Dog with Spondylosis needs help!

Long Legged Mack Daddy

Hi All,

I have a twelve year old pitbull cross who has been diagnosed with spondylosis. He is in otherwise fine condition for his age and less than a year ago, he was still chasing balls and doing hikes with me.

He is now in a state where he can only walk very short distances very slowly. He spends 95% of his time either splayed out on the couch asleep or constantly moving up and down the couch and changing position in an effort to find relief from his considerable pain.

His demise was quite sudden. The vet reckons that he has probably had spondylosis for quite some time but some kind of trauma has cracked one of the bridges which form between the vertabrae (a feature of spondylosis) and it is this crack which is pinching a nerve or the spinal chord or something.

The vet has him on anti-inflamatory tablets called "Cimalgex" and he has also administered a four week course of injections (1 a week) which was supposed to promote the growth of new smoother cartliage between the vertabrae. The vet gave us the impression this treatment should deliver a marked improvement but this has not been the case. He has actually gotten worse and the cimalgex tablets are becomming less and less effective. He now has more and more, longer and longer periods of the day where he is whimpering with pain. The only thing the vet is suggesting is a repitition of the 4 week course of injections which did nothing but relieve us of €270 the first time.

Has anyone else out there had experience of this kind of situation? Perhaps your vet suggested a different treatment which worked. I've done some research online and some people have found accupuncture to have provided effective relief for dogs suffering from this kind of thing. There is a vet in Swords, Co Dublin which offers accupuncture. Has anyone used this service?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

portgirl123

sorry, no experience in this at all.just want to say how sorry i am for both you and esp your dog. if it was me, i would be bringing the poor guy back to vet and seeing what your options are now, maybe even going for a 2nd opinion. the one thing, i know its easy for me to say,i would not be doing, is to let the the dog suffer anymore. from what you have wrote, its seems the poor dog is in a lot of pain and has no quality of life. its down to you as the owner to know when the time is right to put a stop to it.
i have faced this twice and its not a nice thing to have to do but it goes with been a responsible dog owner.as i said, if me it would be a trip to vet first and then go from there.

good luck to both of ye

tazwaz

i have no experience with this illness either, sorry. But i do know what its like to have a sick dog in pain... if i were you and you wanted to, i'd give the acupuncture a try, theres no harm in that as long as your dog isnt suffering at the minute. you could also go back to your vet and see if you have any other options.
i personally tried anything that looked promising for my dog and when nothing worked and he was in pain i knew i could let him go because i had done everything i possibly could. the only thing i will say is if your dog is in pain dont let him suffer too long if there's nothing that can be done.
will be thinking of ye xx

ppink

Hi
sorry to hear about your dog. I have a dog also with spondylosis, she was diagnosed at 3 yrs having had some symptoms at 2 yrs (ish), she is now 8. We were very fortunate that our vet has experience of his own dog having the condition and being the same breed and 2 years further advanced than ours. He immediately advised us to cut her activity, 10 min walks loads of rest on the lead all the time. We do let her off the lead for a burst around otherwise her life would not be worth living. however she is in the house mostly and I am careful with her getting cold or wet.

the only thing I am no help with then is the meds as we have successfully avoided them up to now. At once stage we tried PLT I think they are called but with no improvement. to be honest our vet never gave us the impression that any tablets would help her except pain meds when she will eventually need them.
We did try normal physio with her but found no joy with it but we recently started swimming her in a indoor canine rehab pool and find that fantastic for her. she is better coming out of there than going in! unfortunately it is a distance away from us otherwise I would have her there all the time.

