I hope someone can help me, I am desperately trying to find some
information on my longhaired dachshund. She has had some mild back
pain since June 2006 (3 episodes). We figured it was the typcial
dachshund disc problem and treated them as such.
Last weekend she was fine as always, we were at a match even and she
was her normal happy skippy self. Monday morning, she had her worst
pain yet, she could barely roll up from a laying flat position and
would cry out. She's never been like that before. Ran her to the vet,
she had a dexasone shot (again thinking this was a disc problem) and
by afternoon she was much better. Next day she was great. Next day
she again woke up with a lot of pain. Seemed to be upper lumbar. She
was quite miserable. I gave her some pred, and tramadol but it didn't
help a lot. Next day same story. The next day I ran her to a
neurologist who was prepared to do surgery.
But after XRays, CT Scan and Myelogram it showed her discs were fine
but she has what he calls a congenital dilated spinal cord. You can
see the dye surrounding the spinal cord and within the cord as well.
This happened from about L2 down, her neck and upper back (cervical
and thoracic) appear to be unaffected. Unless he just didn't send the
dye up farther than that I am not sure. In which case I guess it
could go higher yet? anyway she does not seem to have pain up in her
neck at all, it seems to be all in her lumbar.
I have been researching and not finding much but the symptoms I have
found, she does not have the scratching of her neck, her motor
functions are all intact, no weakness in any legs or knuckling over.
She is on day 3 of pred now and is showing improvement in her walking
and pain (the vet said she'd also be sore a few days from the dye
from the myelogram so not sure how much of it is that but she is
improving and feeling better, yet has a ways to go).
I had googled this the night my little girl spent at the clinic and
saw the term hydromyelia, so asked him if this could be what she has
and he said possibly but he didn't know. (is there anything else
something like this could be besides SM?)
I am pretty terrified as this little dog is all I have and am
desperate to find out more, of course hoping for some hope that this
won't be too terrible for her.
Can anyone tell me if this sounds like SM or ?? The neurologist said
he has only seen a handful of dogs with this over the years and he
didn't have a name for it but said most did well all their lives. The
pain would probably reoccur but could be managed with steroids. My
fear is that since this has probably been happening since she was
almost 6 years old and seems the episodes are increasing and getting
more severe, does that mean she is on a downhill slope? Or could this
go dormant for a while? I just really need to know what's going on
with her and if there is treatment. It scared me when she was on pred
and tramadol for 2 days and it didn't seem to touch her pain at that
point.
I plan to get her results and send them to Dr. Bagley at WSU and
hopefully have a phone consult. But was hoping to learn here if she
likely does have this disease and if so, what does the future likely
hold for her and are there treatments we should be doing now that
might be able to stop the progression (if that is even what is
happening).
Thank you for any insight at all!
information on my longhaired dachshund. She has had some mild back
pain since June 2006 (3 episodes). We figured it was the typcial
dachshund disc problem and treated them as such.
Last weekend she was fine as always, we were at a match even and she
was her normal happy skippy self. Monday morning, she had her worst
pain yet, she could barely roll up from a laying flat position and
would cry out. She's never been like that before. Ran her to the vet,
she had a dexasone shot (again thinking this was a disc problem) and
by afternoon she was much better. Next day she was great. Next day
she again woke up with a lot of pain. Seemed to be upper lumbar. She
was quite miserable. I gave her some pred, and tramadol but it didn't
help a lot. Next day same story. The next day I ran her to a
neurologist who was prepared to do surgery.
But after XRays, CT Scan and Myelogram it showed her discs were fine
but she has what he calls a congenital dilated spinal cord. You can
see the dye surrounding the spinal cord and within the cord as well.
This happened from about L2 down, her neck and upper back (cervical
and thoracic) appear to be unaffected. Unless he just didn't send the
dye up farther than that I am not sure. In which case I guess it
could go higher yet? anyway she does not seem to have pain up in her
neck at all, it seems to be all in her lumbar.
I have been researching and not finding much but the symptoms I have
found, she does not have the scratching of her neck, her motor
functions are all intact, no weakness in any legs or knuckling over.
She is on day 3 of pred now and is showing improvement in her walking
and pain (the vet said she'd also be sore a few days from the dye
from the myelogram so not sure how much of it is that but she is
improving and feeling better, yet has a ways to go).
I had googled this the night my little girl spent at the clinic and
saw the term hydromyelia, so asked him if this could be what she has
and he said possibly but he didn't know. (is there anything else
something like this could be besides SM?)
I am pretty terrified as this little dog is all I have and am
desperate to find out more, of course hoping for some hope that this
won't be too terrible for her.
Can anyone tell me if this sounds like SM or ?? The neurologist said
he has only seen a handful of dogs with this over the years and he
didn't have a name for it but said most did well all their lives. The
pain would probably reoccur but could be managed with steroids. My
fear is that since this has probably been happening since she was
almost 6 years old and seems the episodes are increasing and getting
more severe, does that mean she is on a downhill slope? Or could this
go dormant for a while? I just really need to know what's going on
with her and if there is treatment. It scared me when she was on pred
and tramadol for 2 days and it didn't seem to touch her pain at that
point.
I plan to get her results and send them to Dr. Bagley at WSU and
hopefully have a phone consult. But was hoping to learn here if she
likely does have this disease and if so, what does the future likely
hold for her and are there treatments we should be doing now that
might be able to stop the progression (if that is even what is
happening).
Thank you for any insight at all!