Kansas Crimson

jhawks99 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 1:59 pmGeorge

We had a Pyrenees that we called George. Great dog.

all I know is you’re not allowed to name it Baby Jay cuz that’s what I’m naming my dog.

Have you considered?

What's that?

11 days until puppy pickup. I don’t know if the interstate highways will stay open that long.
”Covid” is a good dog name (hard consonants, 2 syllables, unique).

So I was told (by two different veterinarians) that my older lab had arthritis and it was getting worse and worse. It got to the point where he would occasionally fall down, had trouble getting up, etc. We took him to the vet thinking he needed to be put down, fully prepared to go home without him.

The vet (a different one) looks at him, starts examining him, says, "this dog doesn't have arthritis, he has an iliac-sacral problem". He says they can inject him with a steroid and usually (~70% of the time) improve the issue. I ask about his falling down and muscle atrophy in his legs, doc says it's from the same problem muscles aren't getting the signals from the nerves. He'd been drinking/urinating a lot, doc says its because he's in pain. We thought he had multiple problems and was just dying.

So, they give my 13 year old dog the injection, and the next day he's walking around like a perfectly healthy old dog again. He said he'd likely need another injection after a few weeks, but they actually usually respond better to the second injection.

So, then I'm really happy to not have to euthanize my dog and that he's feeling better. But I felt like a terrible owner for leaving him in pain for all that time when all he needed was a proper diagnoses and an injection. And, after looking into it, they respond better when diagnosed earlier.

It's amazing this old vet spotted it within seconds of seeing my dog, and other vets, who made us do blood work and urinalysis in addition to exams just told us he had arthritis.

Hope you won't pound yourself with the guilt. You don't own it, imho. I understand why you'd beat yourself up; I would, too. It's not right, tho'.

Your heart was in exactly the right place, based on what you believed the facts to be. You wanted to limit your dog's suffering. Must've had to screw yourself up to get ready for what you thought was coming.

Tip of the cap to the older vet and a pat on the head for your dog. There truly is no substitute for age and experience, I guess...great outcome.

What CR said. You had no way to know. Very happy the old vet is a good vet.

Play some fetch.

PhDhawk wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:01 pm So I was told (by two different veterinarians) that my older lab had arthritis and it was getting worse and worse. It got to the point where he would occasionally fall down, had trouble getting up, etc. We took him to the vet thinking he needed to be put down, fully prepared to go home without him.

The vet (a different one) looks at him, starts examining him, says, "this dog doesn't have arthritis, he has an iliac-sacral problem". He says they can inject him with a steroid and usually (~70% of the time) improve the issue. I ask about his falling down and muscle atrophy in his legs, doc says it's from the same problem muscles aren't getting the signals from the nerves. He'd been drinking/urinating a lot, doc says its because he's in pain. We thought he had multiple problems and was just dying.

So, they give my 13 year old dog the injection, and the next day he's walking around like a perfectly healthy old dog again. He said he'd likely need another injection after a few weeks, but they actually usually respond better to the second injection.

So, then I'm really happy to not have to euthanize my dog and that he's feeling better. But I felt like a terrible owner for leaving him in pain for all that time when all he needed was a proper diagnoses and an injection. And, after looking into it, they respond better when diagnosed earlier.

It's amazing this old vet spotted it within seconds of seeing my dog, and other vets, who made us do blood work and urinalysis in addition to exams just told us he had arthritis.

When our first dog -- a big, sweet Bernese Mtn. dog -- was four, we came home one day, and he was sprawled out on the tile in our foyer, unable to stand and shrieking in pain (and honest to Gaia, a 120 lb. dog shrieking in pain may be the most horrific sound I've ever heard). I scooped him up and we loaded him in the car to take him to the emergency vet -- because it was Sunday, natch.

They gave him pain meds, calmed him down, and kept him overnight. The next day, they took x-rays, etc., found nothing abnormal, and scheduled a visit with the veterinary neurologist (because he was still wobbly on his hind legs). The neurologist took blood, looked at the films, examined him, and told us that he had an autoimmune disease similar to but more severe than polyarteritis (i.e. Beagle Pain Syndrome), and that the most humane thing to do would be to put him down, right then. Even if we took him home, he said, we should prepare to say goodbye because he would have more and worsening such episodes.

We paid our $4500 bill (emergency vets and neurology consults don't come cheap!), and took our boy out to his regular vet (it was Monday, by then, after all) for a second opinion.

His opinion was that the big dumb ox slipped on the tile in the foyer, tumbled down the flight of four stairs (a split-level house), and twisted his back pretty badly. He'd be in some pain for a few days, but perfectly fine in a week or two.

We paid our $75 bill and took him home.

He lived to be 12, which is pretty old for a Berner, and we never had a problem again.

I had a Pyrenees who had some medical issues but lived a full life.
Gone but not forgotten.