Maggie dog

My sweet Maggie, a dog everyone thinks is one of the sweetest dogs they've ever met, is in pain.

For the past couple of weeks she's been yelping occasionally when she takes a step. It's nothing I could see or feel, nothing that bothered her when I moved her front leg around, palpated her leg, shoulder, foot. Just the occasional yip of pain. Ok, so she's 10 years old and maybe arthritis is setting in. I wasn't terribly concerned.

Until I moved her neck.

She began to shiver in pain, holding her head to the right and holding her foot off the ground.

She went to the vet yesterday on an emergency visit and they drew bloods. Her kidney problems are at least stable (a month of k/d, herbal kidney support pills and lots of water). Thinking it's a pinched nerve and having limited time yesterday, we took her back today for x-rays.

There's definitely something on the films and it's with a disc in her neck. She's either got a disc that's calcifying, an infection, or, worst case, cancer.

For an additional $150, the films are being sent to a radiologist to see if s/he can further refine a diagnosis without being invasive.

She's on an anti-inflammatory - Deramax - I think it's a steroid - for 2 weeks and when the senior vet comes back from vacation, depending on the probable diagnosis, we're going to discuss accupuncture and chiropractic for her. Yup, he does those things for dogs. If it is cancer, god forbid, we're going to discuss palliative care.

The vet brought up something else as well. Maggie has had adult onset parvo, off and on kidney problems for years, and a host of other issues that generally healthy dogs don't get. She brought up the idea that maybe her immune system isn't normal. Whether it's genetic or acquired who knows, but it's an interesting thought. Not one I'm happy with, but not something to ignore, either.

If we can and do go ahead with the accupuncture and chiro for her, that means she's going to have to stay relatively calm for 6-8 weeks. Uh huh. It's roughly like telling a 3 year old they can't run and play. She may be 10 but she's got a lot of puppy in her. She's gonna need it.