Wobbler's Syndrome

[bernermom]

Does anyone have experience with Wobbler's Syndrome in Berners?  Our year-old female Ursi has been diagnosed with this and we're managing--and she's improving--with a course of prednisone, tapering to a very small dose.  We will try tapering her off completely, but if she has a recurrence, we'll put her back on it.  We've had experience with surgery for our other Berners, but that has led us to deciding not to have surgery.  If she can't walk in the future (as she couldn't in late October), we'll have to decide what to do.  The surgeon can't give us any assurance that spinal surgery will help her, and he adds that the recuperation period during which we have to keep her QUIET is many months.  Somehow, this seems impossible for us, and awful for Ursi.

[Big Dog]

Hi BernerMom,

Welcome to our pack - I'm sorry it is this problem that brings you here but we are glad to have you. I'm the publisher of this website so blame me for all the shortcomings!



While I don't have any first hand experience, I've a friend who is a pro in the Swissy (Swiss Mountain Dog) world and from what I understand you folks consider them close relatives. I'll check with her and let you know what I find out.

In the meantime, we'd love to see those stunning dogs of yours in the dog picture gallery. Our Bernese Mountain Dog breed album is empty.

You can upload them to the gallery and I can help you post them from there into this thread if you need any assistance.

Fingers crossed for your pup...

Craig

[Swissy Lover]

As big dog mentioned I have not heard of this in our breed, Swissy's.  Is Wobbler's common in the Berner's?  I know that is something horses get.
What kind of DVM have you seen and where?
Just wondering.

~Swissy Lover

[bernermom]

Hello Swissy Lover!

I don't believe that Wobbler's is particularly common in BMD's.  It seems to hit many different breeds, as a google search reveals.  It has been a sad time, but we are so blessed that Ursi is doing so well.  She's a happy, rambunctious, delightful big baby, and we just take each day as a gift and hope that her paralysis doesn't recur.

She's taking 2.5 mg (I think that's the measurement...very small amount) of prednisone every 36 hours.  I have recently heard about something called Yucca Intensive that is a natural plant-based anti-inflammatory; I'm considering giving her this and cutting down further on the prednisone. 

The only evidence of her affliction is her rather wobbly walk, and less endurance than she had pre-disease.  Reading about other dogs, especially those that have lost their battle with disease, makes us very fortunate indeed.

I hope you're having great luck with your Swissies--and great joy.     Carol

[huskyluv]

I have a siberian husky who recently collasped and was paralyzed from the waist down.  We took him to a specialist in Albuquerque NM and they operated on him.  He sat up on the second day after surgery and walked on day 10.  We are now almost a month out from surgery and he is doing great.  There is a lot of very technical information on wobblers on the web.  From what I have read it occurs in two ways - one where the vertebre in the neck is misaligned and compresses the spinal cord and the second is when there is redundant ligament tissue around the vertebre which compresses the spinal cord.  My dog had the second.  He is eight years old.  There is a lot of hope for dogs with wobblers as the surgical techniques to treat the problem are very good these days.  We were lucky in that the specialist who performed the surgery had a long history of dealing with the syndrome and had worked at some top vetrinary hospitals and schools.  He also had a top notch animal physio on staff.  So it doesn't always take months for them to walk after surgery.  Although our boy still has a way to go with his balance, he is doing great.  I am so glad we did the surgery rather than put him down.

[elistabeth]

We have a presa canario, Hooch, who was diagnosed with wobblers syndrome at 5 months. We had always known that there was something wrong with him as he'd always been very clumsy and would struggle or just even refuse to get up a lot of the time. By the time he was diagnosed, he was at the stage where he was almost completely paralysed. He weighed about 9 stone at the time.

After much deliberation we decided we had nothing to lose by him being operated on. He had surgery when he was about 7 months old. After about 6 weeks of complete paralysis following the op, he was able to start getting up and walking about with some support and from then on got better and better until he started to pretty much manage like a normal dog. However, after several months of near normality he started to deteriorate rapidly and before long he was completely paralyed in all 4 legs again.

After another mylogram we were told that the next 2 vertebrae down were causing the problems and that there was nothing they could do for him. They wanted me to have him put to sleep while he was still on the operating table. I told them no way and took him home. We spent the next 3 months nursing a (by now) 12 stone paralyed dog. He couldn't even lift his own head, and  life revolved around him - 24 hours a day.  My husband would come home from work and lie on the floor for hours cuddling him. The tip of Hooch's tail would just bang constantly on the floor in delight. We knew that we would have to have him put to sleep eventually but could never bring ourselves to do it.

We researched constantly but could find little in the UK that could be done to help. We looked at all sorts of trolleys and hoists just so we could get him up off the floor for a bit. While researching the name 'flexicose' kept coming up and we didn't really believe any of the miracle stories we were reading about it but decided to give it a go.

The results were amazing. within several weeks, he was able to shift himself from one side to the other on the floor and started to try to scramble onto his feet. We bought him a decent harness and used to lift him and carry him outside for a while (literally took the dog for a drag!) He loved it and he was able to start supporting his weight on his legs a little.

A week or so later he was able to start taking steps while we held him up, and within weeks he was able to just take off up the garden with us struggling to keep up.  Its over a year later now and he is leaping around like he should be. Hes a little stiff in the mornings but once he is up there is no stopping him. He even jumps up the door now and lets himself out (We had never seen him jump before) He can keep up with our other dog Scooby no problem. The one thing he has never learnt to do is cock his leg but he is just over 2 now so I suppose there is still time.

We know that its the flexicose that is helping because sometimes if we forget to give it to him for a few days we notice he slows down a little, but within a day or 2 of catching up with his dosage he is back up to scratch. I cannot praise flexicose enough. You may find it hard to believe but I tell everybody about it.

When I think of all the poor people who have had there pets put down without knowing about this product i feel so angry that vets don't recommend it. Its much cheaper than the medication they prescribe and I think 1000% more effective. Its all natural ingredients, high in liquid glucosamine (the body absorbs far more than if you take tablet form) and humans can also take it, as well as horses and other animals. It costs us £12.00 per month for Hooch's dosage.

We spent £5000 on Hooch's surgery in total and urge anyone to try this product before going ahead and lining the vets pockets on extortionate priced treatment that may not work.

Good look with your dog. I hope all goes well. Keep us posted.
Liz

[bernermom]

That is great news about Hooch!  Our Ursi is happy, healthy, and bouncing around like an 85-lb., 2-yr-old girl should be!  Her maintenance dose of prednisone is 2.5mg every 36 hours; every few months she gets slower and seems to be uncomfortable, so we do a one-week high dose and quick taper down (40mg/day down to 2.5/day over a week) and she responds well.  Our breeder gave us a new (unrelated) Berner puppy who is now 4 mo. old -- Berta -- and she is a joy and a handful.  She and Ursi are best buddies, and I believe Berta keeps Ursi moving well.

One day I will learn to upload photos, and you will be able to enjoy our beautiful girls!

Carol (bernermom)

[Big Dog]

Hi Carol,

So nice to see you here again and glad of the good news of Ursi and new family member Berta.

I'm happy to help with any issues you are having uploading photos to the dog picture gallery.

If you really get stuck you can PM me and arrange to e-mail me with some and I'll post them for you.

Craig