Winterpaws Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 I'm having an issue with my little foxie x, Pepe. About a week - 10 days ago he started yelping out in pain for no reason. He could be lying asleep and then he would yelp and fly off his bed. It started to get bad and he would do it in middle of night so we got an initial vet opinion who said to just let him rest and he would be fine. It kept progressing so we decided to get a second opinion on Saturday. They gave us carprofen and said to see if that helped and if not he would need some further tests. By Monday night he was still in pain so we went back Tuesday. On Tuesday he had xrays and whilst under they pulled 3 teeth. The xrays didn't really show anything significant other than a slight narrowing in between two verterbrae in the spine. They put a morphine patch on him, plus we still had carprofen and valium was also added to the mix. He's still not right and still not settling at all. Pepe is the type of dog who absolutely loves his blankets and burrowing under them and at the moment he cannot tolerate a blanket or jacket being put on him. Normally he would bury himself in his blankies but he doesn't even seem to be able to get himself comfortable on a bed. Vet rang to check on him just before and if he is still not settled by tomorrow then back in for more tests, possibly blood tests and a change in pain meds. There is the possibility of him needing an MRI Has anyone had anything similar happen? Normally I kind of have an idea of what is going on with the dogs but this has me completely stumped. If you flex his neck or touch his spine he shows no reaction to pain at all, yet all his symptoms make you think it is spinal. He can be asleep and then will just jump up yelping??? I swear in the last 5 days he has not slept more than 30 minutes at a time, and yet he is normally my little slug who is always asleep. The only other thing we discovered was that he has a Grade 3 heart murmur and so he is on meds for that. The vet doesn't seem to think that would be contributing to this issue. At a minimum I would have expected all the drugs he is on to have settled him and allowed him to get some sleep but that's not happening at all.... Oh and where does one get an MRI and any idea on ball park cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoL Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 We've had 2 instances where this has happened to teh same dog. The first time there was something wrong with his testicles, don't know what, even when he was having them chopped off the vet couldn't see anything abnormal but they WERE giving him an enormous amount of pain. The second time he was diagnosed as having torn his supraspinatus ligament (the one attaching from teh atlas going all the way down the spine). A couple of months of pain relief and anti-inflams later and still no improvement so we have him x-rayed and it turned out he'd actually fractured his neck Due to the late correct diagnosis the bone had already started growing over that area so we cannot correct it and it has given him arthritis there, poor bugger. He still crys in pain now if he jolts it or one of the kids pats him in the wrong spot and he's worse in cold weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterpaws Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 We've had 2 instances where this has happened to teh same dog. The first time there was something wrong with his testicles, don't know what, even when he was having them chopped off the vet couldn't see anything abnormal but they WERE giving him an enormous amount of pain. The second time he was diagnosed as having torn his supraspinatus ligament (the one attaching from teh atlas going all the way down the spine). A couple of months of pain relief and anti-inflams later and still no improvement so we have him x-rayed and it turned out he'd actually fractured his neck Due to the late correct diagnosis the bone had already started growing over that area so we cannot correct it and it has given him arthritis there, poor bugger. He still crys in pain now if he jolts it or one of the kids pats him in the wrong spot and he's worse in cold weather. Thanks SoL - how did they diagnose the ligament issue? We've had xrays and can't see any fractures and they xrayed pretty much his entire body! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CavsRcute Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 My dog will do it sometimes when her anal glands need expressing.And she becomes more restless after having her dinner She did it the other day and I realised it was time for her chiro visit...she has been fine since then. You can actually see her back quiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsfevr Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Find a good Bowen person Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Her Majesty Dogmad Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 I'd recommend going to a vet with a slightly different approach. I did have something similar with my 7 yr old foxy and went to my own vet, like you the xrays etc didn't reveal anything, they thought it might be arthritis. I took him to the all natural vet and they did some chiro and accupuncture on his neck and he was much better. He was OK for a while and then started getting worse symptoms and it turned out to most likely be a brain tumour - many symptoms that led to the diagnosis by 3 different vets. Didn't do the MRI for various reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoL Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 We've had 2 instances where this has happened to teh same dog. The first time there was something wrong with his testicles, don't know what, even when he was having them chopped off the vet couldn't see anything abnormal but they WERE giving him an enormous amount of pain. The second time he was diagnosed as having torn his supraspinatus ligament (the one attaching from teh atlas going all the way down the spine). A couple of months of pain relief and anti-inflams later and still no improvement so we have him x-rayed and it turned out he'd actually fractured his neck Due to the late correct diagnosis the bone had already started growing over that area so we cannot correct it and it has given him arthritis there, poor bugger. He still crys in pain now if he jolts it or one of the kids pats him in the wrong spot and he's worse in cold weather. Thanks SoL - how did they diagnose the ligament issue? We've had xrays and can't see any fractures and they xrayed pretty much his entire body! The ligament issue was diagnosed through flexion tests. I took him to another vet for a 2nd opinion who noticed he carried his head quite low and that prompted him to x-ray his neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 yup find an awesome greyhound muscle man or really good dog chiro before you keep going with the meds and tests. They will usually give you a ballpark or fix the problem totally as I have found with my lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inevitablue Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 If you want the MRI, the cheapest in Sydney is http://www.rossmorevethospital.com.au/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danois Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 How's he going WP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterpaws Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Thanks Dan. We are hoping that maybe he is slightly improving.... He had a really bad night on Thursday night and woke up screaming in pain. But on Friday he really settled down and actually curled himself up into a ball to sleep and he has been doing that since friday. He has yelped a few times but he seems a lot better in himself and more willing to move around and do things like curl up or sleep under a blanket. We've got him on strict crate rest (which he hates) but hopefully it is helping. We'll be back at the vet again early next week to see what they think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoL Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Hey WP I forgot to mention: you're only about 40 mins from me and I have the most awesome muscle man ever - he's a legend around these parts, worked for the Wests and the Balmain Tigers, helps out the Newcastle Knights, all the martial artists around here see him, not to mention all the showies. If you need his details, let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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