Large dog with degenerative spine condition

[Anonymous]

My 12 year old Lab has just been diagnosed with a spine condition that causes dogs to lose strength in their rear legs and eventually become paralyzed. Anyone else dealing with this? The vet initially misdiagnosed him with arthritis, over a year ago. Yesterday the vet told me his X-rays show no arthritis anywhere except for a little in his lower back. I'm not sure if I should believe this new diagnosis or go for a second opinion. His main symptoms are trouble climbing stairs, slipping and falling on wood floors, and crossing his hind legs under each other.

[Anonymous]

Our golden May have had this. It was either that or a tumor pressing on his spine. Given his age, we didn't do a lot of tests. We spent about a year lifting his rear up for him whenever he wanted to go someplace. we got a ramp for the front steps. Eventually he got so that he couldn't really walk at all. We bought a doggie wheelchair for him but he wouldn't use it. Shortly after that, he started having trouble breathing and then we had him euthanized.

Our vet didn't really think there was much that could be done other than keeping him comfortable. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I have a very large dog with a similar problem. We use a sling to hold up his rear legs, rugs everywhere so he doesn't slip on our hardwood floors and a ramp to go out. It is a degenerative disease with no cure, so we just try to keep him comfortable. We call a vet who does home visits since our dog is no longer able to get into the car.

[Anonymous]

Yes we went through this with our 10 year old Dalmatian. We did the MRI and back surgery and she made a recovery as far as walking goes but never regained the muscle mass or energy that she had prior to the surgery. I'm not sure if I would recommend doing it for such an older dog. We hoped she would get at least 4 more years after the surgery but didn't make it more than two years. It was at least $7,000 and then you have to go to rehab with the dog every week for a while it is extremely time-consuming and you have to basically teach them how to walk following the surgery.

[Anonymous]

pp here. It was degenerative disc disease. She had two discs pressing in her spine and one in her neck. They operated on the two on her spine. Neuro surgery for a dog we always thought it was ridiculous looking back. But we loved her and she was our first child.

[Anonymous]

My 10 year old dog has this condition. Our vet gave her a supplement called Vetri Disc by Vetri Science Laboratories. It supports canine joint health. We kept her immobile for 2 weeks (so hard), used anti-inflammatory pain killer called Metacam for 3 days, changed food to a more nutrient dense one, trained the bigger dog to stop bumping into Dear Doggo and got doggie stairs. We don't which of these helped our dog or if all of them helped but, fingers crossed.

Xo