Dog Community

Update on Gobie (was ProPlanSelects Senior) :(

Posted : 2/15/2008 8:37:55 PM

Sad Ugh. Where to start... If you'll remember, I said Gobie, the minpin terror, slowed way way down after only a month on ProPlan selects, but dh mentioned that he's not the same dog he was 6 months ago.

Today I just patted his neck and he let out a scream and ran away from me. So immediately I call the vet, they get me in on a cancellation and it turns out he has degenerative disc disease in his neck! Crying SHe said he is very stoic and that DDD is "excruciatingly painful." Of course, I felt terrible for him and burst into tears that I waited so long to do something about it. The vet checked his flexibility, reflexes, etc and I guess these things you don't notice at home but he has lost a lot of range of movement in his neck and spine/hips. He won't turn his head to the right, not much to the left and not very far upward. He is reluctant to allow extention of his front and rear legs. Poor thing, is just a mess.

So likely it wasn't the food, but I do think kibble is still not always the best thing out there to support a sick doggy.

He was given injections of bubrenex and dexamethasone immediately and then he's on pred and 2 other drugs (they are upstairs, can't remember the names) but she said at this point rimadyl would do nothing to help him.

I'm just completely amazed at the ability of this dog to not act like he's in pain. He acted stiff at the end of the day, and slept a lot more but never cried or complained, has always been eager to eat and most especially to play ball/frisbee... which are now forever banned :( He will be heartbroken but I guess it's better for him to not be in pain from playing so enthusiastically with the ball/frisbee.

:( :( I feel like a bad bad ogre mom!

Has anyone had experience with dogs with degenerative disk disease?

Gobie's on 2 weeks bedrest, so no more stairs (we have a flight of 11!) no jumping up on anything (oy, going to have to train him to stay off the furniture) no hard playing, no walks. And then after 2 weeks if he is well we can start walks again. Must use only a harness on him, no collars, which we've already been doing, I do collars just for ID purposes.

So, Gobie the minpin terror is convalescing in his crate with layers of warm blankets, all curled up and snoring. I hope he's feeling better with the pain meds now.

I win the bad mommy award for sure!

Edited for clarity.

jessies_mom

Posted : 2/15/2008 9:04:36 PM

shamrockmommy
I win the bad mommy award for sure!

Please don't be so hard on yourself; you're always looking for the best foods for your dogs. I'm sure you're a great dog mommy. This probably started slowly and gradually got worse, which makes it hard to notice the symptoms until it's more advanced. I'm so sorry about Gobie. Callie would suggest you give him milk thistle to help protect the liver from the pred. She may know of other herbs that would help. Accupuncture may be beneficial too. Maybe you could post about this in the Health section to see if you get more responses? I'll be sending healing vibes.

stanton

Posted : 2/16/2008 12:33:34 AM

Don't beat yourself up....these dogs don't necessarily make it easy for us to know they're in pain.

I have a pomeranian who has bone spurs and the beginning of degenerative disk disease in his neck too, they feel it came from having been abused as a puppy. He was 9mnths old when we found him in a truck stop dumpster....he's 4yrs old now, takes Cosequin indefinitely (really does help immensly), and he eats a lot of salmon, to assist with a high Omega 3 intake which helps with inflammation.

Rimadyl does very little for him, but we do keep some on hand in case. He's been on anti-inflammatories, etc on an every now and then occasion...not too often, thank goodness. He is absolutely NOT allowed to jump - as long as we can control it, he's pretty good actually. He gets carried up and down the stairs, he's only 6#, very limited walks with a harness, nothing is ever put around his neck...he doesn't even wear a collar.

papillon806

Posted : 2/16/2008 12:50:29 AM

I'm glad you shared...I think a lot of ppl forget that food is not always the root of all problems Wink But please don't blame yourself; you are not a bad mom! I am glad that you were able to figure out the cause :)

auburn2932

Posted : 2/16/2008 7:36:53 AM

As evey knows by now, my little April had Disk Disease also, she was always on the best food there was, took Glucosomine, etc. nothing but the best for her always, and she still had it. She was almost eight years old though, she never wore a collar, always a harness to walk. She also was stoic, the vet told us that. she never showed pain, the poor little thing, so it was quite awhile before I noticed anything wrong. Please do not blame yourself. We lost our little dear after her operation. Here's prayers for your dog that it will get better soon. Also this diseas is heriditary it does not come from food. There are many many sites on the net that will give you information on this disease. Just type it in any search engine.

shamrockmommy

Posted : 2/16/2008 8:54:06 PM

Thanks guys. It's so hard not to feel like a bad mom after realizing he'd been in so much pain.

Now today on his pain meds, different dog. It's been tough confining him to bed rest and I've moved the expen all over to different rooms when we humans move around the house.

So far so good. He's enjoying a RMB at the moment. Thakns for the support!

jennie_c_d

Posted : 2/17/2008 12:32:43 AM

Oh, please. You're a great mommy!

Teenie had degenerative disc disease, in her neck, too. Acupuncture and massage helped, a lot. She liked white flower oil, a LOT. She never ended up on steroids for it. It was found by accident, when she had bladder stones. Her neck muscle did end up atrophying pretty badly, in the last couple of months of her life, but she'd gotten pretty not-active. She just had supplements, and the occasional Tramadol if she needed it.

mudpuppy

Posted : 2/17/2008 3:01:55 PM

I'm not sure I understand the reason for the rest, restricted activity, not letting him play his favorite games if he wants to? quality of life is important to dogs. Degenerative joint problems usually get worse if the animal is allowed to lose muscle tone and bulk.

And well, it's very possible the food played a role. Grains are well-known to exacerbate inflammation. Might have made his symptoms suddenly get worse.