Springer Spaniel problem

Proc

Hello MSE,

Okay, this will be a long read, so please bear with me. Just to introduce Archie; he's a 5 year old Springer Spaniel. Have had him since he was 8 weeks. An absolute diamond of a dog, and the only dog that I have. Very well behaved, loved by all the family, and super-super fit. A real loyal little sod and not sure where I'd be without him.

My partner does a lot of running. So a half marathon on a Sunday morning was no sweat for him.

Let's go back about a month to October. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was just picking my girlfriend up from her normal Sunday morning run with the dog around the local woods. She had to cut her run short because she noticed half-way that Archie started limping and trailing a little bit behind. She took it easy until I got there because he had a fit earlier in the year and was concerned it was going to happen again. When I got there, I took a good look at him, he had energy in buckets, just limped a little on his hind leg. I took a good look at his paw guessing it was probably a thorn. I couldn't find anything. Later that day I took him through the fields and to some lakes not far from where I live. Although he was limping a little nothing seemed too bad. I put it down to taking a knock or maybe stretching a tendon.

Roll forward to Monday evening. He still wasn't better and in fact his limping was worse. We took him to the vets first thing Tuesday morning. The vet took a good look over him, and explained that it was probably just a stretched or torn ligament. He advised there's no point doing X-Rays at this stage. He gave some treatment to subdue the pain and told us to return in a fortnight if it's not better. He also advised to only take him on lead-walks, and no allow him to run up and down stairs, jump on sofa etc. Basically, get my Springer Spaniel to chill out and take it easy (easier said than done!).

So, within a couple of days he seems a little bit better. Probably because of the pain killers. However, I noticed a few things. He seemed to limp in a way that looked as though his front legs were in pain also. I found this odd at first but thought nothing of it. Then one day I was visiting family, and he was sniffing around in the garden. I saw him jump off this wall (only about 2 foot high) which has never been a problem for him before. When he landed his front legs gave away and he slammed face first into the floor. He seemed to not care, he got up and carried on sniffing around.

Over the following few weeks he's really got a lot worse. When he attempts to run he's got a really really bad limp. He's clearly in pain but he soldiers on...probably forgetting about it from excitement. He can't go out for runs with my partner any more because he's simply too bad. Just small drops from pavements and getting out of the car leaves him slamming his chin into the floor as his front legs give away. Really heart-breaking to see what was a super-fit dog in this state.

So, we knew something really wasn't right. There was more to it than a sprained leg or whatever. We took him into the vet's yesterday morning. He was kept in all day and X-Rayed. Now, the results show that his front legs are riddled with arthritis. His rear legs are bad too, and his rear hip doesn't even fit into it's socket properly any more. He's also got it around his neck and shoulders.

My heart sank.

The vet has given us some liquid medicine that goes onto his food. He's on a lead-walk-only basis for the next month. We've also got to take him in every week for a check-up. He then said that in a month's time we'll take it from there.

It's amazing, saddening and shocking to see what I thought was such a fit, happy dog turn into what walks like a 14 year-old-dog in the space of a month. Is arthritis really that fast to set in?

I'm not looking for specific advice (mods take note before locking please) - we pay a great vet (have known him for years; very compassionate) good money for that. I just wondered if anyone had experience with dogs getting arthritis at such a young age. Does it get better? Does it get worse? Can it be prevented or slowed-down? Will he go back to "normal" or be able to do the things he used to do? And the killer question that bugs me; how long can I expect him to live? I don't want to force him through a painful life. I asked the vet all these and kind of got a mixture of "hmm, maybe, let's see" kind of answers. I know he can't answer for definite but I also got the impression he was maybe supressing bad news?

I would like cold, hard answers. Please don't sugar-coat them. I just want to know how long Archie has, or maybe I'm just paranoid and it's not as bad as I think?

