Partial crucial ligament tear

To be honest, yes it is sad that she has to end her career so young, especially when she's been doing so well, but ultimately, if she can chase a ball and run after her brother and friends in play until she's old and grey, that would be enough for me.

I am totally grateful for all the advice that you guys have given. I think it is always important to keep an open mind and think about possibilities seeing as I'm getting conflicting confusing diagnosis from the vets! I would really really like to know what the heck is going on, but sadly the vets here aren't as sophisticated as overseas. No sports vet, no neurologist, there might be an ortho vet.. I'm going to ring around the vets and ask about specialties again, just to be sure.

If it is a CCL, shouldn't she be in some kind of pain? Or be limping or something? At this stage, she looks like her usual self (actually shortly after my last post she was as good as new). Completely. No loss of mobility, nothing. She has tried to jump on a few occasions, I tried to see if she could control her hind legs and she walks over my arm and my leg with ease not touching me at all, she wags her tail, pees and poops with no problem as she always does. And if it was a back injury that affected her spine/spinal cord, shouldn't there be some persistent loss of mobility/weakness that would go away only after a few days or after physio?

She is not on any pain meds and her steroid jab was 2 days ago! She's only on supplements (fish oils, that sort of stuff).

I'm probably repeating myself but it's so dang confusing! While I'm happy she's back to normal, I'm still keeping her as quiet as I can (both back and legs), but without really knowing what's going on, I feel at a loss as to how I can help her get better completely (if there is even anything left to heal), or help prevent it from happening again! :gaah:gaah:gaah
 
She may not show pain or limitations. Two of the dogs I know with partial CCL were on Tully's team at flyball, one ended up with a full tear, not from flyball ironically but rough wrestling with a buddy. He had a titanium replacement and has just gone back to flyball. The other flyball dog retired, still active but had steroid shots, rest and physio to help it heal.

Was it a long lasting steroid? The one Tully has lasted 6wks.

It is good you've picked it up relatively early and she can still lead a pretty active life. I miss not doing the dog sports, but I'm lucky too that Tully is actually doing well and without the added stress of the sports is still managing to chase roos.
 
She got a Dexafort injection which I read lasts 2 to 4 weeks. I guess I will have to wait and see if she starts showing any signs after that.

Yea, I'm glad she can still lead a normal life. If she can't do agility ever again, she retired with a bang - she was named national Jumper Dog of the Year for 2012!

Maybe now we can focus on obedience. :lol:
 
Longer backed dogs are more susceptible to disc injuries due to the fact that they have the same number of vertabrae as any other dog but with more space between so therefore it's easier to displace the disc.
Dex is a long acting steriod that has been linked to causing diabetes in dogs. My vet will only use it in extreme emergencies and in cats as needed.
I remember contacting a dachshund club here in Canada about a friends dog that had herniated a disc and they gave me a recipe that they used on dachsies. She tried it and the dog regained mobility. Might have been coincidental but this dog was carrying a prognosis of permanent paralysis and she was able to walk again. Sorry, can't remember what was in it except high doses of vitamin C but maybe if you were to contact a club or do a search on google, you might get a hit.
 
Michelle I'm so sorry to hear about Juliet. I'm happy to hear that it sounds like she can live a normal doggie life, but I know how stressful it is to get multiple diagnoses and to read read read about each one until your eyes are crossed.

I don't know if it's possible, but is there any other vet you can consult with? It sounds like you went to a very knowledgeable one, but from experience I can tell you that there are a lot of different interpretations of the physical symptoms we see in our dogs. I know that when we took Lexi to get her knees looked at we talked to 5 different vets. 3 regular vets--one saw nothing, two saw very slightly luxated patellas but said they were no big deal, 2 orthopedic specialist vets--one who found nothing and then another who said she would never compete again and likely needed surgery to be able to play again, and one rehab specialist who prescribed exercises to help the slight luxations. And all vets have very good reputations, but it goes to show how much is out there when the answer isn't clear cut. And I'm sure you're like me where you worry and stress over every single possibility.

Sending you and Juliet good thoughts!
 
I have been worrying and stressing every since! And reading on just about every possibility for her condition from eating macadamia nuts to FCE to IVDD to Coonhound paralysis! I am getting very cross eyed! :eek2:

I have lined up a couple more vets to see. Hopefully someone can tell me something that makes some sense. Sigh.

Thanks Tagg, I'll do a search for that!

The good news is that Juliet is still her usual self. She is as greedy as ever, showing no signs of pain or inability to use her legs! I walked her over some cavalettis, asked her to back up, and (on her own because she thought I was holding food) she did a "sit pretty" putting all her weight on her back legs. She can still run circles around Romeo. :rolleyes2:
 
romeosangiovese said:
The good news is that Juliet is still her usual self. She is as greedy as ever, showing no signs of pain or inability to use her legs! I walked her over some cavalettis, asked her to back up, and (on her own because she thought I was holding food) she did a "sit pretty" putting all her weight on her back legs. She can still run circles around Romeo. :rolleyes2:
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Wonderful! I'm glad she's doing so good! I think she deserves an extra cookie for that:wink2:!
 
romeosangiovese said:
How does one tell the difference between spinal stroke and IVDD? This is so confusing. I'm waiting on the vet clinic to email the xrays to me of her spine (I have the ones for her knee which of course won't show the ligaments) and try and figure out what a narrowing of the spine looks like. I'm concerned because if it IS spinal stroke, I would have to start doing physio work much sooner than IVDD to help her recover better and more fully. :confused2:
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How is Juliet doing? What were the xray results?

What you're describing sounds a lot like FCE/Spinal stroke. Sometimes the dog will cry out at the onset of spinal stroke, but some times they just wake up with a limb or limbs not working. FCE is not painful.

The only way to confirm spinal stroke is with an MRI. If the xrays come back normal then I'd say there's a possibility it might be FCE.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_fibrocartilaginous_embolism.html

http://canadawestvets.com/fibrocartilaginous-embolism-fce/

Sadie had a spinal stroke just before her third birthday. She's made a very good recovery although her back legs will always be weak.

There's a long thread about it, or feel free to PM me if you want.
 
The information on FCE is very useful and interesting that it is not painful - it's certainly more plausible that Juliet had FCE than IVDD! I read through the whole thread on Sadie and learnt much from it! Thank you for sharing.

Juliet's her usual self now, Melissa. Like nothing happened! Her back legs are strong as ever with no loss of strength or function.

I showed the x-rays to a few vets and they said it was not conclusive. There isn't clear evidence that there is a narrowing between the discs and that the x-rays may have been taken badly or the dog not positioned well.

It's been almost 3 weeks now. I've started to let her walk more and took her for a short swim - starting slow.
 
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