Long Legged Mack Daddy

portgirl123 wrote: »

sorry, no experience in this at all.just want to say how sorry i am for both you and esp your dog. if it was me, i would be bringing the poor guy back to vet and seeing what your options are now, maybe even going for a 2nd opinion. the one thing, i know its easy for me to say,i would not be doing, is to let the the dog suffer anymore. from what you have wrote, its seems the poor dog is in a lot of pain and has no quality of life. its down to you as the owner to know when the time is right to put a stop to it.
i have faced this twice and its not a nice thing to have to do but it goes with been a responsible dog owner.as i said, if me it would be a trip to vet first and then go from there.

good luck to both of ye

Thanks for your kind words. We're bringing him to a different vet for a second opinion this evening. We are only too aware of his suffering and we don't want to unecessarily prolong it but this dog was in exceptional physical condition for his age up until about 4 months ago. Apart from this spinal problem, he still is. People are amazed when they find out he's 12. He's had full membership of our family for 12 years. He's always come on hikes with us. We've always holidayed in pet freindly accomodation in Ireland so that he can come to. He's come family camping with us and wild camping with me. We have two young children who adore him. So for all of these reasons, we want to establish if there is any chance of him carrying on with a decent level of comfort and quality of life. If there is a chance then we want to give him that chance. If not, then we will not prolong his suffering.

Long Legged Mack Daddy

ppink wrote: »

Hi
sorry to hear about your dog. I have a dog also with spondylosis, she was diagnosed at 3 yrs having had some symptoms at 2 yrs (ish), she is now 8. We were very fortunate that our vet has experience of his own dog having the condition and being the same breed and 2 years further advanced than ours. He immediately advised us to cut her activity, 10 min walks loads of rest on the lead all the time. We do let her off the lead for a burst around otherwise her life would not be worth living. however she is in the house mostly and I am careful with her getting cold or wet.

the only thing I am no help with then is the meds as we have successfully avoided them up to now. At once stage we tried PLT I think they are called but with no improvement. to be honest our vet never gave us the impression that any tablets would help her except pain meds when she will eventually need them.
We did try normal physio with her but found no joy with it but we recently started swimming her in a indoor canine rehab pool and find that fantastic for her. she is better coming out of there than going in! unfortunately it is a distance away from us otherwise I would have her there all the time.

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. God! I did'nt realise they could get spondylosis so young! My fella was "action-dog" up until a few months ago! I might try the water thing if he improves, although at the moment he would not be able for it.

Long Legged Mack Daddy

tazwaz wrote: »

i have no experience with this illness either, sorry. But i do know what its like to have a sick dog in pain... if i were you and you wanted to, i'd give the acupuncture a try, theres no harm in that as long as your dog isnt suffering at the minute. you could also go back to your vet and see if you have any other options.
i personally tried anything that looked promising for my dog and when nothing worked and he was in pain i knew i could let him go because i had done everything i possibly could. the only thing i will say is if your dog is in pain dont let him suffer too long if there's nothing that can be done.
will be thinking of ye xx

Thanks

ppink

Long Legged Mack Daddy wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. God! I did'nt realise they could get spondylosis so young! My fella was "action-dog" up until a few months ago! I might try the water thing if he improves, although at the moment he would not be able for it.

I know it is very hard. It sounds like you poor guy is a lot worse than ours! Our dog's back legs are all over the place if she does a lot of walking so we keep it too a minimum. they also rub off each other so she gets sores on them so we made her some protectors for her legs.
we have 2 GSD's one is a slob who moves when he has to and the other is full of beans never resting and it is her that has the spondylosis! so it is not easy as she still has huge energy but her back legs cannot keep up.
did you vet give you pain killers or just the anti inflam's?
If you want I can give you my vets details as he does have experience with spondylosis, even just to call him for a second opinion. He is very reasonably priced too. Only thing is he is in Tipp/Waterford area.

I was even thinking about contacting the 'bionic vet' that is on TV
http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk/ just to see if they knew of any treatment, but I would imagine it is crazy expensive.

If you do get acupuncture can you let me know how it goes? I had looked at that too but could not find anyone local to do it.

Long Legged Mack Daddy

ppink wrote: »

Our dog's back legs are all over the place if she does a lot of walking so we keep it too a minimum. they also rub off each other so she gets sores on them so we made her some protectors for her legs.

