Dear Dr. John,
My nine-year-old Keeshond weighs round 54 lbs. In the final month or two, I’ve observed that he’s a lot slower getting up and down, can’t bounce up on my sofa anymore, and it seems that his hind legs shake at instances. What may the doable reason for his slowing down and obvious discomfort? I wish to hold him comfy and surprise what diagnostics is perhaps wanted and what remedies may assist. I suppose I ought to name my vet to see what might be carried out however I’m terrified of probably receiving unhealthy information. E.D.
Dear E.D.,
As we and our pets age, issues decelerate and we discover that there’s not sufficient energy and stamina to do issues as had been carried out in youthful years. There are a number of potentialities which may clarify what you’re seeing along with your canine. First and foremost of those is straightforward arthritis which might have an effect on canines at completely different ages. Your canine might have additionally merely suffered a foul again sprain and anti inflammatory drugs may resolve the issues.
Other potentialities embrace ankylosing spondylosis with compromise of nerves that come off the spinal wire, hip dysplasia, disc degeneration, degenerative myelopathy and extra. There might even be multiple of those situations happening concurrently. The diagnostics would start with a superb bodily and neurological examination adopted by radiographs of the backbone and doable MRI. Other checks might embrace checking his total bloodwork, cerebrospinal fluid or varied neuromuscular checks. The remedy might be dependent upon the reason for what’s creating.
With earlier intervention, diagnostics, and acceptable therapies, your canine will stand a significantly better probability of being comfy and slowing down the consequences of the getting older that you’re seeing. His weight doesn’t sound too heavy for his breed however getting him to lose some weight would make it simpler for him as properly. If you wish to assist your canine then you definately do have to contact your veterinarian and begin the workup. Until then, preserving him comfy would contain limiting his mobility and maybe utilizing 325 mg buffered or coated aspirin a few times a day.
Dr. John de Jong owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic. He might be reached at 781-899-9994.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”