Thanks in advance.

edit: Here he is




All of these pictures are from this year.

nikki702

Hi Proc

Im really sorry to hear about ur archie bless him what a shame

I hope you find some answers you could try asking on itsaspringthing forums where its all about springers here is the link

http://springthing.3.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

I wish him well he looks lovely

Proc

nikki702 wrote: »

Hi Proc

Im really sorry to hear about ur archie bless him what a shame

I hope you find some answers you could try asking on itsaspringthing forums where its all about springers here is the link

http://springthing.3.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

I wish him well he looks lovely

Thanks Nikki,

I'm registering there now and posting

Thanks a lot.

KVet

He may well have undiagnosed/non-symptomatic bilateral elbow dysplasia along with the same in his hips Some dogs show no signs but as the joints are basically not put together properly, more pressure is put upon the joints and so the body responds by causing arthritic change around the joints. Is he insured? Options would be referral to an orthopaedic specialist, hytrotherapy, multimodal pain relief and joint supplementation (chondroitin/glucosamine, cortaflex etc), poss even acupuncture as well. There are many ways to treat but ultimately it is and can be a life limiting disease depending on their quality of life

Proc

KVet wrote: »

He may well have undiagnosed/non-symptomatic bilateral elbow dysplasia along with the same in his hips Some dogs show no signs but as the joints are basically not put together properly, more pressure is put upon the joints and so the body responds by causing arthritic change around the joints. Is he insured? Options would be referral to an orthopaedic specialist, hytrotherapy, multimodal pain relief and joint supplementation (chondroitin/glucosamine, cortaflex etc), poss even acupuncture as well. There are many ways to treat but ultimately it is and can be a life limiting disease depending on their quality of life

Hi KVet,

Thanks a lot for the response.

Firstly, he's not insured. We just pay for the treatment ourselves.

Someone else mentioned glucosamine. I seem to read about it a lot. Should I ask the vet about the orthopaedic specialist referral or would he have suggested that if he thought it was necessary?

Thanks in advance

catlou

Hi Proc

That's really sad - so sorry to hear that, big hugs to you and Archie.

I don't have any personal experience to go on but what about trying some herbs and good quality fish oil to work alongside the conventional vets medicine? CSJ do some herbs they are cheap enough and have good reviews, they also do a pure salmon oil which contains omega 3 known for it's anti-inflammatory properties.

http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=2&idcategory=3

http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=109&idcategory=14#details

Also do you have pet insurance I would ask your vet if hydrotherapy would help him - some policies cover that.

Sorry I can't be of more help - hopefully someone with personal experience will come along with ideas of what worked for them.

EDIT Ps. Just realised I cross posted about insurance/hydrotherapy with you and K.vet!

Proc

Thanks catlou, very useful.

No insurance. We just pay for the treatment as we go.

I guess as precaution it would be sensible if I show the vet these products first and just check it doesn't conflict with anything he is giving? Although they do look like fairly natural products so I'd imagine it's fine.

I'm going to have a read about hydrotherapy now for dogs. He used to do probably about 30 minutes swimming every day anyway so I guess he'd love to get back in there! I'll also ask vet about this.

Thanks again!

catlou

Proc wrote: »

I guess as precaution it would be sensible if I show the vet these products first and just check it doesn't conflict with anything he is giving? Although they do look like fairly natural products so I'd imagine it's fine.

Yes it would prob be worth checking with the vet first but I agree they do seem natural.

He would probably enjoy hydrotherapy if he loved swimming! The hydrotherapy pools are heated to a certain temperature to relax the muscles etc. making mobility easier.

I know you said you had a good vet, but If you don't get any joy with them about seeing a specialist & hydrotherapy it might be worth getting a second opinion as quite often different people have very different methods/ways of seeing things!

Lobell

Hi

Great photos....what a lovely looking boy

My large Xbreed has had severe arthritis in both back legs. He ruptured both cruciate ligaments (right one went aged 2 and a half, left one 10 months later) which caused the artritis to set in. With such a large dog (50kg+), I was really concerned about his prognosis but he's 6 and a half now and fighting fit.

