Back Legs Problem
Bubba is soon to be 11 years old in a couple months. a few weeks ago we were going downstairs where the computer room is and had already went down the six steps from the living room(2-story) to the foyer and then six more steps to the downstairs area.
I forgot something and told Bubba to stay there while I went back up to the kitchen. Of course, he didn't listen and came back up those last six steps to the foyer area but never got all the way up. When I looked his front paws were on the slate foyer but his back legs were still on the last two steps. He looked frantic so I grabbed his front two legs and pulled him up. Chalking this off to maybe he couldn't get traction on his front paws due to the slick slate I overlooked it.
This past Saturday we had gone out on the deck to go out in the back yard and there's 12 steps to go down. No problem, he's negotiated up and own those steps for years. He got to the first couple of steps and tumbled all the way down 10 more steps and landed in the yard. I was scared stiff he may have broken a leg, cracked a rib or worse yet, his back or neck. He sat there awhile and I felt all over him for problems but he got up and walked away like nothing had happened. No chancing another event like that I decided we won't go down those steps again.
Last night as we were getting to go out back for his last potty break around 8:30 we went down the steps inside to cut through the garage and out the back door. He got down all steps but as he made it down to the parquet floor his back legs were spread out like an eagle-one going to the left, one going to the right like someone trying to learn to skate. He stood there temporarily and then walked toward me but he was still walking with both feet outward. After about six feet of walking like that he finally straightened them out and was fine.
Part of me wants to blame this on his being overweight and being 10 years old. Another part wants to think the worse as being maybe the onset of DM. After what I explained, I'd appreciate any insight into this. We go to the vet today as I'm not waiting anymore for my guessing.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Judith Andre on
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It sounds awfully sudden to be DM. More likely an injury. I'd take him in to the vet ASAP.
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Permalink Reply by Linda on
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It's a good thing you are taking him in. Hopefully the vet will do some xrays to figure out what is going on. Does he appear to be in pain?
Max will be 13 in a couple of weeks and he started having problems on the inside stairs several months ago, he refused to come up at night without our help. We put carpet treads on the steps and now he is up them like a shot but he is very cautious coming down them. We have a ramp from the deck to the yard because he does have a calcification in his neck and does need to limit the amount of stairs he does. It also takes him a little longer to get from a lying position to standing. He is in no pain that I can detect since he still herds the cats around the house, takes off like shot down the ramp to chase squirrels.
First thing is to find out what is going on....is it age or is he developing a more serious problem. If he is overweight you need to get the weight down. Max is one of the large corgis at 35lbs but he is not overweight for his build. Losing those pounds will help Bubba's joints a lot. I have started both mine...Katie is 11...on Cosequin (sp) to see if that helps the old age joint pain. Not fun getting old for human or critter.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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With DM, you will usually notice the back nails on one hind foot wearing before anything more obvious shows up, though if he never walks on pavement you might not notice this. It sounds more like a mild back injury. I'd say no more stairs until you get him checked.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Wynn has had a few back injuries over the years and fallen(rolled) down a whole flight of steps in the dark. One spring he injured his back(or back leg) from doing too much running and had to go on cortisone and pain meds but it quickly cleared up. Wynn was overweight for several months a couple years ago and that did NOT help. Could it be a sight problem???? I agree that avoiding the stairs till you know more is good...when Wynn was injured even 2 steps off the deck was too much for him. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by D46 on
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He doesn't appear to be in any pain but you all know how they can hide that much better than we. His sight is fine. The vet looked him over good after I explained what all had been going on. One of the first things she did was give him a once over feeling all over him, something I had done as well. Then she took his right back foot, tucked it under so the toes were underneath and he immediately straightened his foot out. Likewise, she did the same with his left one but he was didn't respond as quickly with that one as the right but left it curled under for several seconds.
