Any suggestion as to what may cause weakness in the rear. This has happened to two of my girls, neither have been together, both OFA good in hips, it's not a tick born illness. Both girls can barely get up to a standing position, once up can walk but not strong in the rear. Appetites and poohs are normal, no fever.
A vet appointment has been scheduled.

I would want to rule out a spinal problem (intervertebral disc material swollen and pressing on the spinal cord). Did it come on suddenly, and how old are these two girls?
When is your vet appointment? I would want to get it checked out as soon as possible, as there is probably inflammation and pain and possible further injury can result. Usually they treat with steroids first to bring down the inflammation.
Let us know if that's what it is, and good luck!

How do you know it's not a tick borne illness? The tests are notorious for false negatives... Just don't close off that possibility.

I agree with Nancy, there is more tick illness around than Vets seem to want to report. That is the first thing we think of in the South anymore. The test don't seem to give you an answer, so we treat. And there are so many tick diseases it could be but alot cause lameness and the dogs almost can not get up. Don't let them say, not in this area. Have heard that one.

If not a tickborne disease or exposure to a toxin or an injury, there's a disease called "Coonhound Paralysis" or "Polyradiculonuritis" the symtons often start with weakness in the rear and then the weakness can move forward. I've seen this disease twice in my many years as a Vet Tech. If you want to read more just do a general search for "Coonhound Paralysis". It is not life threatening but does require good nursing care on the part of the owner while it runs its course. Just a thought.....

The first girl that got this weekness was negative for tick born illness but we did go ahead and give her the full 21 day course of Doxy, no change. We will be taking her in for spinal x-rays this week. The second girl suddenly came down with the rear lameness friday. It's possible the first girl may have had some kind of spine injury due to playing with the other labs. But the second girl has been in the house so I can't imagine that she could have injured her spine. The girls are 4yrs and 5yrs old.
You mention possible toxic causes, they did just spray the weeds on the side of the road last week, I will mention this to the vet so he can run tests on her.

I should mention that a breeder friend on mine just had one of her boys last week go down in the rear also. She lives in a different state and our dogs haven't been near each other lately. We do feed the same type food. Don't know if maybe this is food related. Her boy was x-rayed in the rear and spine and no problem was seen.

Check for migrating "fox tails" which can cause all kinds of problems.
Plant looks like wheat. Small barbed "seeds" can migrate throughout the body and cause weakness, pain and infection.

If it was tick borne I would think there would have been some improvement after 3 weeks of doxy. I hope you get to the bottom of this, unlikely it's coincidental for 2 girls to have the same symptoms. Good wishes for a quick recovery and answer to this.

Good that you did the treatment... Sorry that it didn't work!

Some interesting facts you are bringing up. Be sure to find out what was sprayed - call the highway department. If all of the dogs are genetically related, that's also very interesting.

This is a remote possibility, but it sounds like the symptoms my Great Pyrenees had many years ago. He would have trouble getting up, weakness in the rear. We x-rayed his hips - they were perfect. Couldn't find any other diagnosis. So we assumed some kind of arthritis, and gave him aspirin which we thought helped a bit.

As it turned out, he had myasthenia gravis. He eventually died of inhalation pneumonia when the disease made it hard for him to breathe. There are better drugs and treatments now. Here is a fact sheet: http://tinyurl.com/2t9ls9

Good luck!

Just a couple of other thoughts.
In the course of Doxy, the CDC recommends a 30 day course not 21 days.
If it were tick bourne you would see a change pretty quickly in the treatment. Sorry it doesn't seem to be that unless the doseage of Doxy wasn't strong enough.
My other thought is to do a lateral x-ray and see if there are any disc issues, in the back.
Best of luck and let us know.

This morning the second girl is now affected in her front legs. My husband says they sprayed the weeds next door but didn't spray here. Next door where they sprayed is not near the dogs nor can they get close to that property. The second girl has also been in the house and only on lead with us when outside so we know she didn't come in contact with anything outside that could have been toxic. No changes in the house either and nothing toxic she could have come in contact with. Both girls that have this have been in two seperate areas. They are also non related except for their grandsire on one side who is a very well known sire, I've never heard of any problem like this coming out of his lines. I'm stumped !! Hopefully the vet can run tests that will give us some answers.

