# Wobblers Syndrome



## Holly Huryn (Mar 12, 2008)

Anyone ever have a dog with Wobblers Syndrome? My lab is progressivley getting worse. And it's exactly what the symptoms are - the wobbling, the neck being held at a low angle. It is very scary, I have a vet appt next week for blood work but after watching her tonight I took to the internet and came up with wobblers. I don't think bloodwork is the way to go, I'm thinking xray???


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Wobblers is best diagnosed with MRI, though Dr. Google probably should have told you that... :roll: Radiographs are not very helpful because they will not show the spinal cord. Remind me where you're at again and I can help you find a veterinary neurologist.


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## Tammy St. Louis (Feb 17, 2010)

i had a dobe with wobblers, very sad disease, she was semi diagnosed with a exray of her neck , sent to a specilist, they saw a few vertabrae tilted, the ones that indicate wobblers, but couldnt diagnose for certain without a MRI , i let it go, it seemed to go away for over a yr no issues then it came back with a vengance , i just put her to sleep a month or so ago , she was only 7 yrs old 
we did acupunture on her which helped ALOT


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## Holly Huryn (Mar 12, 2008)

LOL, yes, Dr.Google did tell me that!  
I just feel awful right now, she is my boys dog and I feel so helpless. I live in the middle of British Columbia, I think the closest neurologist is in Vancouver.


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## Tammy St. Louis (Feb 17, 2010)

try exrays and send them out, that gave me at least a clue


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Radiographs are not wrong to do, but if it's likely Wobblers (and I sure can't tell from the internet), they will not be able to definitely diagnose it otherwise. A contrast radiograph called a myelogram can be done but those are usually about half the price of an MRI and I've seen them cause seizures. So the MRI is typically the gold standard (saying this as a non-neurologist). But having said that, they will want to run pre-anesthetic bloodwork anyways, so that's likewise not wrong, particularly with your dog being a lab and not being a total poster child breed for the disease.


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## Carolyn Herle (Dec 29, 2009)

Holly,
My sister had her year old Great Dane operated on for Wobbler's in Calgary. The procedure enlarged the area for the spinal cord in 3 vertebrae and was a successful surgery. This was 7 years ago and she paid $10, 000.:sad:

Carolyn




Holly Huryn said:


> LOL, yes, Dr.Google did tell me that!
> I just feel awful right now, she is my boys dog and I feel so helpless. I live in the middle of British Columbia, I think the closest neurologist is in Vancouver.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

My last Doberman had Wobblers. This was quite a few years ago, and the treatment/diagnosis techniques may be better now. At the time though the vet did just diagnose based on symptoms, breed, and xrays, he mentioned an MRI for final diagnosis but felt it was really more risk than it was worth considering Stryker's age. I opted to not go the surgery route, the risks and recovery time vs the time it might buy him just weren't IMO a good option at his age. We treated with Rimadyl and he was good for 1-1.5 years after diagnosis. My vet said what would happen is he would start to show symptoms, then plateau, stay that way for awhile, and then start to really go downhill fast and that would be the end. And that's exactly what happened, but he did stay at that plateau for about 1.5 years before the final downhill slide. Physically I think he could have made it longer than he did, but once his body began to fail (he was slipping on the floors, falling down, some minor incontinence, etc) he couldn't handle it mentally, and I let him go.

As a side note the Rimadyl never did have any negative effects on him liver wise, we ran blood work once in awhile to check. In addition though, that is what was buying him more time. So put him down right away for the Wobblers, or buy him some time and risk liver failure, which never did happen, the choice was obvious to me.


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## Anne Jones (Mar 27, 2006)

I thought it was basically a dobe diesease. (young horses, too) All the dogs that I have known thru the years Dx with it have all been dobes.

I'd never hear of other breeds with it. Interesting.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Dobermans are the poster child breed to get it (Great Danes get the juvenile form, which is slightly different), but other large breeds can as well. So on a dog who was not a young Dane or older Dobe, I would be hesitant to jump right to Wobbler's. Basically my advice would be to see a board certified neurologist.


