Osteoarthritis? Something else? UPDATE DISCOSPONDYLITIS

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guf54

Member
Recently my 4 1/2 year old Brittany dog Rigby has been stiff and in pain in what appears to be his hind end. I first noticed a couple weeks ago when I would let him out of his crate in the morning that he seemed extra stiff and was walking with a different gait than usual. Well last week he really seemed to be in pain so I took him to the vet. They put pressure on areas looking for an injury but couldn't find one, but did also notice his lethargy and different walking gait so they prescribed an anti inflammatory to give him to see if that would help with the pain while he "healed". The pills seem to be helping with the pain but he still walks a little different and is still stiff in the mornings and still seems a little off. We are going to have a follow up with the vet soon but I was wondering what some of you think this could be? Early arthritis? something else?
 
I had one with the same symptoms once. My vet gave him Tramadol?? to see if he would come out of it. He didn't want to xray him unless he had to. He did come out of it. The vet said his best guess was his back, maybe a herniated disc. He was fine but he went down again about 8 years old. I retired him but he never got better. He was an extremely hard and wide hunter, so I didn't expect him to hunt into old age. I hope Rigby recovers. A dog in pain is hard to witness.
 
Definitely, try a dog chiropractor. CBD also helps. Tramadol breaks down like morphine for dogs... my boy had Spondylosis deformans with severe weakness to his legs with pain. We started with carprofen, gabapentin, and then ended with tramadol. The chiropractor used electric stimulation and manipulation which eased his pain.
 
In my part of the world, a tick borne disease would be #1 on the list.

PS Ticks tend to beat the first robin by 2 weeks. It is not unusual to have snow banks and ticks at the same time.
 
Update: Well the vet isn't 100% sure on what is going on yet but thinks it could be hip dysplasia or leg-calve-perthes disease, they are leaning more towards the hip dysplasia but need to do some more tests. Also to throw things on top of it my dog had a baseball sized abscess form almost over night in the area of his last rib on the same side that he has been having hip problems. They needed to make a pretty big incision to get the abscess to drain because it was almost gel like. They don't know what caused the abscess but gave him some antibiotics and stitched in a couple drain tubes where they drained the abscess. They don't believe the hip problems and abscess are related and are going to look more into his hip problems once he heals from the abscess. I still wonder if the two maybe connected and I'm also curious as to what caused the abscess...I did hunt a lot of areas with canadian wild rye this year so I wonder if it could be a grass awn? They didn't find anything when they drained the abscess.
 
My first guess is hip dysplasia. Why not x-ray him to see if that's the cause. If it's not hip dysplasia you may need to have them do an MRI. My previous Brittany started favoring her rear end at 7 years of age. X-rays showed nothing so we tried anti-inflammatories and they didn't help. So we were off to the University of Minnesota. Without doing an MRI they though perhaps it was a slipped/herniated disc so they sent her home with meds and strict kennel rest. No improvement, so we went back to the U of M for a MRI. It reveled she had a cancerous tumor on her spine and it was invading her spinal column. Nothing to be done so we took her home and two weeks later we had to put her done. I hope and pray that you do not have a similar prognosis.
 
Well after a few more vet visits and a referral to Kansas State vet clinic we think/hope that they finally found what is wrong with him...Discospondylitis. It is an infection in the spine that could be either bacterial or fungal, we are praying for bacterial as the fungal type is almost impossible to cure. The bacterial kind is curable but he still has a long road to go, possibly many months of antibacterial and pain meds. Still if he can kick the infection it is possible he has permanent damage to his spine, only time will tell.
 
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