Spondylosis

[Christina Herrmann]

Hello, dear members, I hope you've spent lovely holidays with more sunshine than we had here in Berlin. 

My darling Hedy (Irish red setter, 3 years old) has for some time held her right hind leg up after sudden moves and avoided jumping up trunks or the like (for a treat...). When drying her with a towel the other day she yelped. I had her ex-rayed at the vet's immediately with the diagnosis: heavy spondylosis. I was shocked as she is a young dog. The vet said it was hereditary. I connected the breeder who was not concerned at all and said, several of her dogs had lived with it to an old age...

Have any of you had experience with spondylosis in younger dogs? Your replies are very much appreciated as Hedy is my first setter. Kind regards, Christina 

[James Doran]

Hi Christina, firstly can I say how sad I was to read your post about Hedy having been diagnosed with this at such a young age. I don't know about spondylosis, but if you mean spondylitis, which is what I think you are referring to, then I have had experience with it with my beloved Romeo. He was diagnosed with it at a much later age (about 9) although I believe that he had it well before then, but without any great symptoms or pain. It was a progressive inflammatory disease with Romeo, leading to peripheral neuropathy, and affected the nerves controlling his bladder (which is how we found out by x-ray) and eventually the power to his back legs as it gradually progressed. Although my boy lived to 12 1/4, it is heart breaking to experience the way this disease affects your dog. I tried a few different things to help alleviate, and to try and slow the progression, without any real success, sadly. Romeo was such a stoical dog that it was difficult to know how much pain he suffered with it, but what I can say with certainty is that the disease manifested with a gradual loss of bladder control and power and movement in the back legs. I would also like to say that I find it disgraceful (but not surprised) that Hedy's breeder showed no concern when informed of the diagnosis, and the hereditary nature of it! If you search in all discussions in this forum tab, there might be other posts and information on this subject, Christina! In the meantime, I send my sincerest thoughts and prayers to you both, and hope that it is a very long time before it seriously affects her in other ways. Best wishes. James.

[Barbara]

Hi Christina, first of all  I am sorry to read that your Hedy is been diagnosed so young with spondylosis. My Tiny - soon 13 Years, was diagnosed some Years before with spondylosis but I am sure she had it Years before. Like James said it is heart breaking to see when the back legs loose power and so on. She is a brave dog so it was first difficult for me to know how much pain she suffered with it.

All the best Barbara

Sorry for my bad english. Fallst du Fragen hast können wir uns gerne auch auf deutsch unterhalten

[Christina Herrmann]

Hallo Barbara, vielen Dank für deine Antwort! Hedy hatte gerade den ersten Schub, und ich hoffe, dass es dauern wird, bis sie erneut stärkere Beschwerden hat. Wie du schreibst, sind unsere Hunde wirklich hart im Nehmen und zeigen uns ihre Schmerzen erst spät. 

Die Fotos deiner Hündin sind wunderschön!! Ich hatte viel Spaß beim Anschauen. Viele Grüße aus Berlin, Christina 

[Barbara]

Hallo Christina, ja ich hoffe auch es vergeht viel Zeit bei Hedy bis zum nächsten Schub! Tiny hat bei Schüben mit akuten Schmerzen nur Infiltration und Schmerzmittel geholfen. Chiropraktik bekommt sie auch. Unterwasserlaufband mussten wir nun aufhören. Etwas anderes zu tun ist es ja leider schwierig.

Freue mich wenn dir meine Bilder von Tiny gefallen haben. Liebe Grüße aus Wien