Socks is right around the corner from having his 12th bday! but old age has crept up on him in a not so graceful manor. When socks was just under a year old the vet diagnosed him with hip dysplasia.Ever since then i kept him well exercised and on a regiment of glucosamin pills.He had his occasional flare ups of pain but nothing ever to serious.
Well the other night Socks was whining ever 5 min, something at first i didnt pay to much mind to as he has learned to manipulate me by doing just that (smart little guy). but this time he didnt stop and was having a hard time walking. his rear legs were just not moving right and he would just randomly drop.it made me cry and im a grown man...
so i took socks to the vet the very next morning ( a new vet we started seeing about 5 years ago). he did the "paw" test where they flip the paw upside down and the dog naturally will lift right side up, socks wouldnt do that all the time and the doc was afraid it was something neurological and recommended xrays. i agreed.
with the xrays done the doc called me back to look at them. he said the good news is socks doesnt have hip dysplasia..
ok.. but he had a narrowing of the spine down towards his tail.the small holes that the nerves exit the vertebra was also smaller as they went back,calcified from arthritis? he was sure this was what was causing the problem. so he put him on some steroids.now the vet directed my attention to his hip area, the "wing" portion of his pelvis to be more exact. the bone looked all "moth eaten" (vets words) and he said that was typical of bone cancer... i was speechless.... he then said but it has some non typical associations that bone cancer doesnt have. he said its crossing a joint and bone cancer doesnt do that and also his lungs are clear and typically bone cancer spreads to the lungs very fast. all that with how long i told him this has been going on (his odd walking and pain) the vet doesnt think its cancer and said bone cancer is a fast moving disease. he wants me to bring him back in 2-3 weeks for more xrays. he said if it was cancer it would of spread by then. i asked if it wasnt that what could it be, he said bad blood flow etc. but we will wait till the xrays.
so here i sit trying to make socks as comfortable as possible. he is doing better but still walking weird (more then normal). i guess i wrote all this to share and to hear any opinions you might have. in the end it comes down to the fact im scared.
thanks George
and I hope that he gets to feeling better.
