cmlong1119
New Member
Looking for some advice for my 8 month old female EM. On Monday night she was fine, she went to the bathroom at 9:15 and then I went into the kitchen to get the kids water for bed. I used the ice maker and an ice cube fell on the kitchen floor. Ruby was in her crate and came tearing into the kitchen to beat her brother to the ice cube. She fell but I didn't see how she landed, my 4yo son told me she fell after I heard the thump. She came into the kitchen and I gave her a few more cubes while looking her over. She seemed fine, but when she was done she turned around to go back to her crate and fell 3 times before I could get to her. I then had to coax her out of her crate and get her standing, she was favoring both hind legs. We took her the the Emergency Animal Hospital and they manipulated her right leg and felt that she was showing some pain in the hip. She had a Hydromorphone injection for pain and they did x-rays of the hips and knees and all showed normal. They decided that it must be a strain or tear of the Iliopsoas muscle and prescribed her Tramadol and Novox for 14 days with a follow up with our regular vet within 3-4 days and instructions to come back to them to see their surgeon and get an ultrasound if it isn't better within 7-10 days. We were instructed to give her 1 Tramadol before bed and start the Novox in the morning, increasing the Tramadol to 2 pills every 8-12 hours starting Tuesday. Fast forward to Tuesday and she is being watching by my mom while I am at work. Hasn't urinated or pooped so I call my vet, they want to see her that evening. She now can't walk at all, previous night she was walking with assistance on hind quarters. I get home at 6pm, she was given 2 more Tramadol at 4:30 and had pooped but no one saw pee. Her front legs are now shaky and giving out. Took her to vet, they examine her and don't agree on diagnose but bladder is empty so good news there. We've run numerous tests, still waiting to hear back on a few. Vet calls it overall muscle weakness but she is normal otherwise, she is eating, drinking, peeing and pooping on her own. No vomiting or diarrhea or regurgitating. Moves around by army crawl, plays like normal, excited to see you, cuddling like normal. Just can't stand or walk. She is really soft tempered so one thought I had was that maybe since she had stumbled and fell when walking on Tuesday (maybe from Tramadol and Novox?) that she won't even try now. Vet ran Lyme and it was negative although he cautioned it could still be positive. He gave her a steroid shot and had me stop Novox until late Friday evening. Seemed to perk her up. He also prescribed an antibiotic called Doxycycline Hyclate and said to finish all 14 days worth. Here's what we've done so far:
Full CBC - all normal levels
Lyme test - negative, but prescribed antibiotic just in case
Thyroid - should have by Monday
Addisons Disease - negative
Myasthenia Gravis - sent to CA, won't have until Tuesday at earliest but possibly the following Tuesday
Checked for ticks in case of Tick Paralysis, and treated as of Wednesday night. No ticks spotted.
Vet is now putting Wobblers Disease at the top of the list as well as Tick Paralysis, said that TP could take 72 hours to go back to normal if tick is removed/killed. That will be late Saturday or Sunday.
Not sure I agree with Wobblers, never had any symptoms. No wobbly gait, no problems turning or holding head straight. Turns head fine. Would run circles like crazy while playing with our other dogs, and would turn on a dime. Everything I read on Wobbers says that it progresses to this, not just bam and they can't walk.
When she is playing with me, she pushes me with her legs. It's the way she wrestles and there is strength there, she isn't paralyzed. Today she did sit for about 30 seconds before laying down again. Doesn't sound like much but it's the most she's tried since Tuesday. She's her normal grumbly self. My vet has been thorough and I know he is stumped but I'm not sure that it isn't the original strain or tear of the Iliopsoas muscle.
My plan right now is to hold off on all meds except antibiotic until Monday. This way we can see if she is improving if it is Tick Paralysis (also mentioned Botulism and said we'd know on that by Monday as well since it works itself out of the system) without having Tramadol and Novox interfering since they knock her out. Come Monday morning if she hasn't improved restart those meds and wait for Thyroid and MG results. If they are negative and there is still no improvement, go back to Emergency Hospital and have them do the ultrasound on the Iliopsoas muscle and see what that looks like. If all of that is negative and still no better, trip to Neurologist for Wobblers testing.