Next, she for whatever the reason, put on a glove, broke out the KY ans stuck her finger in his rear end! I didn't even ask what that was for. They did x-rays and she found nothing wrong with his spine. She decided to have one of the techs take him outside and walk him as she followed behind watching how he walked. She did tell me he would drag his foot just a little now and then-toes rather, not the foot. I've never seen that before and still haven't noticed it.
The blood work was fine, no problems in that area. She mostly believes his biggest problem is his weight but she said very early signs of DM wasn't to be ruled out all together. She wanted to start him on thyroid meds as his gland was on the low side and may help him loose weight. I opted not to do that yet and told her I'd cut back on his food, etc and try that before going the route of medication. One of us(me) in the family with thyroid problems is enough.
I have to claim being guilty for his weight. The problem is he loves to eat, like most of them, and I love to feed him plus he's totally lazy. His weight fluctuates between 54-58 pounds. I know, way too much for a Corgi but, he holds that weight very well due to being a bit bigger boned than most.
No more going down the deck but I will let he come up it and he does fine. I just hope all this is indeed a weight problem. I can deal with that-DM I can't. He's all I have. She did make me feel a little better saying she really didn't think it was a neurological problem.
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I know you love him very much, but remember food does not equal love. I'm going to be blunt: that is huge. My Jack is 14 inches tall at the shoulder, 2 inches higher than breed standard, and he has the chest and length to go with his height. He's a big boy. Very very big. He ways 35 pounds. He would still look good at 38. He hit 42 when he was around 2 and he was decidedly chunky. 55 pounds is almost surely at least 20 pounds overweight. 20 extra pounds on a 40 pound dog is like 75 extra pounds on a 150 pound person. Whether it's DM, a back problem, or just normal aging, you will do him a great kindness by bringing his weight down an awful lot over the next year or so. He will ALWAYS think he's hungry even if he weights 75 pounds, so giving in to the pleading is not going to make him any happier and losing the weight will allow him to be comfortably active for longer, which WILL make him happier.
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When I first brought Bubba home he looked a bit thin to me and found he weighed 35 pounds. He looked like he needed some meat on him. This was one of the first pics I took of him July 2007 when I brought him home.
[URL=http://s180.photobucket.com/user/ColColt/media/At%20the%20House/100_0467.jpg.html][IMG]http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x220/ColColt/At%20the%20House/10...[/IMG][/URL]
This is now...
[URL=http://s180.photobucket.com/user/ColColt/media/10th%20Birthday/_DEF4862a_zps9d62fdb7.jpg.html][IMG]http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x220/ColColt/10th%20Birthday/_DE...[/IMG][/URL]
He still looked good at 45 pounds some time later but admittedly, when he got up past that I knew we were in trouble. Coupled with the fact he's just lazy, won't chase any sort of ball, quit chasing squirrels long ago, and the fact he's a notorious chow hound it got hard keeping the weight off him short of nearly starving him. True, he never gets full. I'd go so far as to say he'd keep eating till he threw up. His stomach has no bottom. He is going to loose weight if I have to cut back everything, meals or snacks by half.
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I keep mine looking like Bubba's 35 pound picture. That is probably his ideal wight.
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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We see this with Gwynnie (12+ y.o.). We first noticed tremor in the right hindleg years ago, little or no progression of that. It was perhaps a year ago that I first saw her miss a step (climbing up). Now, she cannot make it up the full flight of basement steps -- can hardly get started. I see her hindlegs slipping and splaying out. I her the scraping of claws on the pavement, and see the wear on the tops of the two center right hindleg claws.
Al has always shown this wear on one foreleg.
Gwynnie can still scamper and run. She climbed a couple modest mountains last Junary (the Washington Cascades had no winter this year).
RECOMMENDATION: anytime you paint bare steps, put nonskid in the paint. Harder to clean, but who cares?
Also: you can't win. Even if he's 65 lbs. as he's waiting for you at the Pearly Gates, he's gonna turn to St. Peter and say, "Yes, Mr. Peter. That's the one. That's the person who starved me my entire life."
