[Cubby's Mom]

We are babysitting an 8 year old male yorkie that belongs to my boss. His name is Loki and we suspect he may have Atlantoaxial Instability. We live in Central Florida and are hoping that someone can help us through this. The owners are on vacation and are aware of the situation however we suspect limited finances may be an issue for them and that they may be leaning toward putting their boy to sleep if we can't determine what is going on.
We picked up Loki from their home last wednesday (5 days ago) and he was having significant difficulty walking and standing. They have a tick problem where they live and Loki has had several ticks over the past few months - they attributed his condition to tick paralysis along with some arthritis and hip dysplasia in the right rear leg. We've been keeping him seperated from our Yorkie in his own gated enclosure with a crate for sleeping. Over the past few days Loki's condition has gotten progressivly worse. Loki is not able to walk or stablize himself while standing for more then a few seconds. He pants like he's run a few miles but is not running any kind of temperature. He lays on his side all day and you can see him struggling to try and get up. I made the mistake of trying to help him re-position himself by putting my hand under him on his shoulder and lifting and he cried out in pain... Today we broke down and brought Loki to our vet at our own expense to see what is going on, strongly suspecting AAI.

Here is the breakdown from today's visit:

We discussed the possibility of neurological/spinal issues. Our vet said that typically much more pain is involved in these cases, however he wouldn't rule it out just because Loki doesn't show signs of pain. He also administered a light pain test with tweezers on Loki's rear nail bed which confirmed he has feeling but just no real motor skills of his paws or legs. One theory he had was that there could be just enough pressure on the outer layer of the spinal cord to still allow sensation but result in such weakness in movement that he would effectively be paralyzed, especially more so as the inflammation worsens. He administered a steroid injection of Dexamethasone to help with any inflammation that may be creating this as well as 1 weeks worth of Prednisone tablets. He wanted to run x-rays but said he didn't think it could show anything other than a ruptured disk which is often much more painful than what Loki is showing. He further explained that since all four legs are showing paralysis, it would have to be a disc near the head area and that typically only an MRI proves to be effective when working in that area. From my research on the forums, I inquired about digital x-rays instead of an MRI but the vet didn't seem all that encouraging that a digital x-ray would be any better than a conventional x-ray.

Because of the history with ticks, our vet felt more inclined to say it was tick paralysis, however he said some of Loki's symptoms don't add up to what normally occurs, such as when he tested Loki's reflexes with the little "hammer." He said they were hyper responsive; Whereas, if it was tick paralysis, his reflexes should have been hypo responsive. Also, the duration of the paralysis has him concerned. To rule this out, he had us buy both a Preventic Tic Collar that should last 3 months along with a bottle of Frontline spray. He asked that I use the spray to soak between the pads of his feet and all crevices around his head just in case one tick is still hiding somewhere that none of us, including the vet, could find. He also theorized that perhaps Loki's body can no longer metabolize the toxin from the previous tick bites, which would explain the duration, and so he administered an antibiotic injection and prescribed 10 days worth of Doxycycline.

Since neither of these diagnoses are a perfect fit in his mind, he also ordered a GPH blood test (General Profile of Health), a CBC test (Complete Blood Count of red and white blood cells; we'll get the CBC results back tomorrow. We mentioned that Loki's been taking the heartworm meds but he also decided to run a Snap test which tests for Lyme disease, Heartworm, and Ehrlichia (tick disease); all of which came back clean with no infection. The GPH results showed vasculitis and his kidney levels at 45 but the owners have been giving him aspirin for pain as well as low quality snacks and food so he is not sure if that is contributing to the elevated levels. Loki drinks a lot of water compared to our healthy yorkie, Cubby, so the Vet suggested there may also be an underlying kidney issue that is unrelated to the paralysis.

It breaks my heart to see this little 8 year old guy like this and I hate to see him potentially be put down when the owners return. I've read as many AAI stories out there that I could find but my vet doesn't believe it to be the case and is stumped. There is an emergency hospital in town with a neurologist on staff that we can turn to at $90 a visit plus MRI costs (unless someone can help reassure us that a digital x-ray could be of use. We've already spent $300 of our own money to get this far and are hoping to get direction from others that may recognize these symptoms.

Is there any help/advice any of you guys can offer. Also can anyone tell me if there is a Yorkie rescue in our area that may be interested in saving this little guy if we don't make enough progress and the owners decide against pursuing more tests.

Thanks in advance to all of you for this wonderful resource!