The American Beagler Forum

i have an 8yr old male that seems to have a slipped disc?MO? he is wobbly in the rear quarters. has no spring in his back legs for running hard or jumping. i honestly dont remember seeing him do anything to cause this. at first i thought he was lacking muscle energy? took him to the vet had a xray and blood work done. the xray didn't show anything and the bloodwork was good. the vet said nothing about a disc though? i put him up for 3 weeks and he is no better. i realize now he may have a disc problem. i think my next course of action will be the annamet glocosamine supplement and an anti inflammatory for a little while. if anyone has any thoughts on this or similar experiance i'm all ears. he is my best dog, a sad day at my kennel for sure.. thanks, pat

full circle kennel wrote:i have an 8yr old male that seems to have a slipped disc?MO? he is wobbly in the rear quarters. has no spring in his back legs for running hard or jumping. i honestly dont remember seeing him do anything to cause this. at first i thought he was lacking muscle energy? took him to the vet had a xray and blood work done. the xray didn't show anything and the bloodwork was good. the vet said nothing about a disc though? i put him up for 3 weeks and he is no better. i realize now he may have a disc problem. i think my next course of action will be the annamet glocosamine supplement and an anti inflammatory for a little while. if anyone has any thoughts on this or similar experiance i'm all ears. he is my best dog, a sad day at my kennel for sure.. thanks, pat

Xrays are deceiving when it comes to soft tissue injury because you can't really see much other than bone. At 8 years old its possible he could have a degenerative problem in his spine like spondylosis. As I wrote in a previous thread the glucosomine seemed to really help our papillon. We purchased a liquid supplement on ebay called synflex. It might be time to retire the ole boy or just give him more time and start him back running very little.

good luck with him ;-)

Leah

A steroid,like Dexamethasone should help him alot if it's a disc problem,always has worked for me.Hope he gets better.

My best female did this this winter. The vet gave her a 5 % chance of full recovery. Put her on muscle relaxers and steriods,Kenneled her in a 2x3 box for three weeks. I was devistated this dog has 2 wins and only 3.5 yrs old. Then I got to thinking. I found a Chiropractor on the net under animal chiropractor in S.C. She looked at the xrays and had me walk the dog down the ailse of her office. Then she said I can fix this dog!! And she did. She adjusted her back 2 times a week for 3 weeks and 1 time a week for 2 weeks now it's once month. She's not 100% but pretty darn close. The biggest thing I've noticed is she used to jump 90 % of the rabbits, now she jumps 30 % but her stamina and line control are still pretty good. On the weeks we hunted 2 eight hour days she would be pretty stiff. I would give her a muscle relaxer and the next day she looked fine. I would then rest her for 4,5 days. Hopefully over the summer she will get it all back. Good luck and why does it always happen to the best ones???

Oh yea I forgot about 3 weeks ago I put her on Cosequin DS the recommendation of my vet. It seemed to help also.

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thanks guys, i think i will ck into a new vet!

You might also want to try adding some fish oil to this dogs diet. It has wonderful anti-inflammatory properties and works wonders for all kinds of joint issues. Ester C is another good thing for immune system and arthritic conditions are an immune response.

Hope it all works out well for you and your dog.

I had a four year old to recover. They gave him steroids and anti inflamatory medecine for about 10 days. It looked bad for him for a while but he pulled through and has not relapsed in almost two years. He could barely stand and cried out in pain when he fell. I also heard the fish oil is good stuff. I give mine jack mackeral every week or so mixed with there regular food.
Anthony