Need help 13 year old lame lab..davet, jdf, etc...??

[S&R's Mom]

13 years old. Fine on Monday - toward end of day seemed to favor right rear leg - walk and drag her nails as she walked. The next morning she had no control of her foot so because of hip dysplasia in the other hip, they now have to carry her in a towel to get her outside to pee, etc..No pain - vet put her on anti-inflammatories. Did xrays, she has bone spurs in spine - up and down - loaded with them. Not a Dr. here of course but I would almost guess that maybe one of the bone spurs is pressing on a nerve that would maybe be causing the lameness in the foot? Any thoughts here?
Thanks!

[davet]

spondylitis or bone spurs and bone bridging of the vertebrae...i don't know of any cure and the only treatment i know of is what is being done,,,steroids and any other antiinflammatorys....i think you are going to have to make a decision soon as to what proceedure to take...Traci can supply you with that information and if you pup becomes paralytic there is no one who can tell you better the JDF--but you have to put the betterment of the dog ahead of your own feelings...i am not saying to give up without a fari trial but sooner or later a decision will have to be made,,,good luck and wait for traci and JDF to give advice...

[S&R's Mom]

I looked up canine spondylitis and it talks about lots of pain and stiffness...this 13 year old girl has no pain -she literally went lame in her leg over the course of a day. I know I mentioned that she had spurs in her spine but the vet told them they had been there for years. Can you think of any other possibilities? They're giving her until Friday to see how she does on the anti-inflammatories before bringing her to a specialist. I'll wait to hear from JDF and others too. Thx as always - they just put their GSD to sleep a few months ago from old old age. This is very difficult for them

[davet]

that does not mean that that is true for every case...to really make a decent diagnoses i, personally , would have to see the radiograph....but really this whole case has to stand the test of time...steroids, aspirin, rimadyl, glucosamine anything can be paliative and may help but to reverse it, in know of nothing...doesn't meant there is nothing but i don't know of it...wait for Traci and JDF...

[jdf]

Agree with davet on this. Our dog Roxy didn't have an arthritis problem but when she was ten years old, she suffered a Fibrocartilaginous Embolism (FCE) which paralyzed her hind quarters. It was a one time event and she slowly regained some nerve function but had to use a K9cart for walking.
With FCE, fibrocartilage in a disc "blows out" and damages nerves and blood vessels supplying blood to the nerves. When this infarction happens, paralysis is immediate and very dramatic. There is no treatment for it other than anti-inflammatory meds - Roxy was treated with Prednisone in an attempt to reduce the possibilty of further damage.

I know FCE's and arthritis/spondylitis are two totally different things but in each case the only form of treatment would be anti-inflamatory meds.

It sounds like your assessment may be a correct one and I think all they can realistically do is to try to keep their dog comfortable and as pain free as possible. Roxy did well in her cart for six years but she wasn't in any pain from the FCE. We finally had to let her go 3 months ago at age 16 because she started loosing the use of her front legs, which appeared to a neurological deficit along with other unrelated health problems. Hope this helps some, I guess we just have to face the hard decisions in life sometimes no matter how much it hurts. We couldn't let Roxy suffer even though saying goodbye to her was the hardest thing in the world to do. We still miss her terribly but knowing she had a good long life makes loosing her a little more bearable.

[Traci]

One of your comments prompts me to say compressed spinal cord or intervertebral disc problems, given the mention of dragging the paw/leg. In HD or arthritic conditions, you will usually see favoring a leg, as in holding it up, rather than dragging. Might be neurological, which may require a myelogram, CT scan and/or surgery.

[jdf]

after reading your response to davet above, I guess I should say that FCE might be a possibilty. It can affect only one leg depending on the location and severity of the infarction. In Roxy's case it was severe and both rear legs and tail were paralyzed along with her becoming incontinent both ways because of paralysis of the sphincter muscle group.

An FCE doesn't show anything on X-rays and it's largely a diagnosis reached after other possible causes have been eliminated. Roxy was given a myeolgram X-ray (a contrast medium is injected into the spine) as a means of confirming DX of FCE. The myelogram didn't indicate anything either which is confirmation of FCE. Improvement depends on the location and severity of the FCE and deep pain response (the flesh between the toes is aggresively pinched with forceps to check deep pain response) is used to determine prognosis as much as possible - the greater the pain response, the better the chances are for recovery of nerve function in the affected limb(s).

Here are some links to info on FCE:

http://www.petsurgery.com/fibrocartilag ... zation.htm
http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/clinsci/ ... uest17.htm
http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/clinsci/ ... swer17.htm
http://www.vetinfo.com/dfibrocartlaginous.html

[S&R's Mom]

JDF I am so sorry to hear about Roxy - I remember you speaking about her back when I was part of Acme Pet. God speed to her and my thoughts are with you all.
Traci - thank you for your perspective - I too thought perhaps it could be neurological seeing how her leg is now all of a sudden un-responsive. I'm going to pass along all your information and let them decide which is the best next step. Thanks all!

C

[jdf]

JDF I am so sorry to hear about Roxy - I remember you speaking about her back when I was part of Acme Pet. God speed to her and my thoughts are with you all.

Thank you S&R's Mom. It was the saddest day of my life but over the course of two weeks, Roxer got to the point where she couldn't do it anymore. We couldn't let her suffer and she couldn't go for walks anymore, was having trouble eating and was loosing weight at a very fast rate. I still miss her incredibly and can't really comprehend that she is no longer with us. She was a great, one in a million, dog.

Thanks, again for your kind thoughts. Jim

[Traci]

S&R's Mom, we have a memorial here for Roxy if you want to see it, it also has links to other Roxy memorials.....

In Loving Memory of Jim and Nancy's beautiful Roxy