bullet was limping this morning. i noticed it during our morning walks. i took him to the vet and he's given Rimadyl for the inflammation and a sucralfate.

but what bothers me more is that he has an early signs of Spondylosis. And Bullet is approx 8. He will be approx 9 by May. Anyone husky who shares the same thing?

Thanks

I'm not familiar with sphdylosis so I had to look it up.

'As your dog gets older, he may develop degenerative conditions common to aging pets. Spondylosis is a bone condition in which the vertebrae of your dog's spine grow bone spurs and eventually become fused together. While there is no known cure, by understanding spondylosis you can plan effective treatments for your dog.'


Have you thought of alternative treatments since it's early? I read that some vets may recommend accupuncture. I know someone that used accupuncture for their husky (as treatment for another medical issue) but I believe she had good results with accupuncture.

I asked my vet, Dr. Miller about spondylosis....here is what she said:


This is a loaded question. I'm sure FB won't give enough space for a complete answer. Spondylosis is akin to arthritis of the spinal column. Rate of progression will vary, and symptoms will vary. Belief that any symptoms are actually attributable to spondylosis rather than some other disease will vary depending on where and when the veterinarian went to school. Fortunately for the dog, we have many different pain management options, Adequan, Acupuncture, weight management, physical therapy, rimadyl, previcox, metacam, tramadol, fentanyl to name a few. We are happy to help you evaluate options.

yeah thats what i have found, too, in my research last night.

btw, bullet is actually seeing dr. miller this friday afternoon.

i just thought that perhaps someone from the forum might have an older husky who has been through the same thing and i would like to hear how they are actually coping / treating with it.

thanks, claudia.

I'm glad you're going to see Dr. Miller!

I don't know if the OP still comes on here or what the end result of her dog was, but I was also looking to see if anyone had experience with this since Saber has spondylosis.
I knew he had it for a couple of years ago but last year in July he was in an extreme amount of pain where he didn't even want to lay down. All he would do was pace the house. Anyway, it was determined the spondylosis was finally starting to bother him.
He takes tramadol and rimadyl for the pain. He hardly jumps much unless it's to get in "his" chair or dinner time! He also doesn't run around like a fool anymore. He has good days and bad. The one thing he doesn't do that I miss the most is sleep/lay on his back .

The OP isn't much on the forum, however, I do hike with her at least a couple of times a month with her husky. As far as I know, she has gotten Bullet's weight down which helps, and he is on light meds to control any discomfort. He's also on supplements to help. Bullet seems to be doing well. I do not see any tentativeness when we're hiking.

Thanks for the response. I'm glad to hear Bullet is doing well.

I would look into prolotherapy. Had it done on my BC for disc compression, it really helped her.

http://www.getprolo.com/spondylosis,_spondylolisthesis,_spondylolysis_treatment.htm

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look into prolotherapy more.
I don't know how much it would help Saber since he has three vertabrae that are already fused together. Not to mention I would worry about a joint infection from the injections. He has almost no white blood cells to fight off any kind of infection so I have to be very careful with him. And I don't want him anesthetized if he doesn't have to be since he's older and has issues! Like I said, I worry too much!
I did think about acupuncture but there's no way he would stay still for that.

My vet was able to use a small enough gauge needle so no anesthetic was needed. My girl was a really tough though. I was sold on the science behind it as it injects ozone into the inflamed area. Inflammation is the bodies response to lack of blood flow / oxygen to an area or injury. By adding super oxygen (O3) and medicine at the same time it accelerates the healing process.

Best wishes and good luck to you and Bullet.

Well, Saber gets vitamin B12 injections every two weeks and he does great with that. I will definitely look into it more.

Glad I found this thread as our dear Maya who's 7 was finally sedated enough to get an xray to show that she had spondylosis....

Now we understand the various yelps she would make for no obvious reason in the last few months and the general refusal to play vigorously with other dogs. The other notable symptom that we should have picked-up on is her contraction of the back muscles if you run your hand over that area.

