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Neck Injury


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Our 4 y/o grey Celeste has had an on-again off-again limp for the past week. It started with the right leg and moved to the left. At first we thought it was a strain. We finally took her to the vet last night when it didn't show signs of going away. Our vet believes the lameness is caused by a compressed disc in Celeste's neck. She took a couple of X-rays of her neck, but didn't see anything - although she said it's common not to be able to see this type of injury on an X-ray. She prescribed a muscle relaxant (can't remember name) and Rimadyl.

 

Our vet said to walk Celeste using a harness instead of a martingale collar. She also advised limiting her activity. Our vet said to see how Celeste did after the meds. The meds won't "cure" it, but should help. If it gets worse then we'll need to discuss getting an MRI and possible surgery.

 

I'd like to hear from others that have experience with this type of injury. I'm just trying to get as much information as I can. I hate to think that Celeste will never be able to run around the yard again.

Laura with Celeste (ICU Celeste) and Galgos Beatrix and Encarna
The Horse - Gracie (MD Grace E)
Bridge Angels Faye Oops (Santa Fe Oops), Bonny (
Bonny Drive), Darcy (D's Zipperfoot)

 

 

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what about trying a chiropractor or acupuncture? Inu had a neck injury that we worked through using a lovely chiropractor. Mind you no experience with a compressed disc but maybe a better option than surgery. Also, there is a physical therapy type vet clinic in Vienna that you may want to consider for a second opinion or other treatment options link

Colleen with Covey (Admirals Cove) and Rally (greyhound puppy)
Missing my beloved boy INU (CJ Whistlindixie) my sweetest princess SALEM (CJ Little Dixie) and my baby girl ZOE (LR's Tara)

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My neighbor's greyhound has compressed discs in her neck (diagnosed via MRI over at the IAMS Pet Imaging Center). She just started with acupuncture and it seems to be going ok. She was using my chiropractor and her pup was getting a bit of relief from that as well (this was before the current DX - they originally thought she had some calcification in her vertabrae).

 

Oh, another thought is to test her for TBDs, if you haven't already. Shifting lameness can be a sign.

Edited by turbotaina


Meredith with Heyokha (HUS Me Teddy) and Crow (Mike Milbury). Missing Turbo (Sendahl Boss), Pancho, JoJo, and "Fat Stacks" Juana, the psycho kitty. Canku wakan kin manipi.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

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I agree that acupuncture can help. I also agree that a harness is a good idea. Celeste is still young, so hopefully she'll recover fully and these things will be temporary. When my angel Bailey first injured her neck/back she was nine years old. We thought she recovered and let her resume her playing and running in the yard, until she had a second and much worse episode 3 months later. After that, she only got leash walks and we were careful about letting her jump out of the car by pulling up to the curb so the jump would be shorter...little things like that. The hard part is they start to feel better and want to go all out again, aggravating the condition. Celeste probably got Robaxin/Methacarbamol (sp?) for the muscle relaxer...you definitely want to keep that on hand. Once she's better, you may want to talk to your vet about stretching exercises...I remember one for Bailey where we just slowly moved her head to each side...just to keep her limber. Also be careful with her playing with stuffies if she's the kind that whips them back and forth. :grouphug:hope

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Oh, another thought is to test her for TBDs, if you haven't already. Shifting lameness can be a sign.

 

What is TBDs?

 

Thanks for the advice on using a chiropractor/accupuncturist. I've used one before for my horse and know that she does dogs as well. We'll see how she does after the meds.

 

Laura with Celeste (ICU Celeste) and Galgos Beatrix and Encarna
The Horse - Gracie (MD Grace E)
Bridge Angels Faye Oops (Santa Fe Oops), Bonny (
Bonny Drive), Darcy (D's Zipperfoot)

 

 

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Tick Borne Diseases. Several of them can cause lameness, particularly lameness that moves from one leg to another.


Meredith with Heyokha (HUS Me Teddy) and Crow (Mike Milbury). Missing Turbo (Sendahl Boss), Pancho, JoJo, and "Fat Stacks" Juana, the psycho kitty. Canku wakan kin manipi.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

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Tick Borne Diseases. Several of them can cause lameness, particularly lameness that moves from one leg to another.

 

Ah - OK. Celeste was tested when we adopted her last April and is current on all her vaccines - including the Lyme vaccine. As a result, the vet didn't think this was the cause of her lameness. She then started felling along Celeste's spine and flexed her neck back and side-to-side. Celeste had some problems with that which is why the vet concluded it was a disc problem.

