Degenerative Myelopathy - Page 1

Hi All, I'm new here and needed some advice. I have a 9 1/2 year old female named Annette. I have had her since she was 8 months old. She was OFA'd with good hips and had 2 great litters. In addition, she was my service dog when she felt better. Now we kind of help eachother. I noticed she started draggin her back paws a bit when she walked. Then her right leg went out briefly and she cried out. The intermitent loss of nerve impulses to mainly her right hind leg has caused undo stress and pain in her right hip joint. She was starting to show early arthritic signs of examination. She has always been in good condition, ie. weight with plenty of exercise. She does not look her age. many people are surprised at how old she is. She was always energetic but able to work for me brilliantly for me. I have always fed her a good diet. She has been on NaturVet Hip&Joint Advanced formula for  a year and now Rimadyl for 6 weeks. She was like her old self for the first 4 weeks but now we are back to decreased activivty, crying out if she runs and her leg goes out, jumping in or out of the van. I love her dearly but I am concerned about her quality of life. Help, I need some advice.

DM does not have any pain , so my guess its not that, maybe a dics  or spine problem. has your vet done any tests?

Agree with Trixx. DM no pain. Have her spine looked at as with an active GSD she could have inadvertently threw out disc causing the sharp pain. If your vet is around I'll bring her in but at least call as she will need to be fasted for the x-ray. Good luck...let us know how she's doing!!

That sounds more like knees to me;  ACL, CCL??  They can manipulate the knees prior to an x-ray to see what they feel (hopefully they are ortho savey) and tell you if there is really a need for a knee x-ray also.  Best of luck  Nan

Also if everything is slipping and sliding around when she tries to move that can hurt her too and that could be why she is crying out.  I would still test her for DM.  They can strain stuff trying to manuver around and pull things out of place.  I woud also try to find a chiropractor for her.  BOL  N

PS:  It may be true that DM does not have pain; but if they hurt themselves trying to get around; that can be her pain and why she is crying out.  N

--- > It may be true that DM does not have pain; but if they hurt themselves trying to get around; that can be her pain and why she is crying out.

Absolutely agree. Also worth mentioning- just because a dog has DM doesnt mean it cant have other problems :(

If she injured herself and you were giving her rimadyl, perhaps the rimadyl made her feel better and as a result, she overdid it and made the injury worse. Rimadyl, like steroids, has zero effect upon DM so if she had DM, the rimadyl wouldnt have made a difference. That leads me to believe it is probably an injury. In DM, you would see signs for a long period of time, before a leg would just go out from under her.  You would have noticed gait abnormailities, loss of balance, bleeding toenails, crossed legs, and if you tried to use her to steady yourself, both of you would have fallen down.

Marjorie
http://www.gsdbbr.org The German Shepherd Dog Breed Betterment Registry (a health registry for registered German Shepherds)
BE PROACTIVE!
http://mzjf.com --> The Degenerative Myelopathy Support Group http://www.mzjf.info/hgate Heaven's Gate