Getting to the diagnosis

In August 2011 I thought I saw Holly walking in a slightly odd way. It wasn't every day and it wasnt every step, but every so often I thought she kicked out her back right leg just a little bit in an odd way. I spent a week or so watching and becoming convinced that there was a slight odditiy to her gait. But only I could see this, she never seemed to do this when anyone else was watching. I gave her a thorough going over all down her spine and legs right down to the individual pads. I didn't find any obvious injury and got no pain reaction, in fact the only thing to happen was she chose the moment when my head was down by her hocks to relax and fart in my face!

She didn't appear to be in any pain but just for a little while we changed walkies, where possible we avoided hard surfaces and I tried to keep her mad flat-out galloping to a bare minimum. My theory was that if it was a pulled muscle then it would improve, it didn't.

At the end of August I had a few days away and Holly went to stay with my parents, when I came back they had seen the odd gait. It was described by my Dad as a catwalk sashay that most models would kill for. so now I was sure it wasn't me imagining it it was time to go to the vet.

Reading this I know it seems like a long time between initial 'did I just see that?' and going to the vet, but if there had been any sign of pain she would have been there immediately. In reality it was probably only about 3 weeks.

My vet gave her spine, hips and legs the same poking and prodding that I had given them and turned up the same lack of pain and obvious injury. On a good note for the vet, she didn't relax when he examined her. He then did something that I think of as a tilt-hop test. He picked up on of her back legs so her foot was off the floor and then gently pushed so the weight of her hips moved out over the leg still on the floor in an attempt to tip her over. When he picked her right leg up and pushed she hopped on her left leg to keep her balance, this is normal. But when he lifted her left leg he could tilt her a lot further over before her right leg started to hop, this is not normal.

Four possibilities.

• An injury, possibly infected
• a Tumour or other growth on the spine
• Something wrong with her hips, Mum was a labrador cross and Dad is suspected to be a German Shepherd, both breeds known to have hip problems
• CDM

The only way to tell would be X-rays. But as it's the start of the new academic year (and I work at a University) getting some time off  to take her in was going to be tricky, but my lovely vet didn't think that there was a 'gotta do this right now' urgency, so there was a delay of a few weeks.

So early one morning I dropped a very unimpressed and unfed (the cause of the grumps) Holly off at the vets and set off to spend the day pottering in and out of second hand book shops and visiting friends.

As instructed in the middle of the afternoon I phoned for an update, Holly had had her X-rays and was coming round nicely and eating everything that was offered to her. That would be the Labrador part of her gene pool. The next bit however made me swallow fairly hard a couple of times, the vet wanted to see me to discuss the X-rays before I took her home. Gulp! I was given an appointment before the normal evening surgery. Gulp again!

So laiden down with just a few books I returned to the vets surgery and felt quite odd sitting in the waiting room without an animal with me.

I was given a bone-by-bone tour of the X-rays, the conclusion was that skeletally there was no problems, hips and everything were perfect. No sign of hip displaisia, arthiritis, injury or tumours. Which left just one diagnosis. Canine Degenerative Myelopathy.

I left with Holly and the information that there is no cure and no treatment, the warning that average from diagnosis is 18 months, the advise that walking, lots and lots of walking could probably help, and the knowledge that I could phone or visit for advice at any time and that I could do as much research as I wanted to and the vet would be happy to discuss and advise on any treatment or supplements that I thought would help. It was a lot to take in.