I'm hoping someone may have some suggestions I can offer this family. This dog will turn 6 in August, has been perfectly healthy. He was born with a deformed kidney, which was removed at 6 months old, but never presented an issue, blood work was always normal. Below is her email to me:

"I wonder if you can help, we are so worried. Guinness collapsed on Friday and was rushed to the vet. He is bright and alert but cannot move. I have been to see him and it is so sad he is desperately trying to get up but just can't. He can lift his head a little and wag his tail a little. They have looked for everything from ticks, to X rays to thyroid to all kinds of blood work, to possible bites (some snakes here) but nothing. They are now wondering if he has a clot on his spinal cord. They are now using a wait and see approach as he is comfortable. I don't like to email and worry you I just wondered, with all your experience, if there was anything it could be they have not thought of that you may have come across in the past??"

I've reached out to my vets....I'm hoping someone may have experienced something similar and can share some ideas.

Private emails are fine

TIA...Donna

I'm so sorry to hear about this dog! IMHO, the vets are likely on the right track that it's spine related. We had an older dog who was very active until the day something happened and his back end wouldn't work. We tried accupuncture, time and meds while waiting for test results. Sadly it was a tumour on his spine that nobody knew was there. Hugs to everyone & I hope that this boy is okay!

I have a similar experience with one of my dogs several years ago. Dog was put on high doses of antibiotic (was not lyme disease, but another type of insect bite - a blood sucking cone nose). The dog slowly recovered.

Had a similar situation and it was FCE, fibrocartilaginous embolism. Our dog was treated aggressively with prednisone, although some vets say that it's not appropriate. Our dog had a full recovery and is running and jumping without problems. It all started when she chased a squirrel first thing in the morning. Google it, or maybe others will give their experiences here.

Good luck. Please have the vet consult a teaching hospital or internist ASAP if it's FCE.

I had a girl with a herniated cervical disc rupture.......she had a myleogram to confirm. She had similiar symptoms......just fell on floor and could not get up....could wag tail and lift head but that was it. We had a cervical laminectomy done....she made a full recovery.

A similar thing happened to me about 4 years ago when my girl went running out after a squirrel and dropped.
She had an FCE(Fibrocartilaginous Embolism) in her spine. That condition is caused by a sudden burst of pressure/force that causes some of the material inside the disc(clot) to enter the blood stream of the spine and where it ends up in the spinal column is where the "stroke" for lack of a better word occurs.It can affect the whole body or just a limb or two.
If you notice another poster had theirs occur from the same circumstance!!
My vet did xrays and then sent her home , she didn't recommend steroids (though initially she had one injection) but the Physical Therapy center told me to that the dogs that have the best outcome have a course of steroids. My vet still refused but I did manage to get my dog on them while I had to wait to get her to therapy in 2 weeks when the embolism and any inflammation would have settled down.
In the mean time I did alot of my own therapy on her, lots of ROM to keep the muscles in shape and tone as well as massage for circulation. She had to be lifted to get up and walk ,I rigged up firewood carrier and then when she got strong enough I used a flat slip lead around her foot to lift it like she would if she could herself. By the time we got to do the therapy on her she had already had most of her recovery in that 2 week time span. You could hardly notice the difference in her gait.
We did a few months of therapy that was mostly treadmill with gait correction and swimming and some E-Stim as well.
My girl made about a 95% recovery, if you knew she had an FCE you might be able to tell, she has a slight hesitation with not as much lift when she walks and slightly when she trots but she runs and plays just as hard as she did before the FCE!! :) I did have to retire her from showing though which was a disappointment but didn't stop her from being a fabulous mommy!

Has the Vet looked at his ears for an infection deep in his eardrum? I would assume he did. I have a dog that fell to the floor and couldn't walk and lost all equilibrium. I had looked in her ears and its a Bacteria that is light yellow color. The Vet ruptured her ear drum to relieve the pressure and had to put her on heavy antibiotics, ear flush and didn't start walking right or standing for a few days.

Good Luck to you and I hope this boy will be alright and you find answers.

It does sound like an FCE, our 3-year old girl is about 90% recovered from paralysis similar to what you describe, it happened about 6 months ago. We had her at a specialist within 45 minutes of the event, and the diagnosis was confirmed by MRI that afternoon. The only treatment was pain meds and aggressive physical therapy, the vet specialist was adamant against steroids and it has worked out fine. Good luck!

Thank you all for your replies both here and privately. I have forwarded them all onto the dog's owners, who are going to print everything and take it to their vet.

I hope they're able to help this sweet boy.

Thanks again, I'll post when I know more.
Donna

Thanks again to all that responded, seems their vet also thinks it may be FCE, as many have suggested.

He is on pred and light PT. When they visited him today, he was in a down position as opposed to flat on his side, so hopefully that's an encouraging sign.
His appetite is good, she said they're hand feeding him and the tech joked about loosing her fingers. He's urinating fine...he'll stay at the vet's office for the next week or so, hopefully he'll continue to improve.

Thanks again for your input!
Donna

It sounds like a spinal stroke. They will have needed to be on high doses of cortizone almost immeditately following w/Vet. We had a lovely chocolate bitch many years ago that did this at age 3. I ran her to ER Vet and had them call my Vet at home...he directed the care and gave me tips to do afterwards with physical therapy. She was "down" for only 3 days, but after 3 months of PT only had a slight limp and a lack of feeling in one rear leg. We placed her with full disclosure to a pet home and she lived a very long healthy life. The key is the IV steroids right away...

Best,

Leslee Pope
Huntcrest