Three months ago Thor was diagnosed with arthritis in his spine. He presented with occassional scraping of the nails of his back paws. He has been treated with high dosage of fish oil 15,000 mg and cosequin as well as rimadyl. After two weeks the rimadyl was no longer necessary and he has been active, healthy and pain free........... until today.

We hiked as usual for about an hour and 15 minutes this AM. 15 minutes is training time and the hour is for an off leash hike where he is free to run and hunt through hilly terrain.

When we got home he went to his crate to rest and I got my son moving to take him back to college. Before we left I brought Thor out to the yard to relieve himself and he all of a sudden lost the use of his back legs and collapsed. He couldn't get up and it was like his legs were not attached. He got a little panicked and was panting heavily until I go him back on his feet and he was able to walk but it was like he had no control over the back legs, they were moving to the right instead of forward.

My son helped me lift him into the car and we took him to the vet. He was able to make it up the stairs and started to regain strength and a normal gait while we were there though he did collapse once in the waiting area.

He had a full work up from checking for ticks and tick borne diseases to an assessment of his neurological status, blood work, blood pressure, heart rate etc to all come back perfectly normal. My vet opted not to redo the films from a couple of months ago because in her words his physical exam proved him to be in exceptional condition. No neurological deficits, excellent muscle mass, full range of motion and no observable pain.

Within an hour of the incident he had made a full recovery. With nothing else to go on my vet feels he may have passed a blood clot which caused the issue and has prescribed 81mg of aspirin for 30 days.

All was well until an hour ago when his legs went out again when he stood up. I've put him in his crate and he is sleeping and I will have him back at the vet tomorrow but if he is having a stroke; I don't think there is a whole lot I can do. Any ideas?

Also, he will be 11 in January so I'm very wary of performing a whole lot of invasive testing and anything that will require anesthesia. But if anyone has suggestions from where to go from here, I am all ears.....btw Thor just got up to get a drink and is fine again.....oh I think it will be a long night.

Sheila, I don't have anything constructive to contribute, but just wanted to say that I'm sorry this is happening to Thor. Hopefully it will be a transient thing...

Oh, my. Sheila, this same kind of thing happened to me with my last dog, Delilah.
She also was a white shepherd. She was 10, came home from sledding one day with my daughters and could barely move (hind end didn't know what the front end was doing...). It would kind of come and go at first. The dragging of the back paws would become worse so I had her wear booties on hikes - her nails were worn down so far that they would bleed.

We actually saw no change with anti-inflammatories/pain meds.

My news about Delilah is not good news. I hope Thor stays strong. Delilah was very active all of her life, and I am sure it helped. Anyway, Degenerative Myelopathy is what my vet ended up believing that she had.

ETA: at first they did think arthritis... and one vet at the office thought hip problems. It was definitely neurological based on what I know.

No help here, but healing thoughts sent your way. I am sorry you and Thor are going through this, I would be terrified.

I'm sorry, Sheila. You must be so worried.

I wanted to post a quick caution about the aspirin -- don't forget that it's an NSAID and that you would not give the rimadyl while he's on the aspirin protocol. (I'm just mentioning it because one might easily think that aspirin seems so innocuous and the dog was on rimadyl in the past and did OK, and so on .... Aspirin and all other NSAIDs are far less well-tolerated in dogs than in humans and many serious adverse events are triggered by a combo of NSAIDs.)

Dd the vet mention Degenerative Myelopathy?

When it rains, it pours around here.....

Sorry, Sheila. I wish y'all the best of prognosis tomorrow.

Very scary constellation of symptoms. I'm sorry that this is happening to your dog.

Oh Sheila.... I'm so, SO sorry this is happening to you and Thor...
I have no medical input, but I'll certainly be here for support. There's nothing worse than mysterious symptoms - especially when they're so traumatic for the dog. You guys will be in my thoughts and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is going on is fleeting/treatable.

*Isn't fish oil a blood thinner? If so, wouldn't mega doses would discourage clotting?

Hang in there Sheila,
~Natalya

Sheila,
Just wanted to add my support along with the others. Sending Thor healing thoughts and wishes. I know how hard it can be. Hang in there!

I also would think that the high doses of salmon oil could be a strong blood thinner. I would mention this again to the Vet just to be sure they know.
Please know you are being thought of.

Thanks everyone for the support and input. I will mention the fish oil blood thinner. Good tip on aspirin being an NSAID. I'm neurotic about drugs so I don't think I would have mixed them but I will pass on the info to my husband in case he thought to do so.
Unfortunately I had to get my son back to college so wasn't able to wait with Thor for all the testing and had to be replaced by my husband for pick up so didn't get to really talk to the vet in the detail I would have liked to...on my cell phone in and out of reception in the NH mountains. All I know for sure is by the time he was put through his paces; there was no weakness or wobbling or worn down nails or any indication what so ever of a problem.

Not that I want Thor to not get better but I hope when I bring him tomorrow it is during a not so good time; so that there will be more to go on. Could he have a pinched nerve?