Can't jump up - any ideas?

[Jillb]

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Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've been on here - I haven't had much time since I had my daughter. I wonder how many of the same people are still on here since my last visit, the site looks very different now.

Sadly we lost one our gorgeous whippet boys last year in a freak accident, he was only 4 and we were totally devastated. We are now a bit worried about our other boy, Merlin aged 7. We went away for a few days and he stayed with my parents, on our return we noticed he was lying on the floor all the time (this is weird, he doesn't do floors normally), when he did jump up on the sofa something hurt him and he yelped - he was also struggling with the stairs and he was whimpering when trying to climb them. He had only been lead walked whilst we were away - my mum said he had been on her sofa although he was spending a lot more time on her floor but she put it down to the heat. He can walk ok without limping and doesn't seem in any pain at all when walking, it's just jumping up onto the sofa/bed/car or climbing stairs that he cannot do and it's been a week now. I have got an appointment booked for the vets tomorrow evening but I wondered if anyone else had any ideas. Thanks x

 

[quintessence]

How did your visit to the vets go?

Jenny

 

[Jillb]

The vet couldn't find anything obvious so he prescribed anti-inflammatory meds and said if no improvement after a week to take him back for further investigations. It's day 4 on the Metacam now and so far no improvement. He jumped into the car the other day, yelped and held up his back leg, although he's not limping at all.

Jill

 

[jeffmack]

One of my dogs has had meningitas twice. each time it started with symptoms similar to those you described. The first time took weeks to diagnose but the second time we knew the signs so she was treated quickly with steroids.

 

[Jillb]

Thanks for your reply. Did your dog show any other symptoms apart from not being able to jump up? His appetite is normal, still keen to go for a walk (although we have only been taking him on very short lead walks) - it's been 2 weeks now since he stopped being able to jump up.

 

[jeffmack]

She would always carry her head low and had pain around the neck and back. I think she was eating ok and initially would go for walks but it got gradually worse. After reading some stuff on the internet I kept suggesting to my vet that it might be meningitas but he always thought it was something else. She every test possible more than once, x-rays and an MRI. It took about 6 weeks before they started to treat it with steroids then it cleared up quite quickly.

 

[Jillb]

Shame it took so long to diagnose but i'm glad you finally got to the bottom of it and your dog recovered. Thanks for your advice I will certainly mention it to my vet when we take Merlin back this week.

 

[chelynnah]

How is Merlin doing now?

 

[Jillb]

Hi, no change so far - we went back to the vets over a week ago now and he had x-rays but nothing came to light - they have put him on a new type of anti-inflammatory and told us to restrict his walks to very short lead walks only for 2 weeks. If no change by next week we have to go back and they mentioned hydrotherapy (which he would hate), it's very puzzling.

 

[Poochbypost]

We had this problem, if i were you Id get some tick medicine and give it to your dog, our little one had a sheep tick and it gave her the exact symptoms £3500 later at the vets I found a tick, they removed it and all symptoms vanished. The vets tried to fob us off with "maybe shes just had a hard bump"

http://www.poochbypost.co.uk/bob-martin-spot-on-flea-clear-1112-p.asp

one of these is worth buying too, worth its weight in gold if you spot a tick on a dog - http://www.poochbypost.co.uk/ancol-ergo-dog-tick-tool-137-p.asp

http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Health/Ticks/Symptoms.aspx - a little link for you to have a read through

Hope this helps as we were pulling our hair out with our pup