Laura with Celeste (ICU Celeste) and Galgos Beatrix and Encarna
The Horse - Gracie (MD Grace E)
Bridge Angels Faye Oops (Santa Fe Oops), Bonny (
Bonny Drive), Darcy (D's Zipperfoot)

 

 

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Guest CaroleWithRunningDogs

Both of my girls have cervical disc disease, both manifested as a limp. I understand the narrowing of the disc space causes this referred pain. We only had to use low-dose meds for 2 weeks, reduce activities for 30 days. Then for the rest of their lives - harnesses, which we probably all should be using once our dogs get older anway and then limitation of their play. My Lily, (who thinks she is a white Lab) loves to run after a ball and bring it back to me. She goes in for a sliding motion (as she competes with my other dogs for the ball) which is not good for her neck, so at most she gets to do this twice a day. I limit play time to 2 minutes. I know this sounds short, but if a race is 30 seconds, 2 minutes of high-speed hijinx isn't too bad. I always remember what mom told you - always leave them wanting for more....and that is what we do. We do not do dog parks, or have play dates with other dogs where they are allowed to play for more than 2 minutes tops. This has not posed a hardship on us. Admittedly the younger dogs who come for a visit might like more, but our yard is for my dogs well-being, and I limit what they get to do. We go for very long walks together, in fact organize long walks for all our greyhound buddies. This having my dogs involved in so much volunteer work doesn't leave them much energy or desire to be romping too much in the back yard.

 

Lily had one recurrence of limping, which is what prompted me to be more vigilant. I do feel like a meany when we visit friends with great dog yards and I won't let her play for more than a few minutes, but it is what I have to do to keep her well. I can be more flexible on the amount of play she gets to do if I know she is well rested and not tired. (We do tons of volunteer work together, so exhaustion is a pretty common state).

 

My Sadie Sue has not had any issues after the first initial diagnosis of cervical disc disease. She never was much for romping in the backyard like Lily Mae, so this has not been a hardship for her whatsoever. In fact she is probably thrilled that she gets to do all the other things we have in our lives to keep them tired and happy.

 

I hope I sounded encouraging for you as I meant to do that. If you nip it in the bud now you aren't going to have to contend with issues of surgery and MRI. Just take it easy now, let them "heal" and have the swelling inside the disc space return to "normal". Set limits, have fun. :gh_face Carole

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I hope I sounded encouraging for you as I meant to do that. If you nip it in the bud now you aren't going to have to contend with issues of surgery and MRI. Just take it easy now, let them "heal" and have the swelling inside the disc space return to "normal". Set limits, have fun. :gh_face Carole

 

Thanks Carole - your post was very encouraging! We'll do the meds and see how things are in a month or so. Our vet did say we seem to have caught it early - limping has been going on for only about a week.

 

I was most worried about was Celeste not being able to run around once in awhile. We mostly do walks, but we've been letting our two girls out for a run once per day in our backyard. They really love it. One thing going for us is that Celeste is L-A-Z-Y. Her playtime normally consists of a few laps and then she passes out in the grass. I don't think she'd ever come close to lasting two minutes! Heck, Celeste doesn't even stand that long - even at M&Gs. We were taking her to a monthly greyhound playgroup, but it's no real hardship if we have to quit going.

 

We started walking her on a harness last night. Celeste did have a tendancy to dawdle which caused us to pull on occassion to get her moving, so it's better to use a harness with her anyway. I'll miss not being able to use all of her pretty martingale collars, but that is minor sacrifice for the well-being of our beloved Celeste. It's so hard to see them hurting and wondering if we were part of the cause.

Laura with Celeste (ICU Celeste) and Galgos Beatrix and Encarna
The Horse - Gracie (MD Grace E)
Bridge Angels Faye Oops (Santa Fe Oops), Bonny (
Bonny Drive), Darcy (D's Zipperfoot)

 

 

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You can still put her collars on her to be pretty! Just not the leash attached to them. A girl still has to be loverly :lol

Edited by Jackandgrey

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You can still put her collars on her to be pretty! Just not the leash attached to them. A girl still has to be loverly :lol

 

I recently ordered two sets of martingale collars from 2Hounds. Thankfully, Alisha agreed to change the order and make Celeste's collars into side release collars instead. Since we'll need to walk Celeste with a harness now, I didn't see the point of her wearing both a martingale collar and a tag collar (we don't like to leave martingale collars on inside the house) in addition to the harness. Now at least she'll have a pretty tag collar that will match our other grey Darcy's martingale collar. GT vendors are the BEST!

 

Celeste is still "off," but in good spirits. We mostly walk our greys anyway, so she didn't seem disappointed not to go running in the backyard today.

 

 

 

Laura with Celeste (ICU Celeste) and Galgos Beatrix and Encarna
The Horse - Gracie (MD Grace E)
Bridge Angels Faye Oops (Santa Fe Oops), Bonny (
Bonny Drive), Darcy (D's Zipperfoot)

 

 

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