Pomeranian can't walk

by Spring
(West Point, UT)

My 4 yr old pom is about 3-4 lbs over weight, just recently she has had problems walking, like she can't get traction on the floor, and her bark isn't loud and screaming like it used to be. Now she can hardly hold herself up and cannot walk at all.

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Pomeranian can't walk

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Jan 22, 2011

continue: re: pomeranian couldn't walk
by: cc

I also made sure he's resting a lot and not barking by keeping him upstairs in our bedroom so he's not distracted by my other dog and things outside. The pain killer also made him sleepy, and the steroids turned him into a hungry hippo. But since I don't want him to have side effects from these two medicine, I stopped the pain killer on the 3rd or 4th day when he's not really in pain any more. I had to watch his pee color to see if there is any blood in it 'cause the platelet count problem might cause internal bleeding, and the steroid could cause urine tract infection. I made sure he had lots water and not too much more food even though he's always hungry due to the steroid side effect. He also needed to get a few more blood tests to see where his platelet counts at. The medicine wasn?t too expensive. But all the vet visits cost around a thousand dollars. The amount of medicine use is different for different dogs. So you have to go to the vet.
I hope my experience could help somewhat.

Jan 22, 2011

re: pomeranian couldn't walk
by: cc

Sept 2010, after a long walk, we went to a family dinner with my dogs. My pom barked too hard at another dog when this other dog stole his food. After we came home, he sat beside me looking up and was shaking. For a week he was not normal. Sometimes walked like a old person, head down, tail down, back arced; had to sit down sometimes, and then couldn't get up; sometimes like wearing skates, legs sliding out, couldn't balance. Couldn't sleep at night, sitting there shaking, front legs had to move around like he's not comfortable. But sometimes he's OK. That's why I didn't take him to the vet right away. I first thought his feet were in pain after a long walk and it would take time to recover. After a week I took him to the vet.
He was totally normal when we went to the vet. I took him to work after. Few hours later, he's shaking again, so we went back to the vet. The vet couldn't figure out what was wrong. They tried to get blood out of his legs to test. The next morning, I found all his legs' skin turn black. The vet suggested I took him to a bigger animal hospital.After all the tests, they said it was his spine behind his neck that bothers him. When they tried turning his head, he screamed. Also, from the blood test, they found his platelet count was zero. They were more concerned with the no-platelet problem 'cause they thought that might cause internal bleeding, and the blood clotting on the spine might cause the pain. They worried more internal bleeding would be a big problem. But I am more concern with the pain on the spine. I thought the platelet count was not normal 'cause he's in pain for a week. Anyway, the pain killer, Tramadol 20 mg caps, helped with his pain, so he could walk and sleep normally. The doctor also gave him Prednisone 5 mg tab, which is an immunosuppressant drug, a type of steroid because they thought it might be his own immune system that's killing his own platelets. This drug could have lots side effect and needs to be wean off after he's recovered.
I think it was the extreme barking that sprained his neck or back, and since he's in pain for a week using his immune system to fight the pain without a good rest. His immune system became abnormal and started killing his platelets too. Since his platelets were all gone, he got really bruised up when they restrained him to get blood out his legs. The pain killer got rid of his pain, so he could walk normally and sleep better. The steroid helped to suppress his immune system and got his platelet count back to normal.

May 10, 2010

Terrible
by: Sandy

How horrible - have you taken her to the vet?

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