lumbar sacral disease.

My other dog mollie has been in and out of vets for last 3 months (with pain upper cranial abdomen and vomiting (spasmodic and not regular!) and she went in to have an endoscope, some very mld irritation but nothing significant and vet stated nothing that would cause her to scream in pain, as we had elimated most things and that her IBD wasnt the cause of he recent problems and as she has previously had back problems ( she had a disc removed at liverpol uni 4 years ago then had to have surgery repeated 3 months later after scar tissue formed and was trapping nerves ect..), the back problems diagnosed following on from abdominal pain, it was her back causing her problems and they said at liverpool that its not un common beacuse of pain and the dog getting stressed it causes teh body to release steriods ect that cause gut problems as a result (something like that they described it a lot better than me!!) so before we trekked over to liverpool again to get her sorted we went to the local orthopod as the vet there now is the vet that used to work at liverpool and did molls ops and he knows her of old!!!!

any way - turns out that she does have probs and pain with her back again !!!
shes on some new anti inflams and some new pain killers but it maybe that the scar tissue has reformed OR because they removed a disc that its adding extra pressure on her spine, obviously need MRI to confirm. this may mean a third op! shes 10 years old!! the new drugs seemed to work at first now she seems to be same. we go back to orthopod in a weeks time to discuss.

when she first had problems her tail was limp as hell and she wa screaming in pain and it settled after lots of pain killers. and then flared up in form of abdo pain month later at which point although she used her tail it wasnt as curly as before but she wagged it, she was running and jumping around and happy except when you went near her tummy area.

Recently at vets when they touch her theyve had to muzzle her!! not like her at all. vet is confident its her back because of before, although not disregarding something else .

Will go for MRI but not sure i want her to have another op at age of ten - shes running round and jumping and stuff despite!!! same as before and her disc was 3/4 of the way out and she completely baffled the vets last time!! said that she shouldnt even be walking let alone jumping up and down wagging her sodding tail!!!

Will see how she is in a weeks time.

oh and she cant have steriods as she gets pancreatitis very badly, metacam and rymidyl and the others we've tried and it sets off her sensitive stomach even when we pour antepsin down her !

shes a happy bunny and you wouldnt really know there was anything wrong but shes making herself sick cos of pain!

Oh poor thing, you've not got it easy at the moment, poor Mollie, what is a good age for her breed ?

Dunno
shes been in and out of liverpool uni since she was a year old had god knows how many ops! andhas been ill has hell, except for last 4 years since her back was done!

she is a collie cross gsd. She looks old now but is a spring chicken!

Poor you. I have been through this. Ebony, an Afghan, had a disc removed at the age of 3yrs. After a good start she went backwards and was advised that there was nothing they could do as it was most probably scar tissue. Anyway I put a magnetic collar on her and gave her synflex - all of which seemed to help. She never cried out with pain but she was unable to go for a walk on a lead for the rest of her life although she was able to run around our paddock with my other dogs until an eye problem and then loss of an eye put an end to that and she had to play on her own. She lived to the age of 11 yrs when she died of heart failure, All in all she was not the healthiest of dogs, back problem, IBD, hypo-thyroidism and then heart disease

Hope you are able to find something that will make her comfortable.

Sue

thanks sue, ive got a magnetic collar actually from Sybil so i will get that out and use it!
Will go to the homeopathic vet too and tr accupunture

So sorry to have read your post, haven't got any advice or anything, just wanted to say how sorry I am, it's awful hearing you dog scream out in pain like that, when she's already been through so much. I wish you all the luck in the world with whichever way you go on this one, at least she sounds happy and bright at the moment. Good luck with her.

she is very happy very bright but obviously in pain but not showing it really. If i op again, they said if the spine has become unstable, and pressure is one the discs either side they will need to put a metal rod down either side to restabilise it, i mean where do you drawthe line. shes ten?? if she was 6/7 then i would but ten? then what if she gets scar tissue and needs another op??? or do i say shes happy now lets leave her and then she may have a shorter life as the pain may get too much.
in a way it would be easier of she wasnt happy. it would make a decsion a bit easier. Vet said it was a bit pointless doing MRI if i wasnt going to even consider surgery if they found something that needed op on and it would be just to know what as wrong. BUT then if i have MRI and i know i can amke future decisions based on knowing that not knowing if that makes sense!?

Poor you. What a hard time you are having. What a worry for you and then the pressure of making decisions for the future, and wanting so much to do the right thing for your beloved Mollie. I have no advice to give, but wanted to say how I feel for you, especially when you have to hear her in so much pain. x