Need advice about my dog (sort of long)
Question:
My 9 year old boxer is having some serious problems with her hind legs. They’ve been coming out from under her, they’re pretty wobbley and she’s sloping pretty hard when she stands up. (She previously had a perfect showdog stance.) Our vet has found only the slightest evidence of arthritis via x-ray and believes it’s either a major problem with a disk or possibly a spinal tumor. She’s been on prednazone for 8 days and has shown *zero* improvement. So now our vet is recommending we take her to a neurology specialist – of which there are none within a 70 mile radius. I live in San Jose, CA and my only options are Sonoma County or UC Davis as far as anyone has recommended. I’m really conflicted about this because A) we don’t have a ton of money and B) we have a toddler and I’m due to have another baby in a couple of months and it’s hard to imagine finding the time and money to do the traveling required to get our dog to these specialists. On the other hand, she’s as important to our family as our son and we can’t just put her down without doing as much as possible, either. I’m looking for advice, recommendations, anything! Thanks in advance, laura
Response:
>I’m really conflicted about this because A) we don’t have a ton >of money and B) we have a toddler and I’m due to have another >baby in a couple of months and it’s hard to imagine finding the >time and money to do the traveling required to get our dog to >these specialists. On the other hand, she’s as important to our >family as our son and we can’t just put her down without doing >as much as possible, either.
Hi Laura, You have my complete sympathy. I was in the same position as you as recently as a few months ago. (Actually I am envious of you having 2 good teams of neurologists only 70 miles away… for me the closest were 5 hours away 
.) I also worked in human medicine for a long time, and based on my experience I would say the most important thing for you to keep in mind at every point is that you have choices and options at every step along the way. Look at this as a process of gathering information as to what the options are. It is perfectly OK to consult a neurologist now, it is OK to wait a few months until your life situation has changed, it is perfectly OK to not consult one at all. The questions you can ask your primary care vet now are "What are the possible consequences of waiting? How might I expect my dog’s condition to progress if I don’t get treatment now?" And if you do decide to see a neurologist, it is not the first step down an irrevokable path. What the neurologist will do is to give you more options. S/he might recommend a muscle biopsy or a MRI, for example. Find out what the consequences of those actions could be, and make your decision based on that–you might up deciding against doing either one (I did). But the chances are that the neurologist can give you more diagnostic and treatment options than your primary care vet can–that’s the advantage of going to a specialist. It’s also possible that a specialist can pin-point an easily-diagnosed, easily-treated possibility that your primary care vet isn’t aware of–I don’t mean to give you false hope, but I *have* seen that happen on occasion. All in all–given your description of your situation, and the fact that you’ll have the additional responsibility of an infant very soon–if I were in your position, I think I would consult a neurologist now, get information about my options, and very possibly defer any expensive and/or burdensome diagnostic procedures until or unless your dog’s situation worsens. But it’s your choice, and none of us here can know all the details of your personal situation and your dog’s condition. There isn’t one "right" answer as to what to do; you are faced with making the "best" choices for your family out of many possibilities that exist right now. And know too that no matter what you decide there is likely to be some guilt involved. Say you opt to do a $600 MRI and it doesn’t show anything–well, it’s only human to regret having spent that money. And if you choose not to do it, there’s going to be guilt too. But that’s just the nature of the whole process–the fact that an option exists doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a dead end. So expect some regrets along the way no matter what you decide–it doesn’t mean that a given decision was "wrong", it’s just something that’s inherent in the situation you’re faced with right now. It’s a tough one, and one that many dog owners have to deal with at some point. I hope that helps. I’m thinking good thoughts your way. Dianne
Response:
When clinical signs persist (as in the case of your dog) it is best to consider having a myelogram or MRI exam. MRI would be my first choice. Perhaps you can call around some vet hospitals in your area and see if one is available (and also check if there is also someone available who can READ the tests). Another option would be to find a Vet. School in your area and perhaps that would be a cheaper way to get the MRI done. Sometimes bilateral rupture of the cranial cruciate ligaments looks a lot like a back problem, due to the reluctance of the patient to bear weight on either rear leg. Did the vet rule that possiblity out already? If you don’t know for sure call and ask him. Also,sometimes even kidney infections can look a lot like a dog had back pain, with rigidity of the back muscles and reluctance to move and more rarely this can be a sign of an abscess in the retroperitoneal region (between the lining of the abdominal cavity and the big muscles of the spine), although most dogs with this problem also have fevers. My own Yorki had a humped back and walked with wobbly WEAK back legs and it turned out to be kidney failure. I’m not suggesting this is the case with your own dog but a good idea all around here would be a complete blood work-up and urine test. A simple urine dip-stick test will be less than $20 and that will at least tell you if the kidneys are looking okay or not. Anyway, were it my dog I’d make sure it isn’t cruciate ligament problems (back knee ligaments blown); I’d rule OUT kidney problems; and finally I’d call around for an available MRI and have that done. You’ll know a LOT with just that test alone. Best of luck
Response:
Hi Laura, Ask your vet for a blood panel to be done to rule out other things like kidney problems. It could be something affecting the muscles rather than a disc problem. Alison
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> My 9 year old boxer is having some serious problems with her > hind legs. They’ve been coming out from under her, they’re pretty > wobbley and she’s sloping pretty hard when she stands up. (She > previously had a perfect showdog stance.) Our vet has found only > the slightest evidence of arthritis via x-ray and believes it’s either > a major problem with a disk or possibly a spinal tumor. She’s > been on prednazone for 8 days and has shown *zero* improvement. > So now our vet is recommending we take her to a neurology > specialist – of which there are none within a 70 mile radius. > I live in San Jose, CA and my only options are Sonoma County > or UC Davis as far as anyone has recommended. > I’m really conflicted about this because A) we don’t have a ton > of money and B) we have a toddler and I’m due to have another > baby in a couple of months and it’s hard to imagine finding the > time and money to do the traveling required to get our dog to > these specialists. On the other hand, she’s as important to our > family as our son and we can’t just put her down without doing > as much as possible, either. > I’m looking for advice, recommendations, anything! > Thanks in advance, > laura
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – . . . > So now our vet is recommending we take her to a neurology > specialist – of which there are none within a 70 mile radius. > I live in San Jose, CA and my only options are Sonoma County > or UC Davis as far as anyone has recommended. > I’m really conflicted about this because A) we don’t have a ton > of money and B) we have a toddler and I’m due to have another > baby in a couple of months and it’s hard to imagine finding the > time and money to do the traveling required to get our dog to > these specialists. On the other hand, she’s as important to our > family as our son and we can’t just put her down without doing > as much as possible, either. > I’m looking for advice, recommendations, anything! > Thanks in advance, > laura
Laura, Sorry, I didn’t see your original post, just the reply from Alison with included it. One suggestion is to talk to your vet about the urgency of getting this diagnosed and treated. You don’t say whether your dog is in pain or not, or whether this is causing problems with elimination. If not, you may have some time before you need to get aggressive with it, which could help financially as well as with time. Also have you asked your vet about a neurology specialist? I know that there are some vets who specialize in certain procedures who travel around an area seeing patients at various vets’ offices. My vet for example has a specialist in sonograms who comes from Santa Cruz (I live in San Jose also) to her office once a week. Good luck, Barbara
Response:
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