Cauda Equina - Page 1

I will try to keep this short... I worked Annika in obedience the Sat after Thanksgiving in the morning and then we did a mock BH routine trial with a few friends a few hours later. On the recall out of the down in motion she seemed to be tripping up on her tag line I had on her so I removed it. On the recall from the stay she cried out and brought up one of her rear legs. She held it up and yelp a couple of times and then walked off the field fine, jumped up in the truck before I could stop her and yelped again. I rested her for 3 weeks and then started mod. exercise, brought her out to the field yesterday for a mod. workout in obedience and protection. She did great in obedience and then came up lame with a yelp a few hours later when she started to run the blinds. My trainer/friend and mentor spoke with me about Cauda Equina when this first happened as he has seen this WAY too much in our beloved breed. He lost a dog, who had the surgery for this genetic disease, coming out of anesthesia some 8 years ago. When he saw what happened yesterday I could see it in his face, her Schutzhund career is over before she even gets her SCH1. An MRI is the only true way to diagnois it and usually it is a matter of ruling out everything else. Anyone else have any experience with this? I am going to get her a complete workup (bloodwork, x-rays and ultrasound) next week, then I will go from there... Darlene Vom Herrenhaus German Shepherds

Darlene, here is a website that offers some interesting dialogue about this malady: http://www.caudaequina.org/stories.html I had heard this term before, but due to the latter part of its name I thought that it was an affliction of horses and never associated it with dogs. Now I understand. The best of luck with this and may your girl recover quickly and go on for her Schutzhund title. Best Wishs, Bob-O

Have heard it spoken if but don't understand.. by the word in its name, I'm confused since it relates to horse.... There are many many things that can cause a dog to have trouble and I'd see a sports vet before I would panic, speaking from experience of course.. because I can have a dog dead and buried in my mind before we even get an appointment just imagining all the things it "could" be.... My little girl has had some similar symptoms to yours, and her problems are all related to her musculature being too tight and some jammed toes and needing specific conditioning.....these high drive all wound up dogs can hurt themselves so easily.... I'm not saying there is nothing wrong with your dog, but it could be a very fixable problem. I'm just saying don't panic ... like I do.... and if there is a good sports vet in your area RUN to them!! I know of one each in NC and SC, where are you??

http://petsurgery.com/caudaequinasyndrome.html.. and here's another.. thanks Bob-O, I thought the same thing.... Interesting, back to reading....

Thanks to you both for your quick responses, I have been researching this for the past month. I am not panicing just yet but have a sinking feeling in my gut. She is fine at home running on the property and such, this makes me believe it is more like a pinched nerve which is basically what Cauda Equina is. This has only presented itself twice and both times she had worked some, was put up and then brought out later to work... Off to the vet next week for a full workup... Oh and I am in CA and luckily there is a vet here who is well versed in this disease :) Darlene Vom Herrenhaus German Shepherds

If it's a pinched nerve wouldn't chiropractic or accupuncture help? I know poeple with animals that have used both and swear by these methods. On dogs and equines.

Although not formally diagnosed I would guess my one girl had this. Her later symptoms were very true to what they describe (tail pain etc). She was never lame though and you didn't see the 'major' issues until she was older (9/10). She did have spondylosis all through her spine (from age 4 1/2 on). I treated her with chiropractic, homeopathy etc. She lived a full active life til she was older. The treatments I did helped her tremendously with pain. She was a fanatastic herding dog and worked all her life doing this. I retired her from trialing around 7 yrs. of age due to the amount of time needed to keep up her driving skills etc. Instead she became my chore dog and we worked the pens at a lot of trials.

People get it too. Sometimes it is confused with degenerative myleopathy as with my last male GSD at 8 years old. He was gone within 4 months from onset of symptoms. D'mann

Excellent observation, Doggman. As I read the sympthoms this morning I indeed saw where one can be easily confused as many of the sympthoms are identical, and only thorough testing can determine which is which. DKiah, this is what I read about the name of the affliction. The usuage of the Latin word "Equina" refers to the shape of the nerve bundle, as with some imagination it appears to be a similar shape to a horse's tail. Bob-O

and the latin "cauda" means it's a spinal nerve bunch