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Toby's on metacam

emsley

Well-known member
For the last couple of days, Toby has not been able to jump up on the sofa or the bed, and has had to be lifted. He has had his two usual off-lead daily walks, and run to his hearts content with no trouble.
He has had this problem with jumping up before, (since he was about 1 year old - he's now 4) mentioned it to the vet in the past, on a routine visit, and was told that if he could walk and run as normal, then it was his back.
It has always got better after a few days rest.
As of yesterday, his back must have been better as he could jump up on the sofa and bed. However, when we went on our off-lead walk this morning, he suddenly yelped and was not able to walk on one front leg.
He had to be carried home, and his leg bothered him more over the next hour. He was holding it out at an angle infront of him, as if it was useless. We went to the vets who checked him very thoroughly all over, and confirmed that he had a clicky back, but could find no reason as to why he should be limping so badly on his front leg. He deduced that it was probably soft tissue damage and hopefully with 4 - 5 days of metacam he should be better. Then said, if not, he will have to have x-rays.
I am so worried that this might be a symptom of SM. He does scratch, on the one side of his head more than another, to the extent that that ear does not have the same amount of hair as the other, he does yelp in pain when he jumps up excitedly when we have visitors.
Do you think I am panicking unreasonably?
As we all know with our babies, Toby is my heart dog, and I love him so much.
 
Annie, so sorry for your worries about Toby. Omlette also takes Metacam. An Xray revealed she has arthritis all along her spine. For her, and for my little Dickens (1994-2005) I used "steps" for the bed. The favored chair has a lower ottoman.

For Dickens, who did have SM, or COMS, I tried to make sure he didn't jump up OR down. The impact when he jumped off was a concern.

With Dickens, I noticed that excitement -as when I returned back home to him, or talked to him in a high (goofy) pitch- would bring on that weird difficult breathing thing __like he was so busy inhaling he couldn't breathe. (Vet called it a reverse sneeze ) Anyway, I stopped all behavior on my part that would cause him to become that excited. Like others have said, putting my hand gently over his nose for a second, would stop it. Just a calm Mom for that boy!

I wonder what the reaction from the vet is to Tobys' loss of ear hair ? Does he have goo in his ears?

I'm betting a lot of good advice will be along here shortly. This is such a great group. Meantime, I hope your Toby will return to excellant health. As to your last question, I think you have a right to be concerned over his behavior. We can't help ourselves!!! :yikes

Dorothy
 
Annie, sorry to hear of Toby's problem. I would try to keep him off the furniture entirely for the next week or so.

My cav India had a soft tissue injury in her front leg that caused her to limp. Just like Toby, the vet examined her thoroughly and could not find anything. We decided not to xray unless India didn't recover after several days of rest. We put up the baby gates and kept India in the kitchen in order to keep her from jumping on/off furniture and climbing stairs. She recovered and didn't need to have an xray after all.

Jumping off furniture is very hard on the back and front legs. Would it be possible to get Toby a ramp or stairs to prevent him jumping?

Also, how is his weight? It may be that he could benefit from losing weight, as extra weight would put strain on his back and joints.
 
Annie, you should have him checked at Chestergates Hosital in Chester, which has a low cost MRI scanning scheme and is very familiar with SM. This sounds potentially like SM -- the scratching and yelping when excited are often very distinct SM symptoms -- and you would really be best having it checked if the vet can find no other reason for the scratching nor the yelping and pain. If I were in your position I would have him checked solely on the basis of the scratching and the yelping when excited and would consider the front paw an additional sign that SM really needs to be investigated as an option. There are things that can be done for this type of pain and there are options but they grow fewer the longer it is left untreated, if this is SM.

Karlin
 
Thank you all so much for your replies
I asked the vet if he knew anything about SM and he said it was very rare!
We will definitely not be letting Toby jump on furniture over the next few days, and will be getting a ramp for him. We carry him up and down all stairs and steps, and are soon to move to a bungalow, so that will help us all!
He is definitely not overweight, quite lean, but heavy boned - if that makes sense!
His ears are all ok, goo wise!.
Thank you, Karlin, for suggesting someone to check him out in our area, we have already spoken about this and think this is a way forward, even if it is to rule out SM - fingers crossed.
At the moment he is happily asleep at my feet - I hope to have him with me like this for many many more years :flwr:
 
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