We manage the arthritis with a coctktail of supplements: glucosamine & chondroitin, fish body oils (salmon oil or omega 3 capsules), vitamin e and ester c (a high strength form of vitamin c which is gentler on the digestive system than standard vitamin c tablets -vit c is a natural anti inflammatory).

There are other supplements available which are beneficial to the joints, such as devil's claw, turmeric, MSM and green lipped mussel. It can take up to about 6 weeks to see the benefits of supplements and you may need to play about with the combinations a bit to find what works for your boy...if they work. However, they can't do any harm so have to be worth a try.

A friend's dog was diagnosed with sever hip dysplasia - practically no hip socket at all and got to the stage could hardly walk or get himself up from lying down. She got him through to a ripe old age with the aid of glucosamine & chondroitin alone so when it works, it really works!

Also ask your vet about Cartrophen injections. My dog had a course of them in the early days and the et said we'd repeat them when necessary - 4 years later, we've still not needed them. IIRC, it was a course of 4 injections adminstered over a period of a month or so and they were very inexpensive - about £13 each or so at the time.

Swimming is good to build up/maintain muscle tone. My dog hated hydrotherapy but loves swimming in the sea or river and the vet agreed that regular swimming wherever he could would be just as beneficial as hydrotherapy. So we continue to encourage him to swim as often as weather conditions allow.

Some friends have reported great success with Bioflow magnetic collars too. I know nothing about them personally but, again, it's an option to explore that can't do Archie any harm.

One word of caution regarding the liquid medication he has been given by the vets...sounds like it is Metacam. If so, it can cause serious digestive upset in some dogs, as it did in one of my dogs. She'd been taking it for approx. 2 weeks when she suddenly developed very severe diarroheah, passing pools of pure blood. The vet whi prescribed it subsequently old me that such a reaction is not uncommon although obviously many dogs can take Metacam quite successfully. Hopefully Archie won't have any such problems but thought I'd make you aware, just in case.

You will probably find that Archie is not capable of the levels of exercise that he once was but if you can hit upon a successful method of managing the pain caused by his arthritis, he should be able to live a fairly normal life; albeit it at a slower pace than previously.

I wish you the very best of luck in finding an appropriate treatment for Archie. Please keep us posted on his progress.

Proc

Lobell,

Thanks ever so much for such great advice.

I guess the main things that I hear a lot of are to keep on swimming, and I'm definitely going to go with some of the supplements that people keep recommending. Won't do any harm.

I'm making a note of everything to bring up with the vet at his next appointment.

Thanks again for everything, it's really re-assuring!

virgin_moneysaver

I feel for you both & Archie, - we lost our Springer, Nell just over 2 months ago & it still hurts like hell. May 2009 we spotted Nellie in the garden havin some sort of fit, she came out of it very disorientated & threw up. The vet took bloods etc & it wasnt conclusive, could be a bleed on the brain or something more sinister, it was a wait & see issue. It left Nell with a tilt to her head & being unsteady on her feet, she could no longer make the stairs & very long walks were out as she would limp badly by the end. FF a year or so & she looked to be improving, her head tilt had almost disappeared but the slowness we put down to ageing. She had a slight incontinence problem which we were managing with medication but this suddenly worsenedso much so that we were having to bathe her everyday,& her headtilt reappeared so we think she may have had a futher fit. On her last visit the vet checked her responses to her back legs & he came to the conclusion that the responses weren't being rec'd from her brain, along her back to her rear end, the next step would have been losing her bowels & being unable to stand so we had to take THAT decision. Sorry for the long tale, my reason for replying was don't discount the fit in her problems. As Nell was a rescue dog we don't know her exact age but the vet took a guess at around 8 or 9when she had her 1st fit, & was probably around 10 when she passed on xx