him. please keep beanie in crate on strict rest, just out to potty, till you find out what is going on.
even after surgery, cricket had to be crated for 6 weeks.
and after 9 months, cricket is getting deep pain back. dr.mosley performed a miracle for me.
the best of luck to you and beanie, my prayers are with you.
hugs,
connie and cricket

[puremutt]

hi there, is your dog OK now?
I wonder if mine has the same condition, although it was described as being a blood clot in the spine.
I can sorta walk with him with a sling ( it all happened 2 weeks ago) there are no meds, he supposedly will get better on his own?

[karkorny]

puremutt - blood clot to the spine is FCE. there really are no meds to give, unless they're given in the first 24 hours, which is rare since the condition is hard to diagnose initially. my dog has gone from total paralysis to walking again in 2 months - but i don't know if you'd call it "on his own." he's had rehab that consisteds of acupuncture, electric stim, water therapy, massage. maybe he would have reached this same level of improvement without all that, but i doubt it. my dog bully still has a long way to go, but he's up on all fours on his own and that's almost a miracle. good luck. karen

[puremutt]

hi Karen, yeah it looks like this is the problem.
I feel so sorry for him because he's the happiest dog ( still is).
I think the little walks we make is kinda of good excercise too and from the start I massage his legs as well.
My husband wants to give him pain meds but I don't agree because he doesn't seem to be in pain and on the website I found about fce ;
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_fi ... olism.html
it says there is no pain.
Well it's about 20 days ago since it happened and the walking in the sling is already a big improvement!
Please keep me posted on your baby, so we can compare.

thanks

[karkorny]

puremutt - bully was given Duramax (edit Deramaxx) for "pain," when the rehab vet thought his neck seemed painful from the embolus there. but it's thought that it was what caused him to have a perforated ulcer. apparently that's a potential side effect of Duramax. after having surgery for the ulcer, and then a problem with colitis, he was given Tramadol for pain, but was more for stomach cramps than anything related to the fce. i did use the Tramadol a handful of times when he seemed particularly restless or uncomfortable, more just to relax him than anything else. i agree that pain meds are probably not necessary, although i think Tramadol is very safe and harmless. Bully was very stressed by his paralysis and whined a lot. He's doing so well now though. Had him on his first outing today - took him in the car to a place we always used to go. He was so excited. He tires very easily since he's carrying most of the load of walking on his left side. But I truly believe the right side will come around soon. I was just re-reading something I had printed out about fce that said that whatever improvement you saw by the second week was about all you'd ever see. HOGWASH! My boy has been steadily improving. The second week he was still completely paralyzed and we were rejoicing over a tail wag and a slight movement in one leg. Hang in there. It gets better. karen

[CarolC]

I was just re-reading something I had printed out about fce that said that whatever improvement you saw by the second week was about all you'd ever see. HOGWASH! My boy has been steadily improving. The second week he was still completely paralyzed and we were rejoicing over a tail wag and a slight movement in one leg.

Experience on this board shows that recovery from spinal injury continues for at least 2 years. That is definitely true of my dog.

[puremutt]

Karen, the first dr in the first hospital told me " don't expect your dog to be ever walking again!", I was devastated, why would they say that!
Do you think when our babies are beck ontheir feet this can happen again?
And what if he's gonna chase a cat in the yard again?
So many questions .