Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Last week we had a scary moment with blind Briggs, who suddenly couldn’t use his rear legs.  Yet he had deep pain sensation in his feet and could move his legs, pulling them back if we extended them … but he couldn’t stand up to walk.  His lower back was painful in one area, suggesting that something was definitely out of whack.  Our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, had us start Briggs on prednisone to reduce inflammation in the spine, and over the course of 24 hours he began to regain the use of his legs.

The little guy is so wobbly to begin with, because of the neurological damage from his Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, that this was a real struggle.

Fortunately, within 48 hours he was almost back to his old self, except that we could tell — this may sound odd — that his wobble wasn’t exactly "normal."  (Is there such a thing as a normal wobble?)  It’s a little hard to do a neuro assessment on a dog who wobbles on all four legs, but his rear legs weren’t wobbling the way they typically did.  There was something in how he moved them, and how his stance was, that told us his back was still out.

For all the bad rap that prednisone gets, we frankly consider it a miracle drug.  This steroid has brought more relief to more animals, in a faster amount of time, than anything else we’ve ever used.  And while it is known to have side effects, we have rarely experienced any problems in treating our animals with it. 

But it’s also true that depending on the condition, prednisone — like many medications — can treat the symptoms or provide temporary relief while not "solving" the underlying problem.  In Briggs’ case, it appeared he still had a back out of whack.  And for that sort of thing, we use chiropractic care.

So I scheduled a visit today with our personal chiropractor, Dr. Scott Matz in Missoula, who also practices on small animals for his clients at no cost.  After Scott worked on my sore back, he adjusted Briggs.  In the photo above Scott is examining Briggs’ lower spine, having already adjusted his neck vertebrae with the device you see on the floor.

Briggs was the model patient, sitting very still for Scott the entire time.  Briggs seemed to enjoy it — though I’m not sure whether it was the adjustment or just the extra attention from someone new — because he danced wobbled a little jig after his session!