Off to the Neurologist....

pbois · Apr 23, 2014

Hey all! Well, tomorrow I take Bolt to see a neurologist for some issues that popped up in March. We noticed one day he was favoring his left rear leg and he seemed pretty painful and was non weight bearing so we did a little cursory exam on him and couldn't find any areas that elicited pain. So the following day we took him in and our Vet came up with the same results on his exam.....no obvious areas of pain. We decided to take an x-Ray to look around and saw no obvious abnormalities in his hips or hind legs, but did discover he had a hemi-vertebrae. So in my Vets attempt to connect the dots he wonders if his issue is stemmed in some compression in his spinal column that resulted in rear leg lameness. Now since mid march he seems to be back to his normal self, minus a little abnormality in his gait when he gets into a run, but my Vet recommended to go see a Neurologist to see what she had to say and get any possible spinal problems taken care of as best we could earlier rather than later.

So off we go tomorrow.......I'll let y'all know how it all turns out.

trishkidd24 · Apr 23, 2014

Good Luck... best wishes to you and Bolt!

BellaMayBulldog · Apr 23, 2014

My Bella has hemi-vertebrae, we found during an UTI X-ray, by chance. She does swim therapy and land therapy to build up the muscles around her back in hopes this will help in the future. Please let us know what the Neurologist says! We will be thinking of your baby!!!!

~ Loving life with our Frenchie

Cbrugs · Apr 24, 2014

Wish you guys the best of luck. Keep us posted!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

2bullymama · Apr 24, 2014

How did the appointment go?

davidh · Apr 24, 2014

Hoping for the best for your baby.

pbois · Apr 24, 2014

Things went pretty good today. We met with the Neurologist this morning and she conducted her neurological exam and found that he had minor deficits in his rear legs. She said they see their fair share of bulldogs, french or english, and said that the abnormal vertebrae are "normal" for the breed and some have issues and others never do. She told us that since he is moving around well and painless that there was no urgent need to pursue any other diagnostics immediately, but if we wanted some questions answered to see if there is already some minor compression of his spinal column then the next step would be an MRI. She said she didn't expect to see anything dramatic since his movement is good, but it would help us in the future if he starts to have additional problems. So we opted to leave him for the MRI as we thought it would be a good baseline to have. She is to call us tomorrow with the outcome of the images. He was barely able to come home this evening as he didn't agree very well to the anesthesia and had several vomiting episodes, but luckily they released him to us and he is happily snoozing on the couch now.

The nurses fell in love with him and didn't want him to leave and he had another frenchie in the cage beside him named Marge.

2bullymama · Apr 25, 2014

How do you not fall in love with these sweet babies! best of luck.... hugs to you all

pbois · Apr 26, 2014

Alright, spoke with the Neurologist yesterday and she emailed me her report and here are a few excerpts:

Assessment:
Diagnosis:
Congenital hemivertebrae mid-caudal thoracic spine, with associated disc protrusion. Resulting spinal cord compression is generally mild.

Plan:
No treatment at this time. Would like to recheck Bolt in 6 months to repeat his neurological exam and evaluate for any progression.

Comments:
I would not recommend surgical intervention at this time, as Bolt's neurological signs are mild. The potential preventative benefit of surgery for vertebral malformations in bulldogs is very questionable, and surgery can carry significant risk. Fortunately, he is nearing skeletal maturity, and most bulldogs do not experience significant worsening after this point. If he does get worse in the future, we can always consider decompressive surgery for him.

2bullymama · Apr 26, 2014

pbois said:
Alright, spoke with the Neurologist yesterday and she emailed me her report and here are a few excerpts:

Assessment:
Diagnosis:
Congenital hemivertebrae mid-caudal thoracic spine, with associated disc protrusion. Resulting spinal cord compression is generally mild.

Plan:
No treatment at this time. Would like to recheck Bolt in 6 months to repeat his neurological exam and evaluate for any progression.

Comments:
I would not recommend surgical intervention at this time, as Bolt's neurological signs are mild. The potential preventative benefit of surgery for vertebral malformations in bulldogs is very questionable, and surgery can carry significant risk. Fortunately, he is nearing skeletal maturity, and most bulldogs do not experience significant worsening after this point. If he does get worse in the future, we can always consider decompressive surgery for him.

I'm taking that as good news.... how are you with it?

pbois · Apr 27, 2014

2bullymama said:
I'm taking that as good news.... how are you with it?

I'm good with it. I think my husband and I just wanted to make sure we shouldn't be doing something now as a preventative and it seems we got that answer. Most wouldn't know anything was wrong with him unless you really watched him run and it's clear he kicks out his legs a little oddly.......almost like a little skip/hop.

The neurologist was extremely nice and very informative. She said she sees plenty of bulldogs in general so it seemed she was very knowledgable about the spinal issues of the breed. Her opinion was that it would be hard to find a Frenchie without some sort of abnormal vertebrae......it all depends on the location and if whether of not those vertebrae ever cause a problem.

Maybe I'll post his x-Ray if my I-pad cooperates with me.....

2bullymama · Apr 27, 2014

pbois said:
I'm good with it. I think my husband and I just wanted to make sure we shouldn't be doing something now as a preventative and it seems we got that answer. Most wouldn't know anything was wrong with him unless you really watched him run and it's clear he kicks out his legs a little oddly.......almost like a little skip/hop.

The neurologist was extremely nice and very informative. She said she sees plenty of bulldogs in general so it seemed she was very knowledgable about the spinal issues of the breed. Her opinion was that it would be hard to find a Frenchie without some sort of abnormal vertebrae......it all depends on the location and if whether of not those vertebrae ever cause a problem.

Maybe I'll post his x-Ray if my I-pad cooperates with me.....

My Bulldog, Banks, has a horrible spine... fused vertebrae and full with arthritis, all her life and she is 9 yrs old this September. we use pain management and laser therapy to help her and it keeps her active without any side effects

BellaMayBulldog · May 2, 2014

Did she mention therapy? Bella's vertebrae was found by chance, no symptoms. So we didn't need a neuro consult, but in my research I found pet therapy helped. So Bella swims every other week and does land therapy every other week. Alternating. This helps strengthen the muscles around the spine, allowing them to take the brunt of weight. It also helps the rear muscles, since they tend to be weaker on front string bully breeds. We also had to get her on a diet. She has lost six pounds and looks amazing. She does doggy Pilates exercise at home with us. Standing on a peanut. Push-ups. Kind of silly but I swear it has made an amazing difference in her agility.

The biggest thing in vertebrae problems is the brain sending messages to the legs. You want the connection to be strong way before the loss of connection comes. The training and exercises also helps strengthen this. I have done tons of research. If you wanna chat I am available anytime!

~ Loving life with our Frenchie