X-ray Too Early?

[NoClueWhatsover]

Hi,

Was wondering if any of you could offer an unbiased opinion on our situation? Our dog, who we've had several years started showing (what I took to be) signs of discomfort, that got slowly worse over a few months.
E.g refusing to walk on certain surfaces, changing sleeping position, licking paws, not jumping into car, being grumpy etc. I monitored her once I noticed, got her an online behaviour referral (she is nervous of people and dogs) who suggested it might be pain related and suggested supplements and to see the vet. She improved on supplements - who's stress at vets stopped me going immediately - but then the improvements stopped. We took her to a vet who gave her antiinflammatories which did nothing. Took her back 2 weeks later (dog hating every minute) and vet offered another 3 week of the same drug or x-ray to check for arthritis and fractures. We opted for the x-ray, despite the cost and being worried about how she would take it - for me I wanted to know if there was anything causing it that we could help. Anyway, experience at the vet was traumatic, a week later and our dog is still coughing from the tubes. They didn't find anything. In between both vet appointments, I changed her walking routine (little and regular), sleeping places and tried to make the house more older dog friendly. This seemed to have worked to help her. But my partner is now blaming me for putting her through the whole vet experience, almost as if I have made the problem up. Despite 2 professionals agreeing that she was showing signs of stiffness. He has never had a dog before and refuses to find out more about them. As I write this, I feel that I did the right thing - or at least for the right reason - to stop her suffering, but as we are no further forward ( - yet, going back to the old vets miles away where she is more comfortable after a month with a new antiinflammatory), his answer is, it did a lot more harm than good. I can see his point and agree, but in my experience, animals aren't straight forward and nothing is guaranteed, so you have to try what you can to help. Not be willfully ignorant. Is this a case of him having his head in the sand or me being too quick to find something wrong? I would normally put it down to differing opinions, but our dog is relying on us to look after her!

Your Partner is looking at this with hindsight but you have to make a decision for the welfare of your dog on the advice of the professional at the time and sometimes some distress & side effects is just unavoidable but is short term.

Animals tend to hide signs of pain as would get picked off so if you aren't aware of subtle signs of chronic pain then it's easy to overlook or attribute to something else, just because the x-ray didn't show anything significant doesn't make all the other symptoms of pain no longer exist.

It's possible that the issue isn't bone related to show up on x-ray or is even in a different area and current strain is being caused by altered gait, trapped nerve etc. My dog had sore wrist/lameness but wasn't until saw orthopedic vet that they discovered the original problem was further up shoulder area, which wasn't xray-ed first time.

A Veterinary physiotherapist maybe helpful as they often do home visits or even if at rehab centre is much less stressful than the vets. They have longer to do a more through check over of gait & soft tissue/muscles to help pinpoint problem areas to treat and can then feed info back to vets to help tailor treatment.
My arthritic oldie see's one regularly to help keep her mobile and they laser her to reduce inflamation & pain.

Even though is not diagnosed arthritis you'll likely find much is still relavent with the management for mobility & pain relief.
caninearthritis.co.uk/

Well I’d have taken her to the vet as soon as she was limping, so I’d have done x-rays months earlier than you did...so no, I don’t think it was too early to do.

@tabulahrasa , sorry didn't make it clear, she wasn't limping, the signs have been very subtle e.g. one leg looking stiffer when she gets up. I think if I hadn't been downstairs with her alot at night and noticing that I might have not joined it up. Also, if she had been a different dog and not terrified of the vet or around other dogs, I would have got her in earlier. Was trying to avoid any unnecessary traumatic visit if it was a case of her naturally slowing due to age. @ScattyHattie I follow CAM and went through their 5 signs (think it's 5), made a list of every sign, eg. Postural, behavioural, gait, etc. I even got videos of her running and walking 'before' and 'after'. Sent them with the list and explainatory notes the vets before the appointment to reduce confusion and discomfort on her part. The vet didn't even look at them, hence go back to the old vet. The physiotherapist sounds like a good option to consider though.

Thank you both!

Sorry - that probably sounded nippier than I meant it to, I’d woken up needing painkillers and was having a browse while they kicked in.

What I probably should have put is -

my last two fosters plus the last dog I owned (before my current one) had joint issues, so I’d have gone much quicker than that, and yes I’d definitely have done the x-ray. X-rays are the cheapest scan you can have for potential joint/arthritic issues so you’re as well doing that first and then it’s done with and you know whether it’s something that shows up in x-rays or if you need to carry on investigating.

Not at all, I am feeling overly guilty!

Thanks, at least the x-rays have ruled out a break, and the routine changes seemed to have helped, so are better informed for further investigations.