Hope & Mystery with Lucinda the Dog

Several of you have asked for a Lucinda update, so here it is. 

Monday was a month since her episode of paralysis. Since then, she’s had no more. She’s joined Kobe dog on short walks each evening more than a week ago. Yesterday morning, she joined Kobe for a short morning walk too. She was positively bouncy last weekend – her old self. And because, four weeks ago, I was convinced I might not even have her going into October, I’m so unbelievably hopeful and grateful. 

But cautious. 

Her lack of paralysis in the last four weeks has greatly confused the vets, and as a result, they can’t answer the question I want most answered: does Lucy have Degenerative Myelopath (DM), in which case she has a fatal disease, or does she have Intervertebral Disk Disease (IVDD), in which case she has an injury that may heal through limited physical activity (or may need surgery eventually)?   

Right now, we’re leaning towards IVDD. But we could be wrong. Really, only time will tell, because we can’t afford a $4000 (or more!) MRI. 

Here’s why she might have IVDD instead of DM:

• No paralysis in a month. If she had DM, she should have had another paralysis episode by now.
   
• The paralysis happened less than 48 hours after she had played with Bishop, a full-grown 70 pound or so puppy. He’s about a year old, and he and Lucinda love each other beyond words. Bishop has never, ever been aggressive with her or tried to mount her. Most of their play is intense romping bitey face. But the romps are intense, with some body crashes during zoomies, and Lucy is ready for a rest long before Bishop. It’s unusual for paralysis to show up so long after the fact, but it is possible. 
   
• She wouldn’t lay completely on her side for most of the first two weeks. She would lay in a ball, or lay on her stomach, like a sphinx, but she wouldn’t lay on either side and did no rolly pollies on her back. It wasn’t clear to people that didn’t know her, but it was clear to me: she was uncomfortable. DM is not supposed to cause pain – it causes numbness.  
   
• More than two weeks ago, she snapped at Kobe dog twice when he barely laid his head on her back. There is no way he hurt her – we’ve touched her there repeatedly to make sure. But she clearly did not want him to even dare to apply any pressure back there. It reminded me that she’s snapped at two or three other dogs in the last year that she didn’t know, ones her size or bigger, something she NEVER did in her first six years. I’d written off that change in behavior to pandemic social distancing – I thought I had accidentally taught her not to be friendly to new dogs. But maybe she’s been sensitive to her back for a while now.
   
• Lucinda has always whimpered or yelped at some point when she’s chewing her back left paw during a mani pedi. She moves her leg more than her head to do the chewing – she can bring the foot over completely to her mouth. And about once a week, when she is chewing that foot, she’ll whimper or yelp. Dogs don’t yelp unless they are in a LOT of pain – they will put up with a great deal of discomfort before they ever show signs that something hurts. The emergency vet said the paralysis was worst in her left leg, and you will recall the observation of my regular vet made about her left leg.

Here’s why she might have DM instead of IVDD:

• She recovered from her paralysis in a few hours. That’s typical of DM, not IVDD.
   
• The paralysis happened suddenly – Lucy got up for breakfast and during her meal, was just fine. She laid down in the living room like always – and two hours later, couldn’t get up.
   
• The way her back curved as she tried to use her back legs, and the way she dragged her legs, was textbook DM, according to the emergency vet.
   
• If it’s an injury, it would be so unusual for paralysis to show up so many hours after the supposed injury (in this case, about 40 hours later).

We still haven’t done the genetic test to see if she carries the DM gene. I wanted to wait for Stefan to get home to help me (it’s a bit complicated) and in this week since he’s been back, he’s been busy. We’ll do that this weekend. 

Lucinda went off all pain meds and muscle relaxants more than two weeks ago. She now plays a little with Kobe for a few minutes each evening, to the point that I recently had to tell her two days ago to back off – SHE was getting too bouncy. The vet said it’s up to me how physical I’m going to let her be, though he said not letting her play with dogs her size or bigger was probably a good idea (which breaks my heart, because we love Bishop and her other bouncy buddy, Beauregard, so, so much). 

I’ve decided I’ll keep her on these short morning and evening walks, and I’ll try her on her usual, long morning walk towards the end of October – or maybe early November. 

So many people seeing her now are saying, “But she looks fine.” And she does. She looks absolutely like her old self. There is nothing at all to indicate there is anything at all wrong with her. But I’d rather be cautious, because if she is injured, I need to make certain not to do anything to make that injury worse. 

Is this a reprieve of months or years? I don’t know. IVDD seems like the lesser of the two evils, but the reality is that, if she has IVDD then, eventually, she will have paralysis again. And the idea of her not playing with Bishop or Beauregard makes me tear up – she loves them so, so much. I think she’ll be fine to play with much smaller dogs, but only in our backyard. 

We also have to face the reality that, no matter what she has, we’re not going to get the years with her we wanted, and that she deserves. