Cocker spaniel - neck pain and limping

[Changing70]

Hello,

I have a 10 year old cocker spaniel who has started yelping and panting a lot over the weekend.

Took him to the vets and he is now booked in for X-rays next week as well as being dispensed two lots of painkillers three times a day.

The vet asked us if we have insurance (we do) as there vet surgery may need some extra support.

The vet thinks it is the dogs neck and possibly the spine that is the issue.

Poor dog is now limping after the vets and appears to be in a very high level of pain. He can only lie on his bed and will not move.

Any experience of this? I am so worried. I can’t bear to see him in pain, especially if this could be long term.

If it is the neck/spine as the rest to refer to an animal chiropractor. Check the ramp register to find someone local. A lot of insurance companies cover complimentary care.

Hope the pain medications have had some effect now, if not best to contact vets again.

My dog twinged a spinal disc and luckily the on call vet was the orthopaedic surgeon. He advised strict rest & to visit him again after a few days. As dog felt fine on medication he put on crate rest (she’d be leaping off sofa if free) for month & then restricted exercise plan which gives time for it to heal reducing chance of disc bulging or prolapse. If still in pain I guess it would’ve needed diagnostics on spine to see what was going on.

I would wait till have X-ray & better idea of cause before seeing a chiropractor though they need the vets consent to treat anyway.

Ask for a referral to a neurologist but be prepared for it to be very expensive so I hope you’ve got good insurance... my boy is recovering from spinal surgery due to complications from an infection on his spine. The initial signs were intermittent limping on his front legs and pain which was hard to pinpoint - the vet initially assumed it was a soft tissue injury as there was nothing obviously wrong with his front legs and prescribed painkillers and rest but when it didn’t respond (and started getting worse), we got a referral to the specialist vets.

Dogs are very stoic so if he’s showing signs of pain he must be really feeling it so I’d try to get to the bottom of what’s causing the problem sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t mess around with neck/spine problems as the consequences of the wrong treatment could be catastrophic