We’re taking care of Fleur, a little dog with disc disease.
Several months ago, a disc in Fleur’s spine deteriorated and began putting pressure on the nerves to her back legs. The last couple weeks, deterioration progressed and now Fleur has full-blown disc disease. Her back is humped, she is in pain, and is unable to stand and walk normally.
Crossing over and proprioception
As with many dogs with disc disease, Fleur’s legs move in an uncoordinated manner and one rear leg crosses over the other as she walks. Crossing over occurs because Fleur’s brain doesn’t know where her feet are and can’t keep them out of each other’s way. We call the inability to know where a limb is placed, a proprioceptive deficit.
To confirm a dog has proprioceptive deficits, we support the dog in a standing position, and turn the foot over so that the furry top of the foot is placed on the ground. A dog that knows where its foot is will immediately flip the foot so the pad is on the ground. A dog with proprioceptive deficits leaves its feet with the furry part down. Fleur leaves the furry top of her foot down and makes no attempt to flip it into a normal standing position.
Having a proprioceptive deficit is a serious problem, but, as with most dogs with active disc disease, Fleur has other, perhaps more serious, problems:
• back pain and
• a poor appetite.
In future blogs, we’ll cover more information on disc disease, including what to feed a dog to both stimulate the appetite and promote healing according to Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM). We’ll also cover disc disease diagnosis, treatment with conventional drugs and treatments using Chinese herbs, acupuncture, enzymes, and photon therapy.
Several months ago, a disc in Fleur’s spine deteriorated and began putting pressure on the nerves to her back legs. The last couple weeks, deterioration progressed and now Fleur has full-blown disc disease. Her back is humped, she is in pain, and is unable to stand and walk normally.
Crossing over and proprioception
As with many dogs with disc disease, Fleur’s legs move in an uncoordinated manner and one rear leg crosses over the other as she walks. Crossing over occurs because Fleur’s brain doesn’t know where her feet are and can’t keep them out of each other’s way. We call the inability to know where a limb is placed, a proprioceptive deficit.
To confirm a dog has proprioceptive deficits, we support the dog in a standing position, and turn the foot over so that the furry top of the foot is placed on the ground. A dog that knows where its foot is will immediately flip the foot so the pad is on the ground. A dog with proprioceptive deficits leaves its feet with the furry part down. Fleur leaves the furry top of her foot down and makes no attempt to flip it into a normal standing position.
Having a proprioceptive deficit is a serious problem, but, as with most dogs with active disc disease, Fleur has other, perhaps more serious, problems:
• back pain and
• a poor appetite.
In future blogs, we’ll cover more information on disc disease, including what to feed a dog to both stimulate the appetite and promote healing according to Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM). We’ll also cover disc disease diagnosis, treatment with conventional drugs and treatments using Chinese herbs, acupuncture, enzymes, and photon therapy.
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