Sorry for the novel - I have an 11.5 year old female Chessie. She has a host of other medical issues, but has always been quite sound joint and limb wise. Three weeks ago, I came home and her hind end was falling out from under her. She wouldn’t go up and down the few stairs to the yard at all.
She had x-rays recently, and her hips and spine look “better than the average senior retriever” according to the vet; some arthritic changes, but nothing terribly ugly. He thinks she has some kind of neuropathy causing painful muscle contraction, possibly some numbness, and these are causing her issues.
The treatment - we started Adequan injections, 2x weekly for 4 weeks, then 1x weekly; gabapentin (with tramadol for the first week); twice-weekly physical therapy sessions that include underwater treadmill, moist heat, laser, massage/extensions and some cavaletti work.
She’s much better, but still pretty markedly stiff in the right hind. After one therapy session last week, she was very lame in the right hind; other sessions haven’t gone that way. I discussed with the vet, who wanted to continue to see if she was still painful after her next couple sessions, and maybe add tramadol back in if so.
My concern now is that she is now decidedly anxious when I drop her off for therapy, and this is a dog that normally loves the vet visits. Truly loves it. I’m concerned that she’s now painful during therapy and that she’s associating each drop-off with that, thus the anxiety.
So, what else would you all do in my shoes? Would you stop therapy and see how it goes for a couple weeks? Try something else med-wise? I’d love some ideas, as I hate to see her anxious or painful.
Oh, and she’s not presenting as typical DM at this point, though my mind went there. I lost my last Chessie to that. But even if DM, I think the treatment she’s getting now would be the same for DM.