I've spent $1500 on testing so far, I have pet insurance but I'm not going to get reimbursed any more than $400 of that if it remains undiagnosed. I have to save up some more money for Neurologist so this is the best plan that I can think of.
I'd welcome suggestions of anything else this might be. I feel like we've been very thorough but it's such a weird case since she's always been healthy and it was so sudden but she has no other symptoms. She has our vet and several others at our practice stumped.
By the way, she is 85lbs and we've fed her Earthborn since she came home. No supplements have ever been given to her. Someone remarked that quick growth can cause skeletal problems like Wobblers was a given and it's my fault but I don't think she's grown too quickly. She's pretty skinny actually and the vet has always been happy with her growth. I've been very careful with that just for those reasons.
She also just finished her first heat cycle on Saturday and hadn't had flea/tick or heartworm for almost 30 days.
Sorry for the long post, trying to get as many details in as possible for best feedback. Thanks in advance.
Full CBC - all normal levels
Lyme test - negative, but prescribed antibiotic just in case
Thyroid - should have by Monday
Addisons Disease - negative
Myasthenia Gravis - sent to CA, won't have until Tuesday at earliest but possibly the following Tuesday
Checked for ticks in case of Tick Paralysis, and treated as of Wednesday night. No ticks spotted.
Vet is now putting Wobblers Disease at the top of the list as well as Tick Paralysis, said that TP could take 72 hours to go back to normal if tick is removed/killed. That will be late Saturday or Sunday.
Not sure I agree with Wobblers, never had any symptoms. No wobbly gait, no problems turning or holding head straight. Turns head fine. Would run circles like crazy while playing with our other dogs, and would turn on a dime. Everything I read on Wobbers says that it progresses to this, not just bam and they can't walk.
When she is playing with me, she pushes me with her legs. It's the way she wrestles and there is strength there, she isn't paralyzed. Today she did sit for about 30 seconds before laying down again. Doesn't sound like much but it's the most she's tried since Tuesday. She's her normal grumbly self. My vet has been thorough and I know he is stumped but I'm not sure that it isn't the original strain or tear of the Iliopsoas muscle.
My plan right now is to hold off on all meds except antibiotic until Monday. This way we can see if she is improving if it is Tick Paralysis (also mentioned Botulism and said we'd know on that by Monday as well since it works itself out of the system) without having Tramadol and Novox interfering since they knock her out. Come Monday morning if she hasn't improved restart those meds and wait for Thyroid and MG results. If they are negative and there is still no improvement, go back to Emergency Hospital and have them do the ultrasound on the Iliopsoas muscle and see what that looks like. If all of that is negative and still no better, trip to Neurologist for Wobblers testing.
I've spent $1500 on testing so far, I have pet insurance but I'm not going to get reimbursed any more than $400 of that if it remains undiagnosed. I have to save up some more money for Neurologist so this is the best plan that I can think of.
I'd welcome suggestions of anything else this might be. I feel like we've been very thorough but it's such a weird case since she's always been healthy and it was so sudden but she has no other symptoms. She has our vet and several others at our practice stumped.
By the way, she is 85lbs and we've fed her Earthborn since she came home. No supplements have ever been given to her. Someone remarked that quick growth can cause skeletal problems like Wobblers was a given and it's my fault but I don't think she's grown too quickly. She's pretty skinny actually and the vet has always been happy with her growth. I've been very careful with that just for those reasons.
She also just finished her first heat cycle on Saturday and hadn't had flea/tick or heartworm for almost 30 days.
Sorry for the long post, trying to get as many details in as possible for best feedback. Thanks in advance.
She could be commando crawling bc her back hurts but her arms and legs have returned to full strength?? Keep us posted!!