A couple of other possibilities and resources:

This is a pdf describing a lot of diseases, including distal symmetrical polyneuropathy: http://www.ivis.org/advances/Vite/braund20b/ivis.pdf

It mentions Labradors...

And here's another list - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyneuropathy_in_dogs_and_cats

The Polyradiculoneuritis description looked interesting. It can be caused by Toxoplasmosis... Any cats around? They can get it by eating cat feces... The article is interesting.

What are you feeding?

Good luck and keep us up to date - we're pulling for you!

Just seeing your post. Prayers that you can get a handle on this and it is nothing overly serious.

Please keep us posted.

At this point since they didn't respond to Doxy, the vet is leaning towards spine injury and will be putting them on cordisone treatments, also may try Trebesson to be sure it's not infection.

What about Tick paralysis. The dog is crippled until the tick is found and pulled off. Then they are normal. We had that going on around here about 3 years ago. Our Vet was nice enough to call most of the breeders and let them know. He was seeing alot of cases. Still makes me think it is something to do with ticks.

Spine injury doesn't sound right at all, especially since two dogs are affected and it seems to be progressive.

Time to go to a specialist or teaching hospital. Where are you located?

Perhaps something viral or neurologic going on?

I agree that it is strange that 2 dogs would have spine injury.

I would get a second opinion to be on the safe side.

I agree that it seems like two girls with a spine injury especially at the same time just doesns't sound right. There have been alot of ticks this year and I have pulled several off the second girl in the past week or two. She is a black and with such a thick coat you can't get to the skin below in most spots. I've been going over her looking for a tick and
so far haven't found one. I did however find a large pea sized lump under the skin in the area just behind the back of her thigh real close to her twink. I don't see any service bite marks there. Wonder if it's a spider bite although I would think there would be bite marks. I have another vet I think I will be taking her to, he's 2 hrs away. The closest larger animal hosp or school is it at least 5 hrs away, we are located in southern Missouri.

We gave a cortisone shot and some tribisson to the both the girls. No change so far in the first girl, but the second girl is doing much better, she was able to get right up this morning and run. I thought yesterday that her muzzle may have been a bit swollen but wasn't real sure, well today her muzzle looks normal again and I could tell now that it was swollen yesterday. Almost sounds like her problem was a reaction to something and that the meds are helping. I did notice with the first girl that afer the cortisone and tribisson that she seems to be peeing more and in larger quanities. Also what I thought may be overweight on her I've notice it seems to be more in her front end and maybe thinking it may be Edema ?? She's been on a diet of one cup food twice a day for over a month now and no weight loss yet.
Maybe the girls had two seperate problems that caused the weakness in the rear and it was just a coincidence that it happened close to the same time.

Does the weaknnes occurs after exercise?

If you have used any of the flea bite preventatives--that may have been the cause. Years ago I had one dog with a small hot spot just starting and another one with a patch of red on her stomach., The first dog I put tea tree oil on the hot spot and the other one I put tea tree oil on the sore on the stomach. The next morning the one with the hot spot on the neck could not raise his head nor get his front up and the other couldn't get up because her rear was paralyzed, And there was some swelling in the face of each. Ellie

There had been no new meds given to either of the dogs. And with both the weakness was there all the time especially when first trying to stand up.

"My husband says they sprayed the weeds next door but didn't spray here. Next door where they sprayed is not near the dogs nor can they get close to that property."

Maybe the wind was just right and they got some

I am happy to say that after the cortisone shot and going on tribisson the second girl is now back to her normal self I may see a slight improvement on the first girl but not real sure yet.

Have you had the bladders checked...some foods cause bladdder and kidney infections...you mentioned them urinating a lot after Rx given...is it clear, dark, smell?