I’ll even settle for anyone with experience with MS, because DM is similar.
My poor 11 y.o. Boxer has stage 2 DM (dragging back feet; stumbling). She’s been dragging her back feet for a while, but the stumbling is new and rather sudden. We think that a change in treatment for her arthritis loosened her legs up to allow the loss of control.
A secondary theory is that maybe the progressive nature is a flow and ebb, and we’re in a flow phase. Hoping for an ebb where things will improve a bit, but I’m not fooling myself into thinking there is any outcome other than paralysis.
DM is prevalent in Boxers. It claimed Sadie’s mother, so it’s not a shock that she has it. Also, at 11, she’s outlived her life expectancy already. The sad part is that except for the DM and arthritis messing up her back end, she’s healthy.
Any advice or info?
BTW, we’re starting to call her ‘Elvis’ (swivel hips)
Degenerative myelopathy (DM) is bad news. The veterinary school in Gainesville, Florida has been actively researching this situation for at least the last 15 years and has made little if any advances in the way of treatment.
Many veterinarians “treat” with assorted modalities, none of which change the course of the disease (IMHO) although the disease does tend to wax and wane, with or without treatment.
Forgot to mention the basics. DM is very similar to MS in people. Myelin, the “insulation” of the nervous system becomes faulty. Etiology is unknown. It affects the rear legs first, causing an initial loss of conscious proprioception.
Sorry to hear about it. My Dalmatian had similar symptoms, but in his case it was intervertebral disc protrusion. It took a myelogram to find that out. My only advice it to make it as easy as possible for him to get around, and keep an eye out for him getting into a dangerous situation. My wife spoiled my dog in his last year and let him lick the food out of the pots she cooked with (of course, she’d cook bacon and eggs for him too). Once he stumbled and his hindquarters fell into the pot. He panicked and probably would have hurt himself if we weren’t there to help him right away.
-pathy, not -itis; gotcha. My wife insisted until this past weekend that it was properly called ‘spinal degeneration’ because that’s how the topic was intruduced to us years ago by the breeder we go the afflicted dog from.
Q1: Do you know if it’s possible that arthritis (in her knees) could mask some of the uncoordination?
We took her to the vet for her arthritis last week. He gave her an acupuncture treatment, which she historically responded to very well (and I’m a skeptic, too), and changed her from Rimadyl to Deramax. The changes were immediate wrt the arthritis.
He observed some knuckling during the visit, and the subject was brought up then. She continued to improve through the weekend, but then was stumbling Monday morning quite badly. The stumbling has slowly improved since then…
Q2: is DM like MS, where the patient will have bad days (uncoordination to near paralysis) and good (almost no visible indications)?
Q3: is there a ‘typical’ timespan to paralysis? (Stumbling Monday was quite a shock)
Early signs are often subtle. Sometimes increased wear of the central digits’ toenails is noted early. A careful neuro exam by a veterinarian helps seperate the neurologic from the orthopedic components.
Not typically that extreme. More often there will be “ups and downs” around a declining median.
There is not a “typical” progression, and the tests that might give a more accurate prognosis are just not in the patient’s best interest.
