4hounds3cats

Thank you. I miss him so much. It was such an unfair ending. Thank you everyone for all your good thoughts and wishes for my beautiful boy.

Thank you so much. My beloved angel's name is Zenji.

Thank you everyone for all your help. Very sadly, I had to say goodbye to my beautiful boy last Saturday at 10:30 pm. He was in terrible pain. Full X-rays (which I insisted on the first time we visited the Emergency Hospital, but the doctor misread) did show a suspected lumbar disc rupture, and he'd had a degenerative spine condition for more than one year. At the end, he had become paraplegic below the hips, lacked any pain response, and was no longer able to empty bladder or bowel. We went back to Emergency last Saturday, and the vet was more knowledgeable. That was the hardest day of my life. He took a huge part of my heart with him, but I can feel him enveloping the sky above our house and radiating love down on us.

Thanks very much, Lucy. Have just finished another search and found this resource (https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/degenerative-myelopathy-in-dogs), which states that a combination of epsilon-aminocaproic acid, N-acetylcysteine, prednisone can slow progression. NAC can be obtained from Amazon. Holding hope that the specialists can help us.

Thanks for your replies. LBass, he still wants to get up as usual when I am preparing his food and when I leave the room. He struggles to get up beyond what he is physically capable of. It's like he doesn't admit that he is having difficulty. He still wants to go out, but now he needs help. I had the stairs removed and had a big ramp built from my back deck a year ago, so he doesn't have to face stairs. He can't take Gaba, has a bad reaction to it. I recently started giving him Previcox, and it helps, so he is in some pain. My favorite vet moved some distance away from my regular practice and the remaining vets are missing diagnoses on my other babies. Our emergency hospital has a lot of specialists: neurologists, radiologists, cardiologists, etc, and they are more aware of current best practices. I have more faith in them than the vets. My google searches have always said there is no treatment for DM. But recently I found aminocaproic acid, which might help some. Was hoping someone here might know something. Will ask the specialists about it. He loves the warm sun in the spring beyond anything. Hope he can hold on for another few weeks to see all the beautiful alpine flowers that carpet our acre in the early spring.

We are dealing with late-stage degenerative myelopathy. He has been progressively weakening in his hind limbs. But he suddenly had a precipitous loss of function yesterday, with his back end collapsing. I was taken by surprise but managed to get him up. Now I have to help him get up and down and stand, and his back feet knuckle under. We are going to the emergency hospital today. Those who have dealt with this, are there any medications that helped your hounds regain some function? Or other treatments? Thanks for your information.