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## Holly Huryn (Mar 12, 2008)

Went to the vet - bloodwork is done but results are not back until tomorrow. Other than that, he see's nothing obvious. They did see her do her wobble, disoriented thing and suggest if nothing is on the bloodwork, to get to a neurologist. He also told me with Wobblers, there is pain. Did anyone see that in their dogs?? She shows no pain at all.


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## Carolyn Herle (Dec 29, 2009)

The great dane showed no sign of pain. He would be walking along and just collapse in the hind end and hit the floor. 
Some labs have a pretty high pain tolerance.
Just a question-have you been doing any painting lately i.e. cement paint? Years ago one of my Bouviers began collapsing and was disoriented but the smart vet asked about paint and sure enough I had been painting the basement floor.

Carolyn



Holly Huryn said:


> Went to the vet - bloodwork is done but results are not back until tomorrow. Other than that, he see's nothing obvious. They did see her do her wobble, disoriented thing and suggest if nothing is on the bloodwork, to get to a neurologist. He also told me with Wobblers, there is pain. Did anyone see that in their dogs?? She shows no pain at all.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

Holly Huryn said:


> He also told me with Wobblers, there is pain. Did anyone see that in their dogs?? She shows no pain at all.


With my Dobe the first sign was actually him occasionally yelping during bitework. Happened maybe once a month, if that. I thought he'd been stepped on, jammed, etc until I was decoying one day and he yelped while on the bite. 

That was the only sign he was in pain though, the next symptom I saw was him having trouble navigating stairs.


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## Audrey Pleiss (May 8, 2009)

Before you resign yourself to Wobblers, at least get the X-rays. The vet was positive my dobie had wobblers (and I was also), but she didn't. When they X-rayed what they found was a bad hip. The ball had popped out of the socket, causing classic wobblers symptons. They menuvered the ball back into place and along with steroids to heal the inflamation, lived another 4 years. The vet x-rayed her entire skelatol system. The vet also showed me x-rays of a wobblers dobie. Really sad. I have heard of gold beads helping. If diagnosed, something to look into, and also acupuncture.


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## Tammy St. Louis (Feb 17, 2010)

my dobe was very painfull expecailly in the end, alot of her wobbling though was in her front end, they told me her vertabrae that were messed up were higher ( or lower) than most wobblers cases which mostly affect the back end, my friend also had a dobe w ith wobblers and said thier was no pain at all ever,, even when the dog fell ,


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## Holly Huryn (Mar 12, 2008)

I spoke with the vet when I picked her up and he then said to me that the symptoms do indicate wobblers, but because there is no pain - he can't say yes or no. I asked about doing x-rays, he said it probably wouldn't show anything, we'd be better off with a mri (which they don't have up here). He did say that her red blood count is at 79% which is really high, but again, no other symptoms. We'll see what the blood work says tomorrow. Nope, no painting here. sigh


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## Jennifer Coulter (Sep 18, 2007)

Sorry for you and the kids Holly. Hope something can be done.


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## Holly Huryn (Mar 12, 2008)

Thanks Jennifer. The bloodwork came back - everything indicates cancer. We have to get an mri to I guess to find it.


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## Carolyn Herle (Dec 29, 2009)

Holly,
Sorry to hear this diagnosis. It sucks.

Carolyn



Holly Huryn said:


> Thanks Jennifer. The bloodwork came back - everything indicates cancer. We have to get an mri to I guess to find it.


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## Jennifer Coulter (Sep 18, 2007)

Holly Huryn said:


> Thanks Jennifer. The bloodwork came back - everything indicates cancer. We have to get an mri to I guess to find it.


Aw crap, sorry.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

I'm sorry, Holly...did they say what kind of cancer?


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## Holly Huryn (Mar 12, 2008)

Well, it's not wobblers and it may not be cancer although they are finally doing an ultrasound today.
She has a very rare blood disorder in which her marrow produces too many red blood cells. They want to check for tumors, but think it's unlikely that they will find anything. At the end of today, I will have all the info and whether or not this is something we can let the dog live with. sigh


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Holly Huryn said:


> Well, it's not wobblers and it may not be cancer although they are finally doing an ultrasound today.
> She has a very rare blood disorder in which her marrow produces too many red blood cells. They want to check for tumors, but think it's unlikely that they will find anything. At the end of today, I will have all the info and whether or not this is something we can let the dog live with. sigh



Please let us know how it goes today.


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