Our Dog’s Severe Back Pain Ends Up To Be Discospondylitis
Our young Brittany, Juice, had just finished her rookie hunting season with a flair! At 18 months this girl was everything we wanted in a hunting dog. She covered the field well, she held her points, she brought every bird back she found, she had learned the fine art of finding down and wounded birds, she listened well in the field and every day she spent out there she just got better. When the season ended, we breathed a sigh of relief that all of our brittanys had made it through the season with minimal injuries. It’s tough work out there and is a miracle that the dogs don’t get injured more often.
That is why we were baffled, that the week after the pheasant hunting season ended, she was yelping in obvious pain. We couldn’t really tell exactly where it was coming from. We took her into the emergency room where the only thing this particular vet could come up with was a possible ACL tear in her knee. We set up an x-ray for 10 days after she was to take anti-inflamitory meds. An ACL didn’t seem like the problem since she wasn’t limping. We canceled that appt and consulted with the large animal vet that we can use in our town for shots and small things. His recommendation was to give her half a tab of aspirin and rest. He thought it was likely she had sustained an injury in rough play in the backyard. He’d seen dogs get better with this treatment.
We kept her away from the other dogs for a week and on aspirin and she seemed better. Once again, we put her out with the other dogs. She did fine for about a week. The day before we were to leave on vacation, she was back to yelping and in obvious pain. We decided to take her with us, since there was no way the dog care folks could keep her isolated for the 3 weeks we were gone. This way we could watch over her, keep her medicated and keep her calm. Again, she seemed to improve.
Until…. we thought she was fine again and we took her out woodcock hunting in Louisiana. She hunted enthusiastically all day without any sign of distress. Later on that night when we let her out of the kennel, enthusiasm was gone and the pain was back. This time we went to our host’s vet in Louisiana. We had to quit quessing what it was. This was obviously more serious than we had originally thought.
They took x-rays of her spine. From the x-rays, the vet thought it looked like she had compression of her back 3 vertabrae and a bone spur. Another round of pain meds and anti-inflamatories were perscribed. They did 2 laser treatments on the vertabrae. They recommended no hard exercise, no hunting and increased isolation. They also recommended that when we got home, we should have her see a vet chiropractor and accupuncturist.
The next two weeks of our vacation, Juice was up and down. At times she seemed in less pain. But overall, she was getting worse. She had taken to crawling more than walking. She just could not get comfortable. I’d spend time massaging her back. I tried Bio Freeze. We were really getting worried. We wondered if this injury was so bad that she may not hunt again.
The day after we returned from vacation, we found a vet chiropractor about 90 miles away from us. She looked over the x-rays and did an exam. She felt she could help her with just a few treatments. She also changed her meds to something less harmful to her stomach, a non-steroid anti-inflamatory. We felt hopeful that we had found our answer. A few days after her first treatment, we saw remarkable improvement. When the chiropractor saw Juice two weeks later, she could see that she had really improved. Another adjustment was made. It looked like we wouldn’t have to bring her back for a month. Juice continued walking around better, no crawling and she was getting up and down with minimal pain. Then all of a sudden, she’s back to crawling instead of walking. Her pain had increased tenfold. For 7 days, we all spent sleepless nights and restless days as she was so agitated, yelping in pain, whining, unable to walk, sit, stand or lay down. We felt helpless, nothing could comfort her. We went back to the chiropractor the following Monday (she had been at a conference, so could not see her sooner).
Upon examination, she felt Juice had really gone backwards. She made some adjustments. This time the adjustments only gave Juice minimal relief. Within hours she was back to where she had been before we saw the chiropractor. We were at wits end. We called the vet we use to have back in MN for a consultation. His recommendation was to go to the University of MN vet school, because they see all the unusual and hard cases. They have the specialists.
We called the U of Minnesota Vet School and Clinic to get an appointment. We were able to get into a neurologist the following day. We loaded up Juice and drove the 5 hours to make our appt. They examined our x rays and then examined Juice. They told us what it could be. It could be: cancer of the spine, a severe disc injury or discospondylitis (staff infection of the spine). We could x ray again. We could do an MRI. We would have to do something to get more information about what was going on. We opted to first go with another x-ray, to compare it to the first onewe had and see what had changed. What they found in the x-ray, would determine our next decision.
The neurologist examined the new x ray. His preliminary diagnosis from looking at the x-ray was discospondylitis (staff infection in her spine). Her back vertabrae was fuzzy, not defined, thus indicating infection. They prescribed a heavy regiman of pain killers and antibiotics. The Neurologist said if this is it, we’ll see dramatic improvement by the end of the first week. If no improvement is noted, then we’d have to have the MRI . The drive home was excruciating for Juice. Every bump, every turn had her yelping. The meds couldn’t kick in soon enough!
We got home and got her going on the meds. Every day we anxiously looked for signs of improvement. 3, 4, 5, days went by and we were not seeing the pain subside. By day 6, she seemed to be sleeping better. By day 7, she quit yelping when she moved and when she got up and down. By day 8 we were able to take her off the heavy narcotic pain med.
At day 15, she is back to our happy, good natured, energetic pup that we know and love. It’s obvious that the diagnosis of Discospondylitis is correct. She is showing dramatic improvement on the antibiotics. We have her down to just one mild pain pill in the AM and one at bedtime along with the antibiotics twice a day. She is to stay on the antibiotics for another 4 weeks and can quit the pain meds as soon as she’s ready. We are to return to the U for another x ray after 4 weeks to determine how the vertabrae is healing. She also needs to be kept calm and isolated. Her vertabrae is at risk of injury right now as it’s weakened from the infection.
Are we excited or what? We had feared that if this didn’t work, that we may just have to put her out of her misery. For the past 2.5 months all we could see was this great family and hunting dog deteriorate. It looked like she was destined for a life of containment and pain if we kept her alive. The vets we saw along the way, did their best to help her. But she needed specialists. We are so thankful we didn’t give up and took the advice to go to the University. The Veterinary Schools have the specialists, the testing equipment and the expertise in tough cases like ours. The small clinics don’t. Getting the correct diagnosis and getting the correct treatment, in Juice’s case, has given her back a bright and long future.