Rolling Dog Farm Blog

I took this photo of Alayne with Claude the blind Great Dane puppy yesterday morning before she took him to our vets.  By evening, we had a very troubling diagnosis for this boy.

Ever since Claude arrived last fall, we’ve been concerned about his development. His spine was hunched, he was sort of flat-footed, and he never gained the kind of weight we thought he should.  We had two physical and neurological evaluations done, but there was nothing conclusive other than he had carpal laxity syndrome, which was why he was flat-footed.  As he grew, his back never really straightened out, and he became a bit clumsy.  At times it was hard to decide whether this was the awkwardness of a giant, goofy blind puppy, or whether something else was going on.

Despite the inconclusive evaluations, Alayne and I suspected there WAS something else affecting Claude, but we didn’t know what.  We even turned down an offer to adopt him a couple of months ago because of this concern.  Then, in the past two weeks, he began to get really awkward.  He’d slip and fall inside the house for no apparent reason; as he walked, he’d swing his rear legs out in a wide arc; other times he’d have trouble getting up.  And yet these were fleeting moments, and much of the time he was just fine, running and carousing like the 10-month old goofball he is.  But the frequency of these episodes increased in the past week, and we realized it was time to take him back for another neuro evaluation.

So yesterday our internal medicine specialist in Helena, Dr. Britt Culver, examined Claude again.  This time, the diagnosis was grim:  Claude may have Wobbler’s Syndrome, a neurological disorder that affects young Great Danes and older Dobermans.  In fact, Claude is at the typical age for the onset of symptoms and he has the classic signs.

Essentially his vertebrae are growing in a way that they begin constricting the spinal cord, interfering with the body’s ability to transmit nerve signals.  This is a progressive disease, and sometimes it can be managed medically, other times only with surgery … and even then, the outcome is not always assured.  The reason is that surgeons could "fix" the one or two vertebrae pressing on the cord now, but as he grows, new constrictions could develop elsewhere along the spine.  One veterinarian used a freight train analogy:  say you have a derailment because a couple of freight cars get uncoupled … you get them back on the track, start going again, and then two more cars become uncoupled.

What we need now is more information — how severe the cord compression is, how many areas are involved, what the rest of the vertebrae look like.  This means a trip to Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine to see a neurologist and probably to get an MRI done.

As it happens … we have Brynn’s appointment scheduled at WSU for next Monday, February 5th, so we’re doubling up and will be taking Claude along as well.  We scheduled Claude’s appointment this morning, and we were fortunate that they could get us in on such short notice.  (I was going to devote tonight’s blog to Brynn’s upcoming appointment, but was obviously overtaken by events.)  So stay tuned for lots of medical news on the blog next week!

(Click on photo for larger image.)