Hi Laura and Baka,
I finally realized I had a similar (but not exactly
the same) episode with my dog Tanzi in June. We had
showed on Saturday and she was not quite as perky as
usual, and had mild diarrhea. Got home, she ate as
usual and spent most of the evening outside. At
bedtime I called and she did not come. So I had to go
out and find her (very large fenced backyard). She
was unable to get up (she is 2 1/2). I helped her and
she was very lame in her hind end (her GDC's are
excllent, with normal elbows). So I called the
emergency clinic and took her in. I had to basically
carry her into the clinic. They gave her morphine for
pain and told me it might make her vomit. Sure
enough, it did - and up came a large pair of panties
(not mine) rolled into a nice compact cylinder
garnished with hair and grass, so it looked like a
dead rat. Since I had paid about $3500 for her dam's
treatment and surgery the prior year, related to
swallowing an entire pair of pantyhose (not mine,
again) in one piece, we had a few good yucks over all
the money I had saved, and I took Tanzi home.
She was a dead weight and I had to set her down in
order to open the front door. I could carry her if
she was elevated, but I could not really pick her up
from the ground. So I somehow got her just inside the
front door (up one step) and set up an x-pen around
her. Checked her at 7 a.m. and she had not moved and
was not much better. She ended up going back to the
emergency clinic in the afternoon - but now she was
lame in the front! X-rays revealed inflammation of
the joints. So they put her on Rimadyl and sent me
home. By that night, she was completely normal again.
And has been normal ever since.
However, I just heard about a friend's dog who had to
be spayed due to pyometra that had also resulted in
peritonitis. From what I understand, she had lameness
and swollen joints as well.
I had been worried Tanzi might have been bloating and
had heard that hind end lameness can be related to
abdominal distress. So maybe the panties had caused
that?? But what about that front-end lameness? It was
almost like the inflammation was moving from joint to
joint??? Whatever it was, it was brief in duration
but it really scared me. Within 24 hours, she was
fine. But at times during those 24 hours, I was
worried that she might die. To see a normally
incredibly sound and very active young dog, unable to
walk, is scary.
I hope all is well with Baka, but if you ever get more
explanation I would love to hear what it was. We
don't have any answers on Tanzi. I was thinking maybe
the hind-end was due to the panties, and the front-end
was just caused by straining to make up for the rear
but I am not at all convinced. I am almost wondering
if she had some weird virus?
Sharon Montville - Firstrax - Colorado
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