Fergie woke up and her back legs weren't working!
After a joyful day of playing in the fresh snow. Fergie came in -- went to bed--woke me up at 4:30 am (unusual for her) to go outside. She came in--hesitated going upstairs, but did come up. Wanted on the bed, then wanted off so I put her on the floor. When I got up this am she was curled up sleeping by the bed, but when we were ready to go downstairs she just couldn't get up. Her back legs just don't seem to work. I took her immediately to the vet. She was x-rayed and the vet thought one set of vertebre had a slightly smaller spacing and thought perhaps there was an injury with swelling. She is on prednisone 20 mg twice a day for two days, then half tablet twice a day for two days and then half tablet once a day for three days. She also has to take an antacid to protect her tummy. She is not to do any activity outside being carried outside to potty. I did not witness any injury--she has a tendancy to play rough with our Leonberger, but still I didn't see or hear anything that made me think something happened. Fergie doesn't seem to be in pain, but it is hard to tell. She has no stregnth in her back legs and holds one off the ground.She still wants to play, but her appetite is down.--Very unusual for her, and she has runny stools. Has anyone experienced something similar.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kristen on
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Final day of the medication and Fergie is ready to be a normal dog again! I'm still carrying her down from the second floor, but will let her do the six steps from the front door to the yard. She is no longer relagated to her kennel fence and has the run of the main floor. I am so relieved that she seems to be fine. I have to admit It still leaves me worried since there was no cut and dry diagnosis, but everything we did semed to have the exact affect the vet was hoping for. Life is good.
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Permalink Reply by Charlie on
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Yea!!! That's good to hear for you and for Fergie. It's nice she has recovered so quickly and is regaining her exercise freedom! Hopefully her gas will go away with the Prednisone too. :)
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No more prednisone and we are walking and running like normal. Still trying to keep her from jumping, but she is a happy go lucky 7 month old Corgi so I';m not as successful as I would like. I am also pleased to say the gas has disappeared! Don't know if the prednisone was to blame, but the gas went away when the steroid did. I can go back to closing the bedroom door. For a while there I was worried about Methane build up over night! It really was nasty. Thank you to everyone who commented when we were so concerned about our little girl. Life is good!
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Permalink Reply by Mel and Ry on
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Glad to hear that Fergie is back to normal. We have had a simliar instance with our older Corgi when he would go to my mom's place and play too hard. He limped around for a while and wouldn't put any weight on one of his rear legs. The Vet compared it to a person working out too hard and the next day the muscles and joints really tighten up from all the unusual movement. I think a lot of it has to do with them jumping up and down from things and the concussion that puts on their joints. We also put both of our boys on a Joint Healhty food which has glucosamine for joint health and contains less fat than regular food.
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What kind of food do you feed your dogs? I just made a switch to a new food, and am considering supplementing the Corgis and our elderly lab/golden with glucosomine/chondroitin. Thanks for sharing your story.It is amazing how resiliant these little guys are.
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The food is just called Eukanuba Healthy Joint. You can find it at most pet stores. Even the overly flamboyant stuck up pet stores on Ventura Blvd, after criticizing us for using "Eukanuba" and not a holisitic dog food, had to admit he carried it aswell. It keeps our boys trim and they don't seem to gain weight as easily as on other dog foods.
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Permalink Reply by Marta on
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This actually happened to my Sammie when she was 6 months old. We have a doggie door that leads to our backyard. We woke up on a Sunday morning and found her outside just sitting down. We tried calling her in, and she made an attempt to stand up but couldn't. We lifted her in the house and tried to see if she would stand up. After about 15 minutes and failed attempts to stand on her back legs, I freaked out and made my boyfriend drive me to Emergency Animal Vet Clinic. They did an xray too and the vet also thought there may be a slipped disk or a pinched nerve. The vet gave her a steroid injection to her back and prescribed Prednisone and a muscle relaxant. The vet asked me if I wanted to leave Sammi overnight for observation, but I just wanted to get her home so I declined. I told the vet I'd bring her back if her conditon got worse. Sammi slept most of the day away but was standing and trying to run later that night. I took her to my regular vet the very next day and he felt that Sammi had just pulled a muscle. Probably playing too hard with her older brother Elvis. He told me to make sure she didn't run or jump on/off furniture for about 4-6 weeks and if her symptoms didn't come back, she should be okay. Happy to tell you it's been 2 years later and she's never had an incident like that again. We have bed ramps now to discourage her jumping on and off the bed.
Oh, Sammie also had runny stool a few days before and after the incident. My regular vet sold me a bag of dog food he had in the office that was high in fiber (I think) and Sammie's runny stool was gone in a few days.
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Interesting about the runny stool. Fergie also had the runny stool. Thankfully gone in the same amount of time. Thanks for sharing your story. It is encouraging to know that your Sammie is just fine. I had enough trouble keeping Fergie calm for a week. I can't imagine trying to keep her from running fro 4-6 weeks! How did you do that? Today you would never know anything was wrong, but I keep a watchful eye on her. I just transitioned Fergie to a new food and will begin er on a joint supplement. Thanks again!
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We weren't 100% successful in keeping her from jumping and running. She was 6 months old at the time and just wanted to play ALL the time. Whenever we'd see her jumping or running, we'd usually have to shout at her to stop and she usually did. She didn't like us too much for those 4-6 weeks. We also had to keep her and her brother apart a lot so they wouldn't try to wrestle with each other. It was not a fun time, but it was worth it to make sure she was okay.
You would never imagine anything like that happened to her when she was young if you see her now. She climbs and jumps over EVERYTHING. She's a regular billy goat that has way too much energy.
Don't worry, I think Fergie's long-term prognosis will be excellent. :)
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