Disc/spinal injuries- An alert-

[borzoimom]

I have been in dogs my whole life, but recentely with Femka had quite a fright- not to mention something totally new I have never seen before. I thought I would share this information to maybe help other owners if they find themselves in a similar situation.
Four weeks ago, Femka suddenly out of no where came up injured - unable to turn her head to the left, in obvious screaming pain. Of course we went immediately to the vet. At the time the vet thought she had Cervical Intervertebral Disc Disease. This is a progressive, aggressive degenerative disease. ( usually genetic ). She had type 2 which when the inflamation in the spinal cord and discs, the swelling moves out into the discs of her neck. Unlike type 1 that would leave her paralized, this type is more horrid as it leaves the dog in excruiated PAIN! At the same time they pulled a full blood panel including full thyroid test, and the tests came back her thyroid was crashing. There was no indication at the time of a elevated white count etc. We started pain medications ( rimadryl and roboxin) and I started adding shark cartiledge and vitamin C to her diet.
Two weeks past and it was obvious the pain management was not working. She was in constant pain. Appearing better to screaming. With a very heavy heart seeing her in constant pain, knowing this disease as we were told would only progress making her life miserable, we made the decission to put her down. Where we live the cremetories are not open on the weekend, and her pain was worse. We called the vet out to our house. When the vet arrived, out of standard procedure he examined her again. Then he found it! Although he had seen her 3 times during all the times, the day we were going to put her down, he felt swelling at the back of the neck. Additionally her temperature was elevated. CANINE MENINGITUS!
We all went from thinking we are losing her to hope and started full antibiotics. Its a week later now, and obviously much better.
** Here is what I hope to pass along- if your dog suddenly shows up with a spine or disc disease, and with meningitus slow to show up just like in people, have your vet start antibiotics. If its not meningitus, the antibiotics will not hurt the dog- but as stated by my very skilled vet- Meningitus is very hard to detect medically until its gotton too advanced. Its frightening to think or wonder how many people put their dogs down under a disc disease with only pain management but the infection is present and hard to detect..
This is a autoimmune triggered disease. Its not contagious but rather triggered.

[whimzikal]

OMG. I am glad the vet found the real problem and she is on her way to recovery. Thanks for sharing her story, it may save lives in the future.

[borzoimom]

Those are my thoughts as well. Since the true symptoms do not show up for weeks, just like us- someone might think the treatment isnt working when really its a spinal infection.. Just makes you wonder... As my vet said- this may be more common than reported as owners do not see any help in treatment when really- its missing antibiotics..

[fairlight]

Thank you so much for your post borzoi...and thank goodness you have an excellent vet. He may have misdiagnosed the first couple of times, but it sounds like your vet is a real keeper.

[golden&hovawart]

I am truly happy that you didn't have to put her to sleep and that yr vet is so good!.
Femka is,indead,a very lucky dog.
Thanks for the heads up.

[borzoimom]

She goes back for her re-check tomorrow morning. I am continueing to see improvement in her. She even tried to play with Zubin this morning.. ( uh - not yet little girl..)

[SalemsMom]

I'm so glad they found her problem,what wonderful news,I think if that would have been our vets they just would have put her to sleep,without checking first,your vet is worth his weight in gold.

[borzoimom]

Femkas new harness. This doesnt put any stress on her neck, shoulders or between the chest.. She says she looks very " stylish" and thinks she is even more special! lol

[EmmaGirl]

Oh she is a grogeous girl!!! Thank Goodness your vet had the where-with-all to actually pinpoint the cause. Thank you for this great info!! If this information hasn't already been published in a journel then it should be.

I'm so thrilled for you and your beautiful Femka!!

[borzoimom]

Femkas neck and disc's have greatly improved with alot more movement etc. However- now its in her lumbar of her back. So the infection must have spread but little worries of permanent damage. It could also just be arthritus just more painful. So she is on another round of medications- the antibiotics ( Cephalexin) and also Tramadol for pain. I have been adding also shark cartiledge and vitamin C as this is also very good for arthritus. She has another recheck in two weeks. I was relieved to see how much movement she has in her neck. She also has uh gained almost 2 pounds ( probably the extra meat balls for the meds.) The vet that perscribed the antibiotics is the "more sighthound vet" and we will just see her for now on. We uh discussed a few things in relation to this..