UTI + Overnight blindness + then sudden dementia like symptoms + Cushings dx

I too am not a Vet and won't pretend to know what is best. All I can do is share my experiences. I have only had 4 dogs. One in childhood for a few months. The other three have all been in adulthood. All 3 have been household pets and have bonded with different household members. The first one was a Pekingese/Pomeranian mix who lived to be 11 he had back problems and an enlarged heart along with a bladder stone. The 2nd which was brought in the house not quite a year after the 1st who was all Pomeranian. She had to have both knees operated on at 9 months, her right hip shaved from hip dysplasia, and ended up with Cushing's and a liver tumor toward the end. She lived a few months past her 16th Birthday. She lived almost 3 1/2 years with Cushing's after diagnosis. She also got acupuncture every other week for about 3 years. This helped her get over an injury which I think would have been too much for her body and would have passed without it. The 3rd one is a Bichon Frise/Poodle mix (Poochon) is the only one we have in the house right now. We got her in 2011 she was 7. She is now 15 and we have some health problems going on. We have tried acupuncture with her and it just doesn't work well, she does not do well with the needles or the waiting time to remove them. We have used gabapentin for both the pom and sometimes for the Poochon. We started the Poochon on CBD to try and get her off of the gabapentin. Most of the time she does fine on just the CBD, but we have had to use the gabapentin when the CBD doesn't quite seem to be helping enough. Just make sure you get a good quality good reputation CBD oil. In some cases we have been to 3-4 vets to get the appropriate help if thought it the best scenario. Just my 2 cents, and I always ask lots of questions.
Angela

Thank you Angela!

I am googling cbd oil for dogs and watching YouTube videos on physical therapy/massage for dogs. I keep correcting her hind leg posture, but both back legs slide forward.
or the back legs do a split, separating out.

It is scary and I don’t know how it happens.

My poor baby. I can’t believe she got injured at the vet :(
I’m sick to my stomach that he changed his story and took no accountability.

Part of me wants and wishes they had security videos so I could see how she was handled and what happened.
I found a scab (thought it was a tick) on her lower back, which makes me think she was dropped. Or if the staff pressed too hard on her body to hold her down.

She is my inspiration. Always strong and never gives up. Still wants walks.
She doesn’t have side effects from the muscle relaxer but it also does nothing.
The tramadol makes her sleepy and it has side effects.
I’m not sure she is in pain because she doesn’t cry and still is walking around (which is also a concern bc I’m freaked out it means it’s spine or nerve damage?)
So not sure she needs the tramadol? wasn’t sure if part of the purpose of it to just make her sleepy and lay down which is what vet told me was the side effect.

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Originally Posted by labblab

Hello again. Honestly, at this point I really do encourage you to ask for a referral to an internal medicine specialist (“IMS”) if there is a specialty clinic or a vet school near you. There are now a number of actions by your vet that concern me. Like you, I would guess that Sassy was injured by the staff there, and if so, that is really unforgivable that they don’t come clean about it. Second, I agree with you that I can’t imagine how your vet arrived at a definitive diagnosis about her disc without any imaging. Third, as Lori pointed out earlier, Sassy’s monitoring ACTH test was invalidated by your vet’s instruction not to give her morning dose of Vetoryl with food. The maker of Vetoryl explicitly states the opposite: on testing days, the medication *must* be given with a full meal in order for the Vetoryl to be metabolized properly and the test to be accurate. And now, the issue with the Rimadyl. Again, it’s a total lapse on the part of the vet that Sassy’s bad reaction was either not noted in the first place or overlooked now. The extremely nutty par is that there several newer types of NSAIDS that carry fewer risks to the liver and kidneys (especially for a Cushing’s dog), and your vet probably ought to have prescribed one of them over Rimadyl in the first place. Since Rimadyl has been ruled out, why isn’t he prescribing one of them now??

Going back full circle, if Sassy were my own dog, I’d want a second expert opinion about all of this. CBD oil may indeed be helpful for her — I’m currently giving it to my own elderly dog in conjunction with an NSAID for arthritic relief, and I do feel as though I’ve seen notable improvement in her mobility. I’ll come back later on today and add a link to some research information in that regard. But first I wanted to encourage you to get some additional guidance re: Sassy’s overall care and treatment. I know that may not be easy in the midst of the current COVID-19 restrictions, but to say that I’m underwhelmed with your current vet’s attention and expertise is putting it mildly :-((((.

Marianne

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Hello Marianne,

Omg.

You made many good points.

I will ask for a referral.

Is an internet’s going to be expensive compared to a vet?
I wish I had gone to one first instead to have the testing done, but had no idea I could have..

I am very upset and disturbed by her injury. I see her walking this way and I just can’t believe it.



I don’t think he takes into account the other things as you mentioned (liver and kidney risk of meds).

I do not know why he didn’t prescribe another NSAID either. I did ask about it.

When he said no food for her ATCH test, do you think that made the test invalid?

Thank you thank you!

I thought maybe this was the norm for vet care.

Our IMS (internal medicine specialist) for our other dog was not too much more expensive than our primary vet. This was 4-6 years ago though.

The first visit might have been, but I know the subsequent ones weren't too much more.

Hi Claire,

Thank you for sharing your experience with it. I’m so sorry you and the babies had to go through IVDD.
God bless you for helping them through it.

