Spondylosis in 4 year old

My dog is four years old.
He is a doberman.
When most people think of dobermans they think of them as viscous with no tail and pointy ears.
My dog has a tail and has beautiful long floppy ears.
Sometimes he growls and snaps at people when they touch him. We thought he was just nervous but now we have realised that its cos he is in pain.

My baby is only four years old and his spine is disintegrating and he is suffering from spondylosis. Apparently the only thing you can do is to put him down and i cant cope with that.

Please help.

Spondylosis is not necessarily a death sentence.

Where does he have it ie the vet will normally tell you eg L7/S1.

Are you sure it is not spondylitis? The two are different.

Agree with smokeybear, its not a death sentence many dobermann owners have had success with acupuncture, has it been diagnosed with an x ray and if so which parts of the spine are affected?

Are you certain its spondylosis and not spondylopathy? As in Cervical Spondylopathy, or "Wobblers Syndrome?"

My Rottweiler had that at 5 months old. We took him to Noel Fitzpatrick who performed two operations over a period of 10 months. That was two years ago, he's now 3 and can run around with the rest of the gang!

All is not lost but it's a hard road you're about to travel if you do go down the surgical route - oh, and pricey.

i dont know the exact area as i dont have the paperwork on me now but its in his neck.

i think its quite serious as he keeps falling over and he completely perked up after being given pain killers. but being on long term pain killers is bad for dogs.

I had a GSP with spondylosis for 10 years. He died aged 16. He was on NSAIDs, had acupuncture, chiropactic treatment, supplements and gentle exercise. He had a good life.
Suggest you google it a bit more and get the full info. It is actually quite common in older dogs.
If it is spondylitis/osis that is - perhaps you should talk to the vet again?

From memory, Flint's problem was either T3/L1 or T1/L3, either way, Fitzpatrick did say it was in THE worst position, just where the neck adjoins the spine.

The first bout of surgery was carried out at 5 months. NF had to try to save the discs that were crumbling just like cottage cheese he said, he managed to secure 25% of just two discs and somehow bind them together with metal pins and secure the framework with cement, so he now has a ring of cement around his neck holding his head on.

The second surgery was carried out 3 months later because he was still growing, nerves had got trapped and needed to be released. My dog could not stand or walk for almost 10 months, 40kg of dog being carried to the garden for wees etc. for months on end is no fun.

We spent months re-training him to stand, then walk a few steps, we never thought he'd run, nor did Noel, but he now runs freely and fast, up and down river banks, across fields, chasing and being chased by our other dogs.

Outwardly, to look at him, the only thing you MIGHT see as different with him is his head and spine are usually at the same level, rarely is his head above his shoulders. But that is it.

He was 3 in June 2012, and we never thought we'd get him to his first birthday to be honest, now, we think he'll go on for many years to come.

Do not give up. It's definitely not the end.

Wobblers affects the cervical vertibrae in the neck. I think you need a specialist diagnosis just to be certain. Wobblers can be successfully operated on, although some dogs do not make good candidates.
http://www.langfordvets.co.uk/wobbler_syndrome.htm

As others have said first thing first is get a 100% accurate diagnosis. Then get referred to a specialist. Vets cant be experts at everything so I would definitely push for expert consultation.

You're not alone and there will be lots of experiences to be shared but first things first xx