Yeah, I've seen that happen to my mother's last two German Shepherd dogs (both deceased) and in both cases she actually got a shoe maker to make special shoes for them.

Did your vet give you pain killers or just the anti inflam's?
If you want I can give you my vets details as he does have experience with spondylosis, even just to call him for a second opinion. He is very reasonably priced too. Only thing is he is in Tipp/Waterford area.

Up until today he has only been on non-steroid anti-inflams but we went back to the vet and as and from today he is on full cortizone and a mild opiate.Thanks for the offer of giving me your vet's details but we are in Dublin so that's out of the question.

If you do get acupuncture can you let me know how it goes? I had looked at that too but could not find anyone local to do it.

We've decided to hold off on the accupuncture. That practice is an hours drive away and even 10 minutes in the car leaves my fella in much worse pain for the rest of the day. If he improves to a point were we think he might be able for it, then we'll try it.

JustAThought

I'm very sorry to hear about your beloved pet; it's a really heartbreaking story .

I have zero experience of Spond but another poster has mentioned water treatment. "My" kennels has one complete with ramp for the dog to lumber into but that is in Salins near the ak Club.

But; I hear that is another very good one in Dublin near the Dogs Trust in Coldwinters ; just 2 minutes off the M50 ; might be worth inquiring with your vet about or doing a google on; this is about 30 minutes or so I think from Swords.

There is also an aqua therapy place that I saw a folder about at my vets place : I'm sure they would be happy to give details over the phone if you rang Pat Keeling Vet Hospital in Raheny, Dublin & asked them to call out the contact details to you . I think I recall that you could claim this from your insurance which might be of help?

Either way I am very sorry for the situation you and your family find yourselves in; it must be just terriblly hard on you all.

Long Legged Mack Daddy

JustAThought wrote: »

I'm very sorry to hear about your beloved pet; it's a really heartbreaking story .

I have zero experience of Spond but another poster has mentioned water treatment. "My" kennels has one complete with ramp for the dog to lumber into but that is in Salins near the ak Club.

But; I hear that is another very good one in Dublin near the Dogs Trust in Coldwinters ; just 2 minutes off the M50 ; might be worth inquiring with your vet about or doing a google on; this is about 30 minutes or so I think from Swords.

There is also an aqua therapy place that I saw a folder about at my vets place : I'm sure they would be happy to give details over the phone if you rang Pat Keeling Vet Hospital in Raheny, Dublin & asked them to call out the contact details to you . I think I recall that you could claim this from your insurance which might be of help?

Either way I am very sorry for the situation you and your family find yourselves in; it must be just terriblly hard on you all.

Thanks very much. You are very kind. I'll check all of that out.

tk123

We go to the hydro in Coldwinters - http://sharpwellsk9hydrotherapy.com/ It's brilliant and has made a HUGE difference to my dogs muscle tone and strength after having surgeries on his legs. Also don't worry about the ramp - you can lift the dog in. We have to lift my dog in because he's BOLD and won't go in himself lol! :pac:
Thinking of you and you dog OP. It's a horrible situation to be in but hopefully you'll be able to find something to ease his pain.

dakota2010

Hey. We have a boxer who is now 9. She was diagnosed with spondylosis approx. 3.5-4yrs along with a femur out of socket. This has been the case for years and was finally diagnosed by the excellent vets in Cavan Pet Hospital along with the spondylosis. She has been placed on Matacam and it has provided huge relief along with the addition of a GSD pup after she was diagnosed. Before he came, she would lie around all day, displaying symptions of depression, just no interest in doing anything at all. But when Elvis arrived, she completly changed. She was playing with him every day, running around like mad, no probs to her. Obviously the metacam has had huge effect. We had her at a different vets and they basically said we were imagining things, that she didnt have a limp at all. So we went to Cavan Pet Hospital, which is extremely cheap compared to others around the country, they seen the limp straight away and got to the source of the problem in 2 visits. So you might consider them. Ask whoever your attending about Metacam. It really does work and it helps other illnesses and pain of many sorts. Hope you reach a solution.