Do your pups hind legs slide forward toward the front legs? Or back legs make a “split”? It’s like the legs are loose. I can’t find medical terminology to describe what it is.

The one leg that now sticks out farther then the other leg, goes forward too much, and I don’t know if it’s the knee too (but she has good knees) bc she fell? Because the leg sticks out, it makes it look like her torso appear funny.
And the foot drags sometimes which is so scary (I could hear her nail scraping, so now keeping her on a sparse grass walkway under a tree). The hip/upper top of leg (not sure what it’s called) look like it goes forward too much.

I’ve been mortified by this. Like what the hell happened?
Maybe the disk randomly herniated, but I wish I could see how my dog was handled and carried by staff, into the room and how handled during her test.

He acted like her not being able to walk was normal bc of old age. No. This is a dog that requires walking and lives for it. People everyday comment on how adorable she is and when I tell them her age, their jaw drops.

She did not have this crazy looking walk before. And all of my neighbors can attest to that bc they see her everyday.
Walking is essential for her mental health; im concerned this this will kill her from depression. It also has kept her joints fluid and mobile, and it’s why her heart sounds “amazing”.

I have no other activity besides a half chewy to give at night which lasts 2 minutes bc she devours it.

I do wonder if recovery would be better if she was on a light sedative? (not sure a kidney and liver safe one exist- I don’t want her body taxed out) so she could sleep and relax?

I put her on the leash for potty and she has been trying to trick me into crossing the street for her walk. Honestly, if I didn’t have her on a leash, she would walk herself several blocks even with this issue. It’s like she doesn’t care about anything but these walks or maybe she isn’t aware she’s in pain.

Your advice is great.

I watched a video on how to pick up an injured dog properly (it was actually a video with a dachshund) bc I was scared of touching her.

I’m going to see if my area has a vet acupuncturist.

That’s also a good point of the X-ray. I didn’t know it required sedation. But if it puts her on her side, I imagine this is a bad idea to be handled or put pressure on any area.

She had lung xrays (clear) a month ago, but it was a fast thing; I’m not sure how they did it (a female vet took care of her that day and did a good job. She personally came out to the car and carried my dog with love. (Also, I don’t think they had enough staff that day, so she had to come out to get my dog. It wasn’t the staff he hired who grabbed my dog by her head and neck the time before, which pissed both me and my mother off.
I didn’t feel worried that day knowing my baby was being cared for by this lady (she even called me in morning to give an update!). But she’s not available to see patients. I guess she only comes in part time to help give the vet a break that day when they book bloodwork and such, but I’m not sure. She’s not a full time vet seeing patients.

I was already pretty concerned and scared of the cost of Cushings (no way around it), so a little panicking about this.
And heartsick over the acute blindness.

Dammit, why the back/legs?! ;(

This is just my opinion OK? But it sounds like somewhere in the lumbar vertebrae and what’s causing the legs to do these weird things is neurological damage. My old miniature poodle Pork Chop had severe IVDD and disc problems and rear his legs would slide apart almost like the letter A. He would wobble around. And when it was really bad he would sit on his little rump with his back legs sticking straight out in front of him but slightly pointing outward like in a “V” and then he would lean forward to eat. He almost looked like a toddler sitting there. This was due to neurological damage in his spine. I can’t say how much help the gabapentin and galliprant were. Probably some. Acupuncture helped somewhat but I think the best thing was the laser. It helped reduce inflammation and the treatment only took a few minutes. He was good for both procedures. It sounds to me like there is neurological involvement with what you are saying about her legs. That’s going to take time to heal. In a herniated disc the ‘jelly’ the insulating material inside it can be bulging out and pressing on surrounding nerves. Or there might also be some debris from the disc that is compressing those nerves. Probably to do an X-ray without sedation would depend a lot on how much pain the dog is in. If they are not especially painful they might be able to do it but but a CT scan or MRI would definitely require anesthesia. With older dogs it really doesn’t take much to cause some of these spinal things. I also have spinal issues and just bending down to pick up the dog’s water bowl can be enough to almost collapse my left leg. So I truly sympathize with all creatures who have spinal issues. I know it’s scary to see them not able to walk very well. If you really want to be sure about the extent of this injury and whether or not there is IVDD present I would say contact a board certified orthopedist or neurologist and have a consultation. That way you would have a better idea if this was some acute injury or if it is age related spinal issues. I’m sure you know this but don’t let her jump up and down on the furniture. That’s one of the worst things they can do. You ask why the back legs, well likely because it’s either a lumbar or lower thoracic vertebrae involved and that would affect the nerves that control the hind limbs. The foot dragging almost sounds like a ‘dropped foot’. This happens in humans and again, it relates to neurological damage. Considering what you’ve said and how affected her gait has become, if you can possibly manage it why not try to get a consult with an ortho? Neurologist is good too but they’re harder to come by. A light sedative might keep her quieter but it’s always a big trade off as far as the kidneys and liver. No one likes to do crate rest for their pup and sometimes it makes things worse if they are stressed. I’d try to get her to just sit quietly with you as much as possible while this heals. A week or two of quiet shouldn’t affect her joints that much but I really do think a consult with a specialist would be a very good idea given what you are describing.
Hope this helps!
Claire

I agree with trying get an ortho vet to take a look. If there is an IMS nearby I would get them onboard as well. It does sound as if something is going on with either the spine, hips, or perhaps a neurological issue.