Beckett’s pain is in her neck. Not surprising considering she took out that post by running straight into it.
Beckett has all the “classic” signs of cervical pain – reluctance to jump, pain when coming down stairs, stiffness when turning her head in one direction - and also a not so classic but not unheard of sign – difficulty eating hard or crunchy food.
Yesterday at the vet’s office, we spent almost a half an hour evaluating Beckett’s responses to various physical tests. This was all hampered by Beckett’s “normal” attitude at the vet’s which is a low-hung head, hunched shoulders, and a general desire to avoid Matt at all costs. I don’t know who I feel sorrier for – Matt or Beckett – Beckett who just generally hates going to the vet’s or Matt since he’s never done anything to Beckett to warrant the attitude.
Matt did what he (and probably others) calls the “Jane Fonda” test where he takes her muzzle and moves her head in all four directions – up, down, and side to side. No indication of pain or stiffness (or no more than her general resistance to Matt). He then did the same thing with a food lure. Nothing clear-cut but perhaps a bit of hesitation to turn as tightly to her right.
Then he took her to a bigger area and started to lure her into circles in both directions. She wasn’t cooperating and so I told him that I have that trick trained. Matt said, “of course you do” since he’s found that I have a lot of behaviors on cue which have helped in the past. He had me circle her alternately in both directions a couple of times and then had her do three circles clockwise and then three counterclockwise. Bingo! She could do the first three and then once counterclockwise but then she pulled out of it and sat down. I could get her to do it but it wasn’t as tight a circle as in the other direction.
We went back to the exam room and Matt palpated the front of Beckett’s chest and found that she was painful on the right side of her prosturnum, so we are assuming that is where she took the brunt of the blow. Matt said that it’s possible she chipped something off a bone in that area (the point of her shoulder or prosturnum) but he feels that it is more of a deep bruising issue as she moves soundly and was not really lame in the past two weeks since the accident except for the first day or two.
So then came the discussion of whether to do x-rays or not and we decided not, as a picture would only confirm what we’re sure of now.
With the diagnosis in place, we went over the treatment protocol. Beckett has been on Deramaxx (NSAID anti-imflamatory) for two weeks but cervical injuries respond better to steroids. Unfortunately, the two don’t play well together, causing ulcerations of the stomach and GI. Ideally, we’d like to have her off the Deramaxx for 10 days but that isn’t possible with her pain level. So we started a potent stomach-protecting drug (Cytotec) right away. And I had gotten the heads up the day before that they may need her off the Deramaxx so I didn’t give her the morning dose that day, meaning she’d already had a head start of eliminating it from her system. Matt dispensed the dexamethasone injectable for me to take home and I will be talking with him or his tech every day for the next five days. If Beckett needs the injection today, we’ll give it to her, but ideally we’d like to give her another 24 hours off the Deramaxx (and on the Cytotec) to help protect her stomach. I am to continue her Tramadol TID and keep her quiet – no running, jumping, or stairs - which is no problem as she doesn’t feel much like doing any of those things.
The Dexasone should give her immediate pain relief and can last up to 72 hours. That is great except that the 72 hour mark occurs during the weekend and this weekend I am on the road for dog shows and not able to run to the office and get another injection should she need it. So Matt gave me two doses but we are both hopeful that she’ll only need one. But better to be prepared in case!
So short-term pain relief for Beckett is now in the works. Hopefully the Dexasone will calm down the injured cervical vertebrae and they will start to heal. Long-term I am still looking at taking her to the chiropractic vet when she has a bit less pain and see if there is any realignment needing done. So fingers are crossed here that Beckett will soon be out of pain and on the road to recovery.
Before I left Matt told me about another client whose young German shepherd ran into a broken off post. He hit the end of the post with his chest. It knocked his breath out of him but his owner said he sat up and shook it off almost immediately and then continued to run and play. About five minutes later, the dog keeled over and died. The blow to his chest bruised his heart and killed him, much like when kids get hit in the chest with a baseball and die. Too very sad and, yes, this scenario did cross my mind when Beckett’s accident first occurred. Guess she and I were very, very lucky.
