A friend has a young pup that has had two “spells” of what seems to be a partial paralysis, first of her hind end and then of all four legs. It’s beyond the vets here in our rural town; they immediately referred her to a neurology specialist four hours away that quoted her $4500 for diagnostics. Friend is trying to figure out how to manage that expense, she is young and that cost is significant for her, understandably.
Pup is a mini-heeler, female. She has had two vaccination series with her third due on Monday which the vet delayed due to the spells, as I’ll call them. I’ll include some quotes of a text conversation I had with the owner relaying what the vets (two from the same clinic):
“Her heart is healthy, temperature is good, her head/neck and tail muscles never stopped working, she ate and drank just fine, she could still go potty although it was difficult so she would hold it a long time, they said no paralysis because her muscles worked good, and this has happened twice with no pattern and no warning. She hasn’t gotten into anything I can think of, no ticks, no bites, not diabetic, not hip dysplasia because her front legs will go out too at its peak.”
" The first time it happened in the afternoon, slowly she had her back legs get weak and by that evening she could barely hold herself up with her front legs. In the morning she was running and playing like nothing had ever happened and that’s how she was until five days ago when she woke up and I let her out of her kennel, she was already kind of stomping her back feet just a tad, and she was very tired but basically the same until like 7pm it started getting worse and worse and she couldn’t walk but that evening or even hold herself up with her front legs at all. No pain seemingly at all, not disoriented but maybe just a tad confused why her body isn’t doing what she tells it to. She has has her first two vaccinations but her third was meant to be today and we moved it to Monday to give her a little more recovery time with this thing.
“The odd part is that one started in the afternoon and could have been from all three things they think but the most recent one started after she was in the kennel overnight.” (I had asked her if they coincided with heat, exertion, or day/night)
The spells come on gradually and recede, the first one went away over night but the second one lasted longer, over a couple days. She sent me several videos, in the first spell she seems to plop walk her hind legs and get spraddled but the front end works fine. In the second spell she army crawls with her front legs and frog swims with her hinds but can’t stand. She can eat/drink/pee/poo without problem and is bright, alert, wants to play, normal puppy behavior other than the weakness.
I don’t think the vet did any diagnostics other than a basic exam; I asked about x-ray and the vets didn’t b/c they wouldn’t be able to see any spinal issues with it. Tick was ruled out apparently b/c nobody saw a tick. They didn’t prescribe anything for her, medical or for care; just referred her which was cost prohibitive right out of the gate. Pup is never unattended; she is in a kennel while they are at work and in a fenced yard with another dog, not taken around to a lot of random places or visits.
This is a small town with very limited vet care; the vet she’s been taking her to is an hour away as it is. We don’t have emergency care closer than two hours away; she knows she will have to travel to get the diagnosis/care that she needs. She’s getting a lot of random advice like chiro, essential oils, etc yeesh.
Does anyone have any ideas in the meantime? WWYD? They need to see a vet obviously but they literally went from local cow vet level to referred to the vet school in Pullman, WA. Escalated quickly. TIA!
