Sick 2 Year Old- Can't Walk
 

Hi,

I'm going to start this by saying that my baby is at the vet staying overnight right now.

I've got a two year old yorkie that had been acting a little funny every now and then for the last few days, but then he would be normal so I wasn't really worried about him. He would kind of arch his back a little bit and walk funny, and then he'd be fine, so I really didn't think much about it.

Today I left the house at 3 and he was fine, came back at 6 and he was under my bed and couldn't walk or even stand up. He wagged his tail and would move his legs a little, but couldn't do anything else. I gave him nutridrops just in case it was blood sugar and we rushed off to the vet. He ran blood tests and nothing came back off, blood sugar was fine, kidneys were fine, and he tested for other things but I don't know what. He said everything seemed normal physically, his heart rate was a little slow, but not too far from normal, and he wasn't surprised since the dog wasn't doing anything, just laying there. Pupils were a little dialated. He asked about if he could have gotten into anything, tranquilizers or drugs like marijiuna, which isn't possible, he thought he acted like he was intoxicated. He did an xray and everything was fine. They are keeping him overnight and going to run more tests and give him some medicine and fluids.

The vet is kind of stumped, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas? He's leaning toward maybe a stroke or Aneurysm if they can't find anything else. He was thinking that because if you picked him up he would lean toward the left and kind of fight to get over on that side. The only other thing was that it seemed like his stomach was tender when the vet palpated, but nothing showed up on the xrays.

Thanks for any ideas you might have.

Whitney

First I hope that things can be resolved with ur little one. Unfortunatley I don't have any ideas, or experiences in this. I hope that your vet will do BATS and thyroid panel.

Thank you, I will ask for those in the morning!

Poor baby, I hope everything turns out okay. I wish I could offer some suggestions, but I can't imagine what could be wrong. Hope he is home tomorrow and feeling great.

My first thought was a back problem. Arching his back and walking funny could very well be a problem with a disc. Has he walked up and down steps during that time? Have you noticed him shaking at all? With a back problem, they won't do stairs. Did your vet do x-rays? My daughter's yorkie had a ruptured disc once and it showed up on an X-ray. It was a long recovery time, but he did get better. Good luck and get well wishes to your baby!

Hi,

He's doing a little better this morning, he's sitting up on his chest instead of just laying and is moving his back legs to try to stand. The vet has to send off bloodwork today for more tests and is going to try a few different things.

He did do xrays, so I think he would have caught something with his back. I don't have any stairs so I don't know if he will go up or down them or not.

Hopefully he will keep getting better, surely it's a good sign for him to be doing better, even if it's only a little.

Thanks!

Sorry to hear about your baby. I have had couple instances where one of mine was a acting similar. One was a reaction to fertilizer on the lawn. We didn't realize the landscapers had fertilized. The other was when Cali had swallowed a chunk of a latex toy. She was hunched over and wouldn't walk. The er vet said by the xrays I had just overfed her. I knew she had eaten the toy. I brought her home and later on she pooped it out. I couldn't believe she was able to pass something so big bur she was fine after. I will not see that dr at the er anymore. I hope your baby continues to improve.

He's still improving, he's now standing and ate and drank, he's far from 100%, but the bloodwork comes back tomorrow and the vet thinks he might be able to go home tomorrow.

Patti- The fertilizer wouldn't be possible, there hasn't been any put on here and I haven't put out anything for weeds or ticks or anything like that either. I asked the vet if he could have gotten into cleaner, like stepped in mop stuff and licked his feet even but he didn't think that would be likely.

Thanks for all the good thoughts, hopefully he gets to come home tomorrow! And hopefully they figure out what happened.

Whitney

I am just seeing this and honestly think you need to get your dog to a neurologist based on the dogs age there are a few things this could be and sounds neurological especially since nothing showed up on xrays as your dog may need an mri and spinal tap. Blood work can come back normal and a neurological condition can be there.

Is your vet consulting with a neurologist? Please ask

If it is neurological the sooner he gets treated the better the outcome

this is my concern from what you are describing :(

Granulomatous Meningoencephalomyelitis (GME)

did you give vaccinations recently?

I agree that I think you need to see a Specialist. This may be a neuro and may be a back/spine/disc issue.

Something like this happened to my Mom's dog, they rushed him to the ER and did xrays and put him on Pred for a week. They followed up at the Specialist whom reviewed everything and ok'd him to go back to normal. But I have read too many stories of dogs become paralyzed, etc... :(

yeah i really do not think this is disc related i think it is spinal related due to the dilation of eyes and the paralysis of all 4 legs this is spinal chord and possibly menangitis (gme)

the sooner the better for this little one. Once neurologist does neurological exam and reviews xrays they will go from there if orthopedic so would be best to go to a place with both available so they can consult

but my gut is 100% neurological since vet was stumped due to blood work and xray it is out of his league

This breed has alot of neurological issues due to inbreeding which can cause autoimmune diseases. GME is an autoimmune disease

I could be wrong but I feel strongly this little one needs to be with a neurologist

I am on gme group and usually what i am finding is the gme creeps up after a vaccination

I have a friend whose dog has gme and at first they thought it was a disc issue so ER sent her home with metacam and a few months later her back legs were paralyzed and turned out to be GME. She has a maltese and on the group they said the breeds most likely to get this are yorkies and maltese and it creeps up about 2 years of age. Her dog had had vaccinations two months prior and then all the symptoms started occuring but first was pain in spine and they misdiagnosed as a disc issue at ER.

