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Roxy Update – Wobblers

4K views 40 replies 17 participants last post by  dobegal 
#1 ·
Roxy could use some prayers, positive vibes/thoughts. My poor little peanut is not doing well.

For those who don’t know, Roxy was diagnosed with Wobblers in November 2014. After a lot of tears, research, talking to others, etc., we decided against surgery and opted for holistic treatment. She responded so well to that and was doing really well for quite some time.

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed a big difference in her. She was a lot less steady on her feet and moving around very slowly.

We went to the holistic vet on 2/26 and she had osteopathic treatment, laser treatment and they sent us home with new herbs (that she was on before, closer to her original diagnosis) and Rimadyl.

On 3/4 she had osteo and laser.
On 3/7 we went in for just laser.
Today, she had acupuncture, electroacupuncture and B12 injections into her back and her knees. We’re stopping the Rimadyl and starting Prednisone on Monday.

We’ve been using an elevated bowl for her, but at her last two meals, she sat down and wouldn’t stand to eat. We’re going to try raising her bowl a little more to see if that helps any.

The holistic vet called the doctor who did the MRI and diagnosed her with Wobblers. He pulled up her images, reviewed them while they talked and he is the one who recommended pred. He believes the pred has potential to help with the compression coming from the articular facets, and that if we see a significant improvement (in 4-6 weeks) on the pred, that would indicate that she’s a good candidate for surgery to remove the extra bone (? Not sure if I’m remembering that right, it's been an emotional day). However, she also has malformation in the C6-C7 that causes a deviation in her spinal cord. Before, they gave us a 75% chance that surgery would be successful.

The vet also warned me that over the next three days, because of the treatment today, she could get worse before she gets better. I hate this so much. She’s curled up and snoozing right now, but here are a couple of pics from the vet this morning –



Please keep us in your thoughts.
 
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#12 ·
Thank you all for the kind words, I really do appreciate it. Since wrapping up work, we've been snuggled up on the couch together. She may have also had some popcorn and pizza crust to snack on. :) I tried raising her bowl up a bit more for dinner and she definitely looked more comfortable eating.



Thank you. Absolutely, Pox on CVI! I hate it!!!!

So sorry to here this. You sure seem to be doing everything you can for your handsome girl.

I believe you may notice an improvement with the Pred. Our boy ( the one I was talking about on another current thread) was on a Prednisone regime his entire life and was mainly symptom free. Any attempt to wean him off resulted in a gradual return of his symptoms. These days he is on a different steroid mainly because the long term Pred use was causing fairly significant alopecia. It also allowed us to reduce his dosage by half, with the same results. The name of the new steroid escapes me at the moment.

Best wishes
John
Portland OR
You know, this gave me another thing to consider. Perhaps a low dose of pred could prevent surgery. Of course, that's assuming the pred works for her. We had Dexter on pred for quite some time and it did a number on him as well. Ugh, it's not that I don't want to do surgery, I just don't know if I have enough confidence in it. I'm getting ahead of myself though; first we have to get the Rimadyl out of her system then we have to test the pred. Thank you for the kind words.

I am so sorry to hear Roxy's news. My last girl was also named Roxy and had Wobblers. My thoughts and prayers are with your Roxy
Thank you. I'm not sure if you remember (I know it was a very emotional time) but we spoke on the phone shortly after your Roxy got Wobblers. It's such a heart wrenching thing to watch. It seems that they just don't even understand what's happening to them.

So sorry to hear this Eighmie, i know it is very difficult to know what to do as you can get exhausted with it all. Sounds like you are doing everything in your power to keep her mobile without the surgery, over a year is an amazing accomplishment!!! Yes, the pred will take down the swelling around her spinal cord almost immediately. I know Darlene recommended me to start with the prescribed dose and try to reduce it just enough to keep her mobile (to limit side affects). You have a lot of help here, hang in there girl;) Hugs and Prayers to you and Roxy, take care of yourself too:) And yes Darlene is right.... again a POX on CVI!!!
Thank you. I know pred seems to kick in pretty quickly, if it is going to work. I don't want to wish the weekend away, but I'm anxious to see how she does on the pred next week. It's supposed to be pretty rainy here this weekend, so the plans are to find some good movies so we can just hang out on the couch and relax.
 
#6 ·
So sorry to here this. You sure seem to be doing everything you can for your handsome girl.

I believe you may notice an improvement with the Pred. Our boy ( the one I was talking about on another current thread) was on a Prednisone regime his entire life and was mainly symptom free. Any attempt to wean him off resulted in a gradual return of his symptoms. These days he is on a different steroid mainly because the long term Pred use was causing fairly significant alopecia. It also allowed us to reduce his dosage by half, with the same results. The name of the new steroid escapes me at the moment.

