Otis

[imported_Melissa]

There are a couple of things going on.

He has some arthritis in his spine and severe dysplasia and arthritis in his left hip. So, my poor boy IS in pain. We have a week's worth of Rimadyl - 200 mg/day - and we'll talk to the vet next Monday and see where we are. He said if we're going to see results with it, we should see them in 7-10 days and then we'll work on cutting the dose back to find the lowest dose for him that gets results.

However, those things are not what was causing him not to flip his foot back over when the vet turned it upside down. That's a detioriation of his spine - the fatty protective layer around the nerves in his spine is breaking down causing the nerves to be more exposed. That's not something he can see in an x-ray but since he was able to rule out the other things it COULD be, it basically leaves this to be the problem. (He mentioned at the visit Friday that diagnosis was a process of elimination.) He could confirm it with a myelogram - injecting dye into the spine - but he said it's very expensive and he doesn't believe it's necessayr. Nothing can be done about it either. It's just a process and you can't stop it.

I found this online: http://www.maybeckvet.com/degenerativemyelopathy.html

So, we're hoping that the accidents in the house are because he's in pain from his hip and he's not moving well enough to get where he needs to be in time and we can fix it with the Rimadyl. If it's not and it's related to the nerves in his spine then there are some other drugs we can try, but he didn't really get into that today because he doesn't want to go that route unless we have to so we'll talk about that later if we get there.

I'm holding out all hope that the issues we're seeing in him right now are related to his hip and not his spine.

[imported_zoezoe]

Prayers the meds work for him, Melissa. I had 2 labs that it did wonders for in their older years. Keep us updated.

[imported_delmonico]

Prayers up for him also.

[Anne]

Poor Otis. I hope Rimadyl does the trick for him.

[imported_kelli]

poor oti.. thoughts and prayers for the big boy, 'lissa

[imported_bearsdad]

Continued good thoughts and prayers. I hope the rimadyl does the trick.

[imported_eastcoastmom]

Keeping Otis in my prayers. You too, Melis. I hope the Rimadyl helps him.

[amazongold]

Prayers and good thoughts for both you and Otis, Melissa.

[TangerineFizz]

Ah crap Melissa. I'm sorry.

Still holding you guys in my thoughts though.

[Di]

More good thoughts for Otis on there way!