She is doing fine now but under the care of a neurologist.

This disease can be managed but the sooner the treatment the better. They try to do heavy doses of steroids at first so i am sure your vet is using steroids and that is why you are showing a little improvement as it takes the swelling down.

If it is a severe case of GME then they need to do chemo drugs and steroids as it is an autoimmune disease where the body is attacking itself. My concern is it is pretty serious as it affected all 4 limbs not just 2 like my friends dog :(

Sending prayers for this puppy to get well

here is a thread on a dog with disc issue that showed up on xray and it was back two legs paralyzed

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...-layla-11.html

here is a friend and i just saw her this weekend and totally forgot her dog had gme as well years ago :( i just read through her story

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...ephalitis.html

this is the group she was on and the group i am on now - they are amazing and very nice so you can even email on there what is going on and they can help you as well to maybe rule this out or not

NewGMEDogs : NewGMEDogs

Interesting as read through SUSHI story too as you can google yorkietalk only at bottom of screen and type in GME or disc rupture or whatever you want and see similar stories on here

Did your dog have vaccinations within the last two months?

This is exactly as Layla was before she went down completely. I have done TONS of research in the past three weeks, and I'd urge you to put your baby on 100% strict crate rest, and maybe get another opinion from another vet. It sounds to me exactly like a slipped disc. They usually will not show up on x-ray and will only show up on an MRI or Myelogram. With an X-ray you may be able to see a SLIGHT compression between two vertebrae but nothing else would look abnormal and it would probably take a specialist to notice anything.

Your dog might be feeling better for now, but if it is a slipped disc and he continues to walk and move his back, he could force it to rupture and hurt himself more. It could become irrepairable.

If he is okay now, a vet will probably give him a steroid or non steroidal anti-inflammatory. He would need to be on strict crate rest for at least 8 weeks, meaning no walking, no anything... you would even have to carry him out to pee. But not letting him move his back is key to recovery without surgery.

Please get another opinion. I hope that your baby doesn't go down like mine. Layla can not walk and has no feeling past her front legs. It came on suddenly, and I didn't get her into a specialist soon enough after seeing symptoms that you are describing with your dog. If I could only go back I would change it all.

thanks for posting this as i posted your thread as thought of your baby.

I just thought since they did not see it on xray then it might be neurological and since it was all 4 legs it may be more neurological but you just never know so getting to a specialty hospital with a neurologist and orthopedic is always best so everyone can work together to get this baby back on all 4's in no time:)

Thanks for all the information, tomorrow morning the rest of the blood tests will be back and he will get some more things ruled out. He's on crate rest now at the vet's office, so I'll find out tomorrow what all he's been treated with that might show improvement and we will look into finding a neurologist.

Thanks,

Whitney

ok we will be praying for your baby and hope all goes well :)

A slipped disc in the neck would end up affecting all 4 legs, so that's a good possibility. The "drunk walk" is a big indicator of a neurological/spinal issue. Dogs are great at masking their pain, and they will go on as if nothing is wrong. If this is a spinal injury or the start of a spinal injury, there will likely be some swelling of the spinal cord and it is important to get that swelling down.

I had no idea before this happened to us, but there doesn't have to be any sort of trauma for a back injury like this. Some dogs are just predisposed to it, and it will happen sooner or later.

Great! I hope they can figure out what's wrong!

how about the eyes being dilated as that tells me something more going on like the dog might have had a seizure or something affecting the eyes.

i just learned in a first aid class this weekend we need to be checking our dogs eyes regularly to check their health by taking our finger and moving back and forth and check the dilation as well as those are signs of neurological conditions if dilated

Please let us know how your little guy is doing and what the vet has found out from bloodwork

glad you posted as am curiuos as well. I hope this little one is ok

Sorry for not posting sooner, I wasn't near the computer and my phone wouldn't pull up yorkietalk.

The bloodwork showed low calcium, low thyroid, high white blood cells and some other things slightly off. We've got him on antibiotics and calcium pills and are going to do another blood panel in a week. Right now the vet is thinking it was possibly a combination of all of those, and he's not thinking neurological.

I've got him crated just in case it is slipped disk, and because he's still stumbling and I don't want him to hurt himself, but the vet didn't think that was what it was. But he didn't get steriod shots, so that wouldn't have been a reason for improvement.

Thanks for all the good thoughts.

ok if you are comfortable with this but high white blood cell count is a sign of infection and GME can be an infection in the spinal cord. I just have to say i would have my dog looked at by a neurologist in a case like this for a second opinion. If it happens to be neurological the sooner the better. If not neurological at least you ruled it out with a specialist. JMHO

I have not dealt with low calcium but i do have a dog that is hypothyroid and her thyroid t4free was .38 and she is on meds for low thyroid now and she was never paralyzed

did they rule out tick disease by blood work? I have read some dogs can get paralyzed from ticks as well

Levi lost control of whole hind end with Lymes disease...couldn't even urinate without falling over....which was indeed diagnosed with blood annalysis.