Sick Beagle, and the vet is stumped......

gdawg62 · Post by **gdawg62** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:50 am

Hello all. I have a just turned six years old Beagle male. He doesn't hunt, and is an indoor dog. Friday evening he was laying on the floor, when we called him to go to bed, his back legs were dead. We rushed him to the emergency vet, then to his regular vet Saturday morning. They first said it was a disc problem, ran a spinal test on him yesterday, and found nothing out of the ordinary. He's eating and drinking as usual.

This morning, my wife called the vet, they suggested waiting a day or so to see if he improved, if not, then put him down. She immediately went and got our dog. When he got home, he did look bad. He held his head to one side, his eyes were glazed over, I assume from the medication he was on. Within a couple hours, he looked much better, he is responsive to our other pets and children, but still cannot stand on his own. We assume he may have had a stroke, but the vet can't say one way or another. He shows no signs of being in any pain, and he's on something called Cephalexin. Any ideas? This isn't just a dog to us, he's like one of the kids. The vet says there is nothing wrong with his neck or spine, we plan to get a second opinion this week, is anyone familiar with this type of problem? Thanks in advance.

TC · Post by TC » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:00 am

Is there any chance he could have ate some nuts? Such as macadamia nuts? These will cause temporary paralisis in the rear of a dog. Also could have pulled a muscle, had one do that. She was down for quite a while, had to do massages on her back to help her.

Bunny Runner · Post by **Bunny Runner** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:03 am

You could take her to homeopathic vet and possibly seek accupunture treatment. I have never had this problem, but have heard many wonderful things about these treatments and there success where conventional modern veterinary medicine has failed or been uninformative.

I wish you luck and I will keep your boy in my thoughts and prayers.

show dog · Post by **show dog** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:13 pm

Send me a picture and I'll have a talk with your beagle. The vets can only diagnosis large displacement in the spine, not small. Find a chiropractor. Carolyn http://www.indulgeservices.com

Rockhard · Post by **Rockhard** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:30 pm

If I send a picture of a cat, can you do them too? Or are you limited to dogs only?
What about people, lotto numbers, etc.?

Beagled1 · Post by **Beagled1** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:45 pm

I keep thinking Degenerative Myleopathy (DM).
Its symptoms are paralysis with no pain and latest research shows it can be related to autoimmune dysfunction sometimes offset by vaccinations. But main cause is neurological in origin and your dog's age makes him a prime candidate for DM. I know early symptoms include the dog occasionally dragging one of the back paws.
I've never, ever heard of DM in Beagles - German Shepherds are the poster child for DM, but I own both German Shepherds an Beagles, and the two share several similar health problems.
If not DM, it could possibly be another neurological problem. My only advice could be to get this dog to a Veterinary University or large vet clinic that specializes in neurological dysfunction.
If you find out what the problem is, keep us updated.

mccall · Post by **mccall** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:55 am

I have the same problem in a 4 year old male.There has been little improvement,my advice is put him down.By the way I could not do it and after 10 months all he can do is stand.Very frustrating situation.

gdawg62 · Post by **gdawg62** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:49 pm

Thanks to everyone who replied. After a couple days, his progress has been very good. He moves his head from side to side, and attempts to stand on his own. He looks a million times better than he did when we got him home, I knew an old country vet who once told me when a dog can't be a dog, it's time to put him down. I think this old boy still has plenty of life in him.

We are taking him to another vet on Tuesday. They want to check him out, and have told us they will gladly find a bigger vet hospital to help him. Both the one's closest to me are in Columbus, Ohio, one is at Ohio State. Both come highly recommended. So, it looks like that is where we are headed sometime next week. We believe it is a neuro problem of some sort, but everyday he improves a little, this may take some time. Thanks again, I will keep everyone posted on his progress.

Suzay · Post by **Suzay** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 5:09 pm

Last year - I had something similar happened. Wednesday night turn the "old man" loose (9 yrs old). He ran an hour and came back fed him and put him back on his box. Thursday night went to feed him and it looked liked something happened to his back legs as well as his front. Very wobbly and had trouble picking up his paws. I thought he may have jumped on his box and hurt his back. I called the vet and was able to get a 10 o'clock appt the next morning. I went to work, then came home and looked for "Storm". He was laying on the other side of the box on his side and couldn't get up. he was trying to move his head but he couldn't lift himself up when he tried, he fell right back down on his side. His tail was going 100 miles an hour, but it was like his whole body, except his head and tail was paralyzed. Anyways we went to the vet, and the vet wanted to see him walk....of course he tried but he fell right back down again. and when he tried to walk his paws would go 'under', instead of going flat on the ground, like he was scraping the top of this paw on the ground.

The vet did a blood test and so forth....anyways, they said he was anemic, and even said that one reading showed indications that he may have gotten something from ticks (which last year ticks weren't even as plenty as they were a year before), he had an ear infection, but they felt that it was something Brain related, and even mentioned he may have had a stroke. They gave me antibitics and steroids and I took my buddy home.

For the next five days he layed on a blanket, couldn't move, but he would try to pick up his head and he would wag his tail. I fed him, turned him over 4 times a day and cleaned after him...and cried....and decided 1 week of this was just too much for me to take. I didn't want this for him and didn't want to see him stay like this for the the rest of his life.

So I decided by Thursday if he stayed the same, I would call the vet and I was going to put the poor fellow to sleep, I didn't want him suffering. I loaded him up in the front seat of my truck and headed to the vet, for the 15 minute drive, darn if he didn't TRY to sit up the whole way...I decided if he was going to try then I would too. I talked to the vet and they agreed, give him another week and gave me more antibiotics and steroids. By Monday he was sitting up, by Wednesday he was walking (and wobbling) but you can tell he was getting better...

I believe his ear infection (swelling) may have had something to do with it but the vet never did have anything conclusive to say. So you never know.

He's now back to normal.

Hope yours is doing fine? What's the last update?

allniter · Post by **allniter** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:01 pm

it sounds like he has --COON PARALYSIS---ask vet to check for it

M. Crowley · Post by **M. Crowley** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:31 pm

Not sure and I am not a Vet, but I would check any dog with stroke like paralysis for lymes disease. It is Rampant on the east coast and it comes from deer ticks which are the size of a pinhead. Lymes in it's later stages cause brain swelling and all kinds of othe nasty stuff. Ati-biotics will clear it up