Pets
In reply to the discussion: Now I am in that most difficult of places. [View all]milestogo
(16,829 posts)The next day I went to the vet (my original long-time vet clinic) and they said it was a vestibular disturbance. It hasn't happened again. He was walking fine later that night. I guess its not uncommon in older dogs. But as I understand it, this can happen once or many times and there is no underlying pathology. I am guessing that it was related to the gabapentin or cerenia he was on at the time. I don't think they know what causes it.
The original vet is on leave of absence during the pandemic. It was one of her colleagues who was going to operate on him to remove the mass but when she put him under anesthesia he spiked a fever. That's when he was transferred to specialty clinic/ER clinic #1 where they removed his pancreas and he stayed for six days.
The day after he was released I took him to specialty clinic/ER clinic #2 which is a mile from my apartment and saw the internist there. She never seemed that interested in treating him. It was only last Friday she told me that she thought it was in his best interests to be put down. The insulin wasn't working, but she kept increasing it. She didn't know why his hind legs were weak, and she showed no interest in working it up, even though she is at a specialty clinic with lots of available diagnostics and veterinary specialists.
Monday I took him back to specialty clinic/ER clinic #1 where he was going to start chemo, but the oncologist diagnosed the fever/bladder infection. The next morning I emailed her all my worries and she told me I should bring him in to their sister clinic which is on the other side of town (well its 15 miles instead of 4). The vets have a "home" clinic and work at either one. But the west side clinic is big enough to have a CAT scanner. They have a critical care specialist, an internist, an orthopedic surgeon - well those are the ones who have seen him so far. He's in really good hands. The internist at the #2 clinic seemed to resent that I was bringing him to #1 clinic, I guess they are competitors.
It is a somewhat complicated case, but whats clear is that the hind leg weakness started suddenly. We had an election last Tuesday. I walked down the block to vote early in the morning. Over the course of the day I walked my dog around the block 3 times - I remember because there was a guy outside registering voters, and I talked to him every time. So thats about a mile total. He was slow, but not showing signs of pain or wanting to lie down. The next day he just wanted to lie down outside. That made the vets look for something besides neuropathy.
I live in Madison WI, which has a great vet school. Madison is great city, so lots of people who come here for professional training never want to leave... so we have lots of great vets and specialists, besides at the UW vet school. The vet school had a COVID-19 case very early on, so they closed the clinic to new patients the 3rd week of March. Otherwise I would probably have gone there and also received very good care.