Molly, 13 yr, shih tzu - lhasa aspo - Molly has passed

Hiya Sharlene... I was just reading about Molly's back leg giving out once in awhile and the same thing happened to Keesh long before the so called cushings problems. They did an xray on his spine and found out the myelin was being interrupted in the spinal column which caused his same problem. One day he saw a squirrel and took off, both his back legs gave out and he was looking like a frog, but he kept on going dragging with his back legs and pulling with his front ones, needless to say he didn't get the squirrel. It didn't hurt him a bit, which it doesn't and he was up and prancing around within seconds. Scared the bejeebers out of me though when I saw it. Could this possibly be the same with Molly? It did start in one leg, that was the only time I saw both affected, and it would rotate the weakness from one leg to the other. I didn't pursue it further as there was no cure and the only recommendation was to take him to a neurologist. If I remember correctly it was about 3-4 yrs before alll this cushings stuff came up. Hope you are doing well, I'm sure your are busy getting ready for the holidays. It's just me and this tazmanian devil of a cat here, so I'm not putting up any decorations. Business is terrible, so selling it off and will be moving again soon. I missed my calling, should have been a professional mover, but I thought the last one was going to kill me, I'm sure this one will.

I am pretty sure that it is the luxating patella that causes molly to sometimes go sideways and lose her balance. It's only the one side that has the highest grade on the patella.
She seems to be fine otherwise and still in great spirits. She is just a joy, sometimes an aggravating nagging on, but a joy nether the less. LOL

hugs

Yeah for feisty dogs!!
Are you able to massage the knee with the luxating patella? That's what we used to do for Hamish when his back knee seemed to "pop" - the vet showed us what to do, and OH was much better than me, but it did seem to help. Alternatively is there some sort of knee support / elastic bandage you could use to help? (like the neoprene sleeves you can get for human joints)

I know someone who looped a stocking around the middle of their dog to help support them for a while. This allowed the stretched tendons (when the knee pops out, tendons stretch and the knee will pop out more frequently) to tighten back up. Their dog didn't need surgery and had no more problems from the luxating patella.

Molly's luxating patella on the left side is a grade 4. It won't come back even with exercise and surgery might get it to a grade 2 or not. The problem with the right side, while there is a grade 2 luxating patella on that side, is more due to the deformity from birth of not a deep enough grove and it just goes out from under her now. That is a very painful, long surgery and none of the vets want to put molly under for it, as the risk for blood clots they think will be high for her. So we are just going along doing what we can. She doesn't seem to be overly uncomfortable, other than being wobbly in the back legs and falling over sometimes when she is moving fast or steps wrong. Poor baby, she has such a good attitude and disposition through all of this.
The eyesight continues to get worse, and now I have to sometimes touch her nose with a treat for her to know it is in front of her. But once she knows she is happy as can be.

I feel bad as I am not able right now to spend as much quality time with her as I'd like due to the work issue. I work, and sleep then work, then sleep, then work then sleep and that is just in one day. Crazy! January can't come soon enough for me!!!

We put the tree up today finally as our daughter was making noises like you are Never this late. *(she forgets the year it went up on christmas eve hahahaha) kids. Still it is finally up, and i'm playing catch up on the forum.

so many new members. :( Hate to see so much cushings out there.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season

Sharlene, one thing I noticed with both Hamish and Henry is that their near sight is not as good as their far sight. If there is a treat on the floor right in front of them they don't always see if, but if it's several feet away they would always spot it, and as for things moving in the very far distance.... they never missed that! How does Molly cope with distance things?
I do wonder if some kind of knee support would help Molly as it might stop the knee popping?

Sorry to hear that work is so busy at the moment. Will you definitely get some respite in the new year?

All work and no play is a bad, bad thing;)

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season and a very Merry Christmas! Hard to believe it is fast approaching we have had no snow since Thanksgiving and almost balmy temperatures.:)

I hope things settle down and work. Miss Molly wants to play with her MaMa:)

Hugs

Wishing you a blessed Christmas also to lady Molly. Thank you for being there for me so often.
Love Sonja,Apollo, Karma

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope all is well with everyone and all are enjoying some special time with their families, friends and furbabies.

I will be back tomorrow to pop into threads and say hello.

Hugs, happy holidays and all our best. From the muffins family

Merry Christmas to you all from Henry & me