My 8 yo standard started to show muscle weakness in her hind end about 4 months ago. She stopped wanting to jump up into the car, as her back feet would not always make it/drag a bit. I took a note, and wondered if she was just starting to get a little arthritic. Then she started to develop issues with her balance, and they got progressively worse, fairly quickly. Her balance and coordination was very bad, and she began dragging a hind toe a bit, but she did not appear to be in pain and her reflexes remained normal.
Her regular vet did some basic bloodwork, radiographs of her spine and neck, and put her on rest and carprofen for two weeks.They believe she may have a spinal disc compression or inflammation. The vet though she might see a bit of narrowing between the C4-C5 vertebrates on the radiographs, but her in-house specialist did not. They referred her to a neurological specialist in another practice. The specialist was not able to see her for 6 weeks, and in that time she got progressively better without medication, until she was almost normal. The specialist gave her a basic workup and quoted another 4k testing if I wanted to gather more info, but because she was improving I decided to wait. They said to email if it got worse.
She woke up a few days ago in very clear pain, limping on the front foot, not wanting to flex her neck, wining, laying down to eat or drink. This is different then how it manifested before, with clear pain rather then unsteadiness and localized to her neck and front shoulder. I emailed a video to the specialist and haven’t heard back. I emailed her vet to see if I could start her back on carprofrin for pain/inflammation.
I’m not really sure were to go from here. If I spend the 4K on the MRI/Spinal tap, I don’t really have the funds to DO anything once they diagnose. I am hoping that the carprofrin will help with pain. I did acupuncture through a local holistic vet with my last senior dog, and for the cost of the testing the neurologist wants to do I can pay for a lot of pain management visits.
But I’m just wondering if there is a genetic conditioning that poodles are prone to that would match this range of symptoms?
Her regular vet did some basic bloodwork, radiographs of her spine and neck, and put her on rest and carprofen for two weeks.They believe she may have a spinal disc compression or inflammation. The vet though she might see a bit of narrowing between the C4-C5 vertebrates on the radiographs, but her in-house specialist did not. They referred her to a neurological specialist in another practice. The specialist was not able to see her for 6 weeks, and in that time she got progressively better without medication, until she was almost normal. The specialist gave her a basic workup and quoted another 4k testing if I wanted to gather more info, but because she was improving I decided to wait. They said to email if it got worse.
She woke up a few days ago in very clear pain, limping on the front foot, not wanting to flex her neck, wining, laying down to eat or drink. This is different then how it manifested before, with clear pain rather then unsteadiness and localized to her neck and front shoulder. I emailed a video to the specialist and haven’t heard back. I emailed her vet to see if I could start her back on carprofrin for pain/inflammation.
I’m not really sure were to go from here. If I spend the 4K on the MRI/Spinal tap, I don’t really have the funds to DO anything once they diagnose. I am hoping that the carprofrin will help with pain. I did acupuncture through a local holistic vet with my last senior dog, and for the cost of the testing the neurologist wants to do I can pay for a lot of pain management visits.
But I’m just wondering if there is a genetic conditioning that poodles are prone to that would match this range of symptoms?