Prominent Hind End Weakness

[nessa]

I get it with the meds and then not eating well to take with the meds. Thinking of you.

[Guest TinasTroops]

Wow kewl and lucky for Kasey.

John has been our Vet for more then 16 years now and we introduced him to Greyhounds. He also had Dr Couto come in 2014 to train his entire staff and plans to extend that offering each year to more local vets so they are more educated on greyhounds.

 

Kasey is in good hands..

Edited March 29, 2015 by TinasTroops

[XTRAWLD]

Long story time. Get a coffee! I hope to make this journey informative for the members on this forum too, so I will try to be as descriptive as possible.

 

The 12 year old prevails!

 

 

First off, Kasey had a GREAT day yesterday! His momma is a proud peacock!

 

We met Dr. John who performed a different set of tests during his exam that the other vet didn't do. Kasey was standing very well for the most part, not a lot of sinking at all actually. He was wondering why he's on Gaba! I said "you didn't see him 2 weeks ago!" He concurred with the diagnosis of LS. He spoke of "myopic" and a few other things, which was a bit of gobbledegook to me. If I really want to know, I can email him for the exact info.

 

So he did most of the talking, which is a great change for me. He's learning more and more about greyhound as his days progress and understands that they are a different breed. For the most part Kasey's health is very very good. No signs of arthritis, fabulous knees, great hips, no larangeal paralysis (yay!). He is still in a very good neurological state. He commended me for how well I've been taking care of him all these years. He really could be much worse off. I was thrilled to hear this coming from someone that has seen several greyhounds and is able to say he's one of the best looking 12 year olds he's seen.

 

So where do we go from here? Well he is completely willing to do the depo shot. He indicated that vets are shying away from doing this shot because it isn't producing the results that expect however - that is a result of not administering the shot properly (putting it in the muscle instead of the spine). He would lightly sedate Kasey, and inject him as an epidural. It could be done in a morning and actually is not too expensive IMO ($350). The downsides are:

-having to sedate him for the shot (he has issues recovering after a dental so I'm hesitant);

-an onset of diabetes (I didn't bother to challenge that);

-the shot just not doing what we wanted it to do (if that's the case - he certainly doesn't have LS)

-having a bad reaction to it/or bad side effects - these last two being very low as a concern.

 

However, I was surprised that he suggested the shot may only produce lasting effects for a few weeks - and never insinuated that it could be months. So that has me a little concerned. I don't want to put him under often to get this shot. Right now, he's being managed VERY nicely with pred and gaba. He's on such low dosages we have a ways to go before we run out of pain med options, and of course tramadol can always come into play. The downside of not doing the shot now:

-he must be weaned off pred in order to get the depo shot

-not have it in his system for about 2 weeks.

 

Right now, I could likely easily wean him off, with just using pain meds to take care of his issues, because he's not in very bad shape! However, of course his lovely allergies come into play. The alternatives to manage his allergies have not been exhausted, but I will worry about that when I get there. Down the road though, I'm not sure I can get him off pred for a long enough time in order to take advantage of his "healthy" situation. So that's a consideration to do the shot earlier rather than later. We both agreed we'd like to pursue it when he's having a more difficult time. He also suggested surgery which is the only way to reduce the compression of the spine. He's relatively healthy and at 12 he'll still have a couple more good years. Although, we can't do surgery without an MRI. An MRI was estimated to be about $1300 (I'd have to travel an hour away with a poor car traveller). What an MRI will do for me is two things:

-definitive diagnosis

-ability to have surgery performed

 

The downsides of the MRI:

-Kasey is knocked out cold - more so than with a dental (and of course my reservations about sedation).

 

Seems like very little reward for a high cost.

 

Regarding general anesthesia - if he were to do the shot he wouldn't use the same drugs to sedate Kasey, since he will just need to be mellowed out. It's not like sedation given for getting a full dental. Regarding anesthesia for MRI - it would be a stronger version of what he goes through for a dental - since he cannot move and will need to be out cold. The best part of all of this, he does NOT need an MRI to get the shot!!!

 

I forgot to mention his corns and I didn't ask about muscle relaxants, but I will email him about that. I did ask him if the chattering/shaking is a side effect of Gaba and he said "100% yes."

 

Other forms of treatment options:

-chiro (which we are doing already and Kasey is steadily improving. The vet knows our chiro which is a bonus).

-K-Laser therapy (my original vet has this machine, and he will correspond with them to see what we can do to set up a treatment sched for Kasey)

-acupuncture (I'm in contact with a lady that has a mobile service, she's a little pricey but I've got someone on deck)

 

I think I will hold off on the acupuncture for now, but might pursue the K-Laser at some point and I will continue chiro but probably wean down to once a week treatments shortly.

 

He did mention that he would like Dr. Couto to see him in a few months (he will be up here for a seminar). I appreciate the sentiment, I'm not really sure what that might do though. Maybe just another greyhound exhibiting symptoms to learn from? Thoughts? Maybe they can discuss the latest and greatest options?

 

That's about all for now. Did I miss anything?

 

So we will keep on as we are for now. I've now got a great set of people behind Kasey and his treatment and I don't feel so alone now dealing with him. We celebrated last night with a smoked marrow bone which he thoroughly enjoyed in the proper eating position...

 

[msjpk]

My soon to be 14 year old, Lou, has had bowel incontinence for the last week. He has hind leg weakness is on Gabapentin. He also has LP, which is newly diagnosed.

I have no problem dealing with the bowel incontinence which is only during the night. I do let him out several times before retiring but it happens.

 

How do others deal with this?

[XTRAWLD]

Because Kasey was on prednisone at the time, I was limited to certain meds that I could give him. Gabapentin is really the best med for this and Tramadol if he's really in pain. Prednisone to be fair, also helped to reduce any inflammation. There was an injection we were going to try if I was able to wean him off prednisone, but not sure how well it would work either and he'd have to be mildly sedated to have it done as well. I lost him before we could try any other alternatives.

 

While supplements don't really work on the spinal issue, Lou may be having a bit of arthritis as well to contend with at 14 years old. You could also try giving him some Glucosamine or Omega oils to help lubricate the joints in his legs.

 

Also invest in a harness you can help pick him up with. Kasey on some days really have a rough time getting up, and some days refused even the two stairs to get up to the front door. Keep Lou walking and moving if he is comfortable to do so as movement will help, and actually try to walk him up and down small inclines like grassy hills, etc. Also making him back up to manipulate leg movement in other directions as all of this forces the joints to move and his muscles to work.

Edited December 17, 2015 by XTRAWLD