How did everyone here arrive at a diagnosis?
My dog's neuropathy has been getting worse lately. He walks but drags both feet and he walks pretty stiff. His fecal incontinence has been getting worse. I dont think he has ever been incontinent of urine. The rehab veterinarian thinks he probably has a month, maybe 2 if we are lucky before his quality of life is bad enough to consider euthanizing.
He has never been diagnosed with IVDD. We have basically been told it is arthritis or there might be some disc issues but there hasnt been any imaging done aside from an x ray probably 2 to 3 years ago before we knew there was neurological issues. I am sure there are arthritis issues but it has always bothered me that I feel like arthritis pain meds and the librela shots he was on didnt seem to ever do much( although mayne they are doing more than I realize now). We are supposed to reduce his activity and do much less strenuous exercises and she suggested maybe getting him a steroid shot at a different clinic an hour and 20 minutes away. Apparently they would need to take x rays to determine if he is a candidate and which joints need the shot.
We have been doing PT for a little more than a year now. At first he was improving. For maybe the first 3 or 4 months and then he started slowly declining and the last 2 to 3 months have been pretty rough.
It seems like there are a lot of people here with dog's that had a pretty sudden issue. I know there are some people with dog's that have type 2 or type 3.
I feel like I am crazy wanting to go against what the vet thinks and my wife trusts the vet. I also worry that I am just looking for it to be something else because I cant deal with losing my dog.
One thing that I was thinking about doing is looking into a place that is an hour and 45 minutes away that does neurology consults. I debated setting up a neurology consult and also ask about steroid shots if they do them and if they think it is related to arthritis.
I am not sure if my wife would go for the cost of MRI imaging though if the neurologist thinks it may be IVDD. He is also 12 years old and with arthritis and IVDD maybe I just need to let him go. He still wants to walk way too far though even when he is struggling. It doesn't feel right to me to think about euthanizing him without looking into it. Most of the time anymore he barks so we can help him stand up and falls on his butt squatting. I need to figure something out pretty quick. I hope appointments aren't scheduled weeks out.
I guess part of what I am asking is, have some people been told it may be arthritis but then get x rays and then get referred? Has a vet realized that there is neurological issues and refers to a neurologist or have most people here taken there dog based off their own research?
Is a neurology consult worth it even if you don't get imaging? I am definitely worried about finances and it would really suck to be making payments on it for a while but if there was a decent chance of getting my dog significantly more quality time, I would want to figure out how to make it work.