Hi,

i am looking to hear from anyone who has had experience with wobblers in any breed, my beautiful ddb bitch was diagnosed last month with a severe narrowing of her spinal cord and malformation of 6 vertabrae! she suddenly lost the use of her rear legs and i rushed her to the emergency where she was refered that evening and we took her to newmarket for very expensive MRI, this revealed the devastating results and that surgery was an option but with many complications and a very poor success rate with the degree of severity. we opted not to do surgery and took her home for what we were prepared may be a few days.

6 weeks on she is doing really well she is on a low dose of preds and has reduced the dose from 4 a day to just 1, she is very happy and completely painfree which is the most important thing. She is suprising us all and i would love to hear from anyone who has had any experience with the condition and how their dog got on with or without surgery.

We are totally devastated by this and would happily pay whatever it took if we could guarantee are baby would be ok, but i will not put her through such trauma and pain along with months of cage rest to find that she is no better at all or even worse, that would be absolutely heartbreaking and is a real possibility according to the specialist.
At the moment she is VERY happy and until things change i will not consider any surgery at all.

Any thoughts or advice would be great - Thanks

I am really sorry to hear about your ddb
I dont have any experience with this syndrome, but on another website a ddb puppy lost the use of her rear legs, very similar to yours.
If you like I can get this lady to e-mail you? I will check with her first and then if you PM me your e-mail I can pass it on.

Wouldn't want to give you any advice at all as this is something that you would be best getting from a neurologist and a Orthopedic specialist. 

Spinal cord trauma can be very unforgiving and the idea is to get the pressure of the cord as soon as possible and prevent it from reoccurring whether this is conservative or surgical.  Some dogs respond well to cage rest, corticosteroid therapy, and a neck brace to stabilize the neck

I put my 10 yr old through a spinal operation to decompress the spinal cord due to a disc.  He went off his hind legs too but his case was very different to yours. 

According to the specialist it was a mixed of protrusion and exclusion and they could not give me prediction on how it would turn out apart from the prognosis was guarded but optimistic.  That was over 3 years ago and he made an amazing recovery, got his rear end function back and has never had any problem since apart from the nerves.  The nerves in his back legs get very sensitive now and again which we believe is peripheral nerve regrowth.

As your dog is very young at 7 months old and if it's due to a narrowing of the vertebral canal, there is also the possibility that she may grow out of it by enlarging the canal.   In any event, I hope she make a speedy recovery.

Hi mandy,
i am very sorry to hear of your pups problem ,i bet you are devestated ,we had a similar problem with a ddb bitch of ours if you would like to email me i can talk to you in more detail
pat

i have never even heard of this kind of thing before, and dont know how bad it can be but it sounds nasty, i really feel for you as a dog owner myself, i worry abojut the least little eye infection or if they are off there food so i cant even begin to imagine how your feeling, yes keep us all posted and keep your chin up, someone is always watching our little ones you know,

sami x

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad she's responding well to treament.

Dobes are known to suffer this to and there are a lot of thoughts about just why it occures at all. I would perhaps give some weight to the choke collar theory, in that the problem seems to occur to the spine in the same area as the choke chain sits on long, strong necked dogs. I'm not saying that is the case and it could be way off the mark and I'm certainly not putting blame on anyone. But to me, it does make simple sense and it is one possible explanation that made me throw away the choke chain and instead, be prepared to be dragged down the road by an over excited pup. I would be intrested to hear what other CD'ers have heard?

Hi

I think i have heard of this before, a bitch DDB pup also. Her back legs just went. They have her on meds and walk her in a sling, think she is perfectly happy looks so in the photos. How very sorry i feel for you, my last litter of ddb pups is around that age and it must be devastating. If its malformation of the vertabrae there isnt any they could do to correct it, like with other cases when they have slipped or fractured and its pressing on the spinal cord. Have you had the option to walk her in a sling? keep her aslong as you can pain free and give her the love she deserves. All the best for the both of you

Louise xx

So sorry to hear of your pups problems, seem to remember it attacks mostly large or giant breeds and there are two sorts of attack, the acute and those where the symptoms are slow to appear. Think it also appears in different breeds at different ages, some in puppyhood and others at 5+ years. Think the prognosis depends to some extent on the type of onset but I would not try to give advice and think the only person who is in a position to know what is best for your pup is your vet or specialist in tandem with you

Hi all,

Thanks for all the kind words, 'Abbey' is doing really well, i think Louise it may be my girl you have seen as she is on meds and in a sling in her pics so could be her!

Sadly there is 3 other littermates that i have now found out also have it too though both the others are not affected as severely as my baby, all three are female too, the specialist said that it is something that she was definately born with and that would of always become a problem just that some come on quicker than others, there is clearly a genetic link and i am pleased to say her breeders have now spayed their bitch.

Abbey is very happy and that is what is most important to me, she is such a little darling and totally carefree (luckily they dont understand eh, its us that have the heartache of knowing what is inevitable)

She is spoilt rotten and loved to bits so she will totally enjoy whatever time she has and a pray that it is a while yet for my precious one!

Thanks everyone x