The vet put her on Deramax/Celebrexx and it helped a lot and made her seem a lot more like she was. We're meeting next week to see how to best manage the pain long-term.

Aww, sorry to hear about Maya. If you ever want to "talk", I'm here!

SaberK wrote:

Aww, sorry to hear about Maya. If you ever want to "talk", I'm here!

Thanks a bunch. I'll get back after we have a talk with the vet and see how to best handle this. I have to say that the Xray was heartbreaking to look at as she has bone bridges along her entire dorsal spine (including 1 or 2 that have hairline fractures of the bridges). I'll update with as much info as I can get.

Well we had the meeting with the Vet and it's likely the Spondylosis was triggered as a result of "trauma" to the spine which is plausible since about 1 1/2 years ago there was an accident where a running dog accidentally smashed into Maya and from that moment on she would no longer be able to play the way she wanted. Well now we know why. The Xray showed bridges along the whole dorsal spin and because they're somewhat off to the side the motion that will cause pain will be the left/right bending you would see when a dog wags it's tail. With the pain med she does return to a certain level of vitality but if she invites us to play, and we do, she'll play for a few seconds or minutes until she feels something, then stares at you and lies down. The Vet suggested we only give the meds when we anticipate heavy activity or when we observe some form of lethargy as a result of the pain. Walks will now be her main source of exercise and we will need to moderate our excitement during play time so she doesn't take too many risks. We've also started giving her Glucosamine (specifically it's called Dasuquin) with her food. I guess the "bonus" in all this is that we're looking at getting a medium-sized pool so she can take a load off her back. That's all for now, thanks for letting me vent a bit

Perfect! Swimming was something I was going to recommend! With conditions like spondylosis and any arthritic condition keeping them moving is key. Low impact exercise like walks and swimming are fantastic for them. Also keeping them slim (probably even a little leaner than you would normally think) will help. And pain meds as needed.

Things like acupuncture and massage are helpful as well

Swimming is a great low impact activity. Saber doesn't like water and we don't have a yard big enough for a pool anyway. So, we just do walks and he stays on the grass maybe for 70% of the walk.

I wish you the best of luck with Maya. And anytime you want to vent, feel free!

Thought I'd update to provide some info on how things are going with Maya.

We had been giving her the Deramax/Celebrex (as well as Stilbestrol once/6days to handle some urinary incontinence issues that started around the same time as her accident). In the process of determining with the doc the dosing for the pain it was advised that we really should only be giving it when we observe the pain (as opposed to giving it continuously as a prevention). We also were advised to start giving her some Glucosamine tabs ("Gluco-Max" - http://www.drugs.com/vet/gluco-max-can.html) with the hope that this could help her heal her joints in a way that reduced the pain and as a more "natural" approach than hard meds like Deramax. Well, in the process of stopping the Deramax we also decided to also stop the Stilbestrol and see what happens. Surprisingly, she hasn't been incontinent since, and she has definitely been more vibrant than we've seen her in the last year. We're still unclear on what is actually helping her - either the Stilbestrol was contributing to side-effects, or the Gluco-Max is doing a similar job to the Deramax, and perhaps the incontinence was a temporary manifestation post-accident, all we know is that she's definitely more active and happy and we'll gladly accept that.

Glad to hear Maya is feeling a bit better! We were talking about putting Ripley on Glucosamine for her joints as she will limp occasionally. We are trying to desensitize her to water to get her swimming for some low impact exercise.

Whereabouts in Montreal all you? We don't see many other members from our area. We are off the West Island in Vaudreuil.

Kellyb wrote:

Glad to hear Maya is feeling a bit better! We were talking about putting Ripley on Glucosamine for her joints as she will limp occasionally. We are trying to desensitize her to water to get her swimming for some low impact exercise.

Whereabouts in Montreal all you? We don't see many other members from our area. We are off the West Island in Vaudreuil.

We're practically neighbors, I sent you a PM