Best wishes
John
Portland OR
 
#10 ·
So sorry to hear this Eighmie, i know it is very difficult to know what to do as you can get exhausted with it all. Sounds like you are doing everything in your power to keep her mobile without the surgery, over a year is an amazing accomplishment!!! Yes, the pred will take down the swelling around her spinal cord almost immediately. I know Darlene recommended me to start with the prescribed dose and try to reduce it just enough to keep her mobile (to limit side affects). You have a lot of help here, hang in there girl;) Hugs and Prayers to you and Roxy, take care of yourself too:) And yes Darlene is right.... again a POX on CVI!!!
 
#11 ·
I'm so sorry to hear Roxy has worsened. :(

Her coat is so shiny! You are taking great care of her and she doesnt look sad to me. :)

The prednisone should help your little girl get better.

You both have my thoughts and prayers.

Keep us updated, please.
 
#13 ·
Thank you, Linda! Other than the Wobblers, she's doing really well. In the past, she didn't seem to mind the acupuncture, but today, she wasn't very happy about the needles. She was also annoyed with me that I didn't bring more beef liver. I thought, for sure, that she'd want the Kong. I was wrong. I will be better prepared next time! :)

I will definitely keep updating. Currently, she's snoozing next to me. Mobility wise, she doesn't appear to be any worse than she was this morning. She has had incontinence issues in the past and she seems to be leaking a little bit tonight. Perhaps that has something to do with todays treatment.
 
#14 ·
Many prayers sent your way for Roxy. Hoping for much improvement for you, and wisdom and comfort for you. I know you always do the best for her.
 
#18 ·
Thank you all for the kind words.

In good news, we had a very uneventful weekend. She didn't decline like the vet thought she might. We started her on the pred this morning and she's just been snoozing away on the couch. Instead of being curled up in a ball (like she usually does), she was laying like this -



I thought that seemed to be a bit different than she was after her initial diagnosis, but I looked at old pics and see that she went through this phase before.

Assuming things stay the same (or better), our next appointment is Friday afternoon. Please continue to keep Roxy in your thoughts; I really do appreciate it.
 
#19 ·
I pray the prednisone works with great success quickly.

Thank you for the update.
 
#20 ·
With starting the pred, I had such high hopes of seeing a quick/positive response. She's not doing worse, but she's not doing much better. She had a vet appointment today and her doc and I had a good heart to heart talk - this might just be "the new normal" for Roxy. I was feeling pretty down when we got there, so we first talked about the positives that we’re going to focus on. She’s off of Rimadyl and we didn’t have to increase her gaba. Not only that, but she’s still on a (relatively speaking) low dose of gaba. She doesn’t appear to be in much pain. She still fun-polices Dexter like it's her job. She’s resting a little more than normal, but no signs of pain. She can also still potty by herself and doesn’t need the sling to hold her. As we were talking, Roxy did a really big full body shake. We both laughed and the vet said we were adding full body shakes to the list of positives. :)

The not so good stuff – she lost two pounds in just over a week. That could be from muscle wasting with the pred. She’s still eating normal and has a great appetite. The vet didn’t want to just focus on the neck and assume nothing else could be going on, so we’re doing some additional tests to rule other things out. They drew blood today and when we go back on the 28th, they’ll do x-rays.

As always, Roxy handled everything like a champ. She had osteo and laser today along with the blood draw. She also ate a ton of chicken and peanut butter while we were there. She’s such a sweet little thing and just loves and trusts everyone. Please keep her in your thoughts; I do really appreciate it.
 
#23 ·
Yep, loved you could add full body shakes. That's pretty awesome.
 
#26 ·
Prayers and positive vibes, please

So things have not been great. The pred has brought back her incontinence with a vengeance. Our vet was hesitant to put her back on proin, feeling pretty confident it was just a side effect of the meds; and since she's taking so much, she didn't want to throw more at her. It also doesn't seem that the pred has done anything positive for her Wobblers.

Her thyroid came back low normal but for now, we're going to possibly hold back on adding those meds as well. She doesn't really have any of the typical low-thyroid issues, so the vet is wondering if the levels are showing low right now because of something else.

My husband has her at the vet right now. She's down another five pounds from 3/18; so a total of seven pounds in two weeks. Today is x-ray day to see if there's something else going on. I'm staring at my phone for text updates like it's my job. Please keep us in your thoughts. I'll update as soon as I know anything.
 
#27 ·
So things have not been great. The pred has brought back her incontinence with a vengeance. Our vet was hesitant to put her back on proin, feeling pretty confident it was just a side effect of the meds; and since she's taking so much, she didn't want to throw more at her. It also doesn't seem that the pred has done anything positive for her Wobblers.

Her thyroid came back low normal but for now, we're going to possibly hold back on adding those meds as well. She doesn't really have any of the typical low-thyroid issues, so the vet is wondering if the levels are showing low right now because of something else.

My husband has her at the vet right now. She's down another five pounds from 3/18; so a total of seven pounds in two weeks. Today is x-ray day to see if there's something else going on. I'm staring at my phone for text updates like it's my job. Please keep us in your thoughts. I'll update as soon as I know anything.
Thinking of you guys.
 
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