So you might as well get his weight down.
He's a beauty.
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I just had a chance to sit down and see how things were going. I am also going to be very blunt....that is an excessive weight no matter how big boned he is. Max is a very large corgi, he takes after his father who is from South Africa. When we got him at age 5 he weighed 54 lbs....a little too much love by his former family. He couldn't even get up the stairs he was so fat. I discussed a diet with my vet and had no problem getting the weight off. He also didn't want to chase balls. I took him for walks every single evening...I was working at the time so that's when I could do it. We started out easy because I didn't want to stress his back. The only snacks he got were raw carrots and green beans...8 years later carrots are still his favorite snack. He is good at 35 lbs and can even handle 37lbs. He is a fluffy so he looks a lot bigger from all the fur but when you get your hands thru the fur you can feel his ribs with just a light layer of muscle over them.
I feed him and Katie the same diet today because they tend to bulk up easy and they are both seniors now. I use Blue Buffalo Weight Control...yellow bag. They get 1/4 cup twice a day, I mix it with non-fat cottage cheese in the morning and at night with canned chicken (90% fat free) and green beans or peas...low sodium canned. They do get a few biscuits but it's one of those tiny ones...like training treats. Both dogs are very healthy...they herd the cats around the house, chase squirrels in the yard. Max will be 13 on the 21st and Katie turned 11 over the winter.
What you are describing with his one paw is what would be called drop-foot in humans. Max had that in his front leg when he started having problems from the calcification in his neck. Hopefully losing some weight will help that and if the vet does not have a definite diagnosis then I would look in to acupuncture. I started Max on it and after several treatments he no longer was having pain from IVDD in his neck and the drop-foot went away.
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Sure it's excessive weight, I can't deny that. Bubba has never been an active Corgi even when I first got him at two years old. I had bought him ahead of time a dozen Wilson Tennis balls, a small beach ball, a yellow and black soccer ball and a couple others.
When I got him home we went out in the yard and I first tried tennis balls...no dice, he wasn't chasing that but watched me throw them. I then tried the soccer ball till I was almost panting from kicking it around. He just sat there and watched. I decided to go over to him and asked if he'd like a Coke and some popcorn while Dad performed for him. I chalked it off to his breeder never having played with him since she didn't have the time having to tend to 30 other ones and figured in time he'd come around. He never did. I guess they're all different like us. He was only 35 pounds then. He just didn't care for playing ball.
He does have a more difficult time coming up the stairs either inside or out on the deck than before. I think that's mostly due to the weight.Want to see a fat Corgi? This is his aunt "Buttercup" at 70 pounds. She's been fat all her life but still gets around great last I saw her a few years back and she's two years older than Bubba.
http://s180.photobucket.com/user/ColColt/media/4th%20Birthday/Corgi...
http://s180.photobucket.com/user/ColColt/media/4th%20Birthday/Corgi...
Bubba gets usually 2/3 cup of Fromm's a la Veg twice a day. The evening meal I put about 10-12 unsalted green beans in his kibble along with half a boiled egg and pieces of boiled chicken breast-maybe a spoonful of Merrick's Turducken. That's his typical evening meal. I'm cutting back to 1/2 cup of kibble and probably no Turducken or Grammie's Pot Pie. I doubt the chicken or green beans have added to his weight.
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You say he's not that interested in balls. How about lots of walking? If you have a facility that has water work out opportunities for dogs that might be a good thing until he gets some weight off. Tread mill training is also something we do in winter especially. Murray is an exceptionally large boned boy with a fairly long back and weighs in at 33# which is a good weight for him. He gets a lot of exercise and we do agility trialing. I feed him 1/3-1/2 cup dry low cal dog food twice a day with a handful of veggies on the top...all kinds - fresh and still frozen. He also gets small training treats. I adjust his food according to how active he's been and what his weight is doing as well as how many treats he's had.
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