Update: Ari's MRI - Page 1

Ari had his MRI today. They scaned from brain to tail. The doctors could find no sign of a proturding disk, pinched nerve or any other abnormality.

Last week they did a full body x-ray and abdomenal attra-sound.  The doctors said he looked totally fine there.

After we talked the nerologist did a spinal tap, to make sure that there is no sign of meningitis. Though he said that it would be unusual for meningitis not to have progresssed by now, it is not unheard of for the virus to harbor for months.

Must get frustrating.. Did you have a full blood panel done? Anyway, my prays are with you and Ari.

~Lauren

A blood panel was done before his x-ray. Everthing was in normal levels. I don't have the results with me but I can get them.

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http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/117735.html#117846

Good luck with him.  What an upset trying to figure out what's wrong.

Did the docs have any suggestions as to how to proceed? 

I just lost an 11 year old to degenerative cervical disk disease. His symptoms were very much like Ari's but more severe I think. The vet diagnosed it with an xray, an MRI was not necessary. I would assume that area has already been checked, but thought I'd mention it just in case. BTW this was not the first dog I've owned with this problem. The first did OK with muscle relaxants and I made a cervical collar out of cast padding and vetwrap to stabilize his neck and raised his food and water dishes off the floor so he didn't need to bend his neck to eat or drink. Just thinking out loud.....

Right now the neurologists are waiting for the results of the spinal tap. They think it is unlikely to be meningitis but want to rule it out as a possibliity.

If there is no sign of meningittis, then there are the far reaching possiblities of some degenerative muscle disease, which I can't remember the name of, or a slight chance of a vein or artery bulgeing and putting pressure somewhere. The bulgeing artery is scary, but there is no way to test for it and since it doesn't happen every time he works it most likely is not that.

If he does it again the neurologist wants me to bring him in as soon after as possible to run  another blood panel to look for muscle proteins. There is the chance he is muscle spasming, similar to a horse tying up. But with that there should be some lingering sign of it.

Blitzen- The first thing that the neurologist was worried about was degenerative cervical disease. The x-ray ruled that out.

gsdlvr2- No EEG was done. Why and what would you be looking for?

It is nice to not have to worry that a disk is going to suddenly go and leave him paralized or dead.  When I was ten my mom's Dobie had a disk in the middle of her back go out right in front of me. It was not something anyone wants to see, she screamed, peed all over the place and went down. Her back end was completely paralized. The MRI showed two more disks in her neck ready to go. My mom had her put down. Needless to say this has had me a bit paranoid and emotional.

Thank you everybody for your support and understanding.

My thoughts are with you! I know with my boy they said the slight bulging of discs he had on his MRI should not be causing him the pain I described to them that he had. It was weird because the vets could never get a response from him with all their poking and prodding. Maybe it is just a torn muscle that gets reinjured... have you thought of trying a chiropractor to see what they think? Just recently, well in February, my female got this drop jaw thing. I can't remember the "big" name, she couldn't close her mouth. Then she began to yip when she jumped up on the bed, like nerve pain. THEN she got ataxic in her rear. I had brought her in right away but didn't care for that vet and mine was out so what do ya do....I made another appointment with Sandy the following week. She said similar to the first vet but changed the dosage of Pred  and put her on anibiotics and got me an appointment with a acupuncture/chiro the next day. She popped Yettes neck and back (no acupuncture) and its now July and so far so good. They thought she was holding her head weird and caused her neck to go out. Basically  we think it was all caused from an inner ear infection. Just a thought, maybe a chiro can feel or see something on an xray conventional vets cannot...