So, I get home from work yesterday and walk Saber for about 20 minutes. He was energetic, glad to see me, acting normal. We came home and he ran to the other end of the house like a bat out of hell. My mom said he slipped a little on the floor, but that's not unusual. Fifteen minutes later, my mom and I feed the dogs. Saber always goes nuts when it's time for dinner, slipping and sliding on the floor and jumping up and down. As he's eating, I'm noticing his butt just keeps getting closer and closer to the ground until he's sitting. Then, he ends up sliding to the ground onto his belly. Didn't seem to bother him, he kept right on scarfing his food down. After he was done eating, he could not hold up his hind end for very long. He would walk a little bit with his butt maybe six inches from being off the ground then he would end up plopping down into a sit. This goes on for five minutes and since I'm considerably freaked out by now, I call my vet's office. Since they know us very well, they told me to bring him right in.

Long story short, our vet thinks he aggravated his spondylosis with his jumping and/or slipping. Our vet also thinks the spondylosis has gotten worse which wouldn't be surprising since it's a degenerative disease. Saber has spondylosis between L3-L5 and now doc believes he might have it in his thoracic vertebrae. So, my parents are taking him back today around noon so he can be sedated and x-rayed. I didn't sleep very well last night thinking about what if the doctor's wrong and something else is wrong. Or what if Saber never recovers from the hind end weakness? Doc gave him another shot of B12/anti-inflammatory (he just had a shot on Friday) and he seemed better this morning, so I'm crossing my fingers. I swear, I don't know what's going to his demise, either his spine or his total lack of white blood cells.

Sorry I wrote a book or if some of it doesn't make sense. I'm exhausted and still a bit upset. I'll update when I find out his x-ray results tonight.

Poor Saber, Keeping him in my thoughts. I hope you get some positive results.

Good news and bad news on Saber's x-rays.

The good news is his hips are in perfect condition. Doc said considerng his breed and age he's stunned that there is no signs of arthritis or other issues. I wasn't too surprised as Saber hikes up both his legs quite high when he urinates on something lol!

Doc also said his heart is smaller than normal, but he said not to worry too much about it. Other than being smaller than normal, it otherwise looks healthy and sounds good. Other organs also looked normal.

Now the bad news. Saber's spondylosis has progressed. It now starts at the last thoracic vertebra, T-13 and affects all his lumbar vertebrae. There are three lumbar vertebre that are fused together by osteophytes that have grown to form what look like "loops" under the vertebrae. Not between, you can still see space between them. I wish I had brought my camera to take a picture of the x-ray as it's kind of hard to explain. Anyway, doc said that while that part looks worse, it's not the real problem. Saber's last two lumbar veterbrae have the bone growth in between so that you can't see any space between those vertebrae. That is putting pressure on the discs and the nerves that are there, hence the weakness and stumbling that has been happening.

For the next two weeks Saber will be taking 25mg of caprofren every day to hopefully calm things down in his spine. He will be re-evauluated a week from today when he goes for his regular two week vet visit. He was a lot better walking yesterday, but if he was standing in one spot for ten seconds or more, the weakness took over and he had to sit down. He seems even better today, a bit perkier. He doesn't seem to be in pain, but doc gave strict orders no running or jumping around. Ever. That won't be a problem, only at dinner time.

Since his spondylosis had started bothering him, he hardly runs or jumps anymore. He doesn't wag his tail much or lay on his back anymore. But he still loves his walks, car rides, food and treats! All I can do is take it one day at at time and keep him happy and as pain free as I can for as long as I can. Doc cleared him to still go on walks so we'll be trying that in a little bit.

Once again, I wrote a book! So sorry!