[danniko]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

He's on his 2nd round of steroids right now, about mid-way; the hope for the steroid is just to decrease the inflammation in the disc areas - it helps a little - the limp is less pronounced, but not gone.

We ruled out Valley Fever and Tick Fever, but I'm still keeping it in the back of my mind as well, since it can fail to show up on titer for months.

Thanks so much for thinking of us and sharing this - all info is valuable!



Oh wow! I didn't know you were going thru this! So, at first you thought it was the front leg - but now you're thinking disc issue (neck maybe?) that is causing the "knuckling" you're seeing...?

Bc Marcel's neuro believes he too is knuckling in the front - which means the disc issues may not just be mid-back, but also at the neck -- making pinpointing the problem so tough (and in turn, it makes surgical prospects a guessing game).

Have you tried Prednisone and Gabapentin and Methocarbamol and/or Tramadol yet? The Metacam was not enough for Marcel - but neither is all of them together...still limping.

But Linda (Ladyjane) has some good points about neuro symptoms - some could be rather painless (ie, a limp may not be necessarily from pain).

I hope you see improvement and fast, long-lasting relief!

With Sophie we took her in because she was knuckling with her front feet and limping as well as knuckling with her back leg. She has a history of CCL stuff so we thought maybe she did that again. Our vet noticed that she also has a head tilt, it has been scary and frustrating but the relief she is getting from the metacam is giving us some hope. We tried her on 3 weeks of anti biotics in case it was a vestibular issue from an inner ear infection, but they didn't really help. I will definitely be talking to our vet about trying the other options for pain if metacam stops helping her or upsets her tummy too much. We've seen improvements with a half dose so far though. I was a mess when we were first told she had something neurological going on but she's currently acting like herself, with a minor limp, knuckles (which she has done for years) and has been eating/maintaining her weight. She just turned 8 last month and had a lot of arthritis through her back legs and lower back. Our vet said at this point it could be vestibular, a tumor/cancer or a disc issue. We can't afford a MRI right now for her and she still seems happy but I'm sure if things get worse we will be taking a trip to the neurologist. We have learned that insurance would have been valuable with Sophie and I wish we had gotten it.