My nearly 13 year old male Labrador has degenerative myelopathy. What has anyone else done to help their dogs with this? Does acupuncture work at all? My vet wrote out two prescriptions for me to be filled at a compounding pharmacy. I printed out the info from the University of Florida's neurology department's protocol, and that's where I got the info on these two prescriptions. Any advice will be deeply appreciated. This dog is my heart and soul and I want to do all I can to help him.

Deramaxx helps my 14 year old. Watch for muscle wasting. It does occur. I massage what is left of the rear leg muscles 4 times a week.

Talk to you vet about trying some gabapentin, it really helped my oldster.

DM is not a painful condition. Deramaxx and gabapentin won't help with the condition. It may help with any ortho issues he might have and therefore can deal with the DM better.

The deramaxx is prescribed for inflammation caused by DM. It's not neccesarily for pain *anon*.

It helped my dog a great deal Anon.

It was a long time ago but I did use Actupuncture and found it to be helpful. My Vet also showed me how to Massage between treatments.

Did you read the entire post? NSAIDs don't help with DM, never have and never will. HOWEVER, if there is an underlying ortho problem it helps with that, therefore the dog can deal with the DM better.

Sorry I don't have any tips to help your dog with DM. Several times a year this topic comes up and I am always surprised at the number of people who post of similar experiences with DM. There is a DNA test for DM that can be used to keep our next generation from ever suffering with this debilitating disorder. I hope more breeders will choose to include it as just another routine screening before breeding. For those that use DDC for any of their testing, you can add DM to your test for just $20. It certainly seems worth it to me to help avoid this PREVENTABLE disorder that disables our Labs in their golden years.

Anon, it's been pointed out that dog NSAID-type medications do reduce inflammation so it can help DM. Word it whatever way you want, your initial post said it doesn't help. Well, I've seen it help in my own dog, it certainly does help regardless of how you claim it does in a secondary fashion.

My dog wouldn't be alive today without the help of D-maxx.

I wonder if breeders test, how many would not breed a dog that carries this? I have a senior dog that is no longer bred and her get and grand get no longer are either. Is it worth it for me to test them? , but I plan on testing other lines I have for my own knowlege.

I doubt I'll find a stud dog to use that will have this testing done though. Many don't test for EIC and I understand why. My girls are all clears so I don't worry about it at all. I still have reservations about EIC testing and wonder about the degenerative myelopathy. Any one out there test and find their dog later on showed signs of it in old age? I strongly doubt it. I'm going to look on OFA.

So if most others don't test, how is it going to help those that do when breeding? My next litter the keepers will be tested but it's probably going to be a waste of a test. Thankfully it's an older age disease and most dogs pass away of something else before this disease.

My mother's dog was on that compounded medicine,The medicine is aminocaproic acid and n-acetylcysteine . she got it from a compounding pharmacy in FLA too,www.westlabpharmacy.com. It was prescribed by her vets in N.C. when her girl had symptoms and it did work very well for her. She also had accupuncture and chiropractic therapy as well. She would use some Deramaxx only if she seemed uncomfortable like if she overdid it, as she had other issues.

This is the article that I found on it years ago. One time years past I was at the therapy center with one of my dogs and there was a women there who's GS had it, she didn't know about the compounded medicine till I told her, she had her dog put on it and he did very well.
http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/DM_Web/DMofGS.htm

Thanks to everyone for replying. I will be getting Jet's compounded medicine tomorrow and hope it will help. I will see how he does on it and then add in acupuncture.

I think DM is an autoimmune disorder so I'm wondering how helpful genetic testing would be. From what I've read, DM is similar to MS in people; and it does seem to affect the older dogs.

I hope this link is helpful in some way- it seems to have a lot of ideas:
http://home.roadrunner.com/~exercisesfordm/

First, thanks Tiffany for the information about the aminocaproic acid and n-acetylcysteine. No vet ever recommended it to us unfortunately even when I asked about it. Your information is always great, when I see your name I listen up. I have been to the GSD site many times prior.

The wikipedia link should give all general information about DM. It was the 1st Google hit I found when searching after I suspected a 10.5 year boy had it in the early stages. It's worth reading, viewing the photo of proprioception also called the DM stance or *knuckling under*.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_degenerative_myelopathy



Diagnosis DM is by radiographs, MRI's or CT scans of the brain or spine. Some dogs are diagnosed by ruling out other diseases and going by symptoms including proprioception and several others. My boy was diagnosed with lumbar arthritis, hip radiograph was unaffected by any arthritis looking great. He was originally diagnosed with spinal arthritis 1st, then DM since about age 10.5 to 11. I have yet to hear of a 5 year old Labrador with DM as stated on the GSD link that I've read many times. Labs begin at age 9 and upward *if* they have DM. That GSD page has great information but remember they are dealing with GSD's, not Labs. The GSD's seem to have a higher rate of frequency and begin at an earlier age then the Labrador.

Op,I hope you find treatments that work for your 13 year old Labrador boy. GL in finding something helpful, I hope the aminocaproic acid and n-acetylcysteine does.

DM is thought to have some autoimmune components. A gene mutation in the SOD1 gene has been determined in some breeds that have this disorder. This same gene is associated with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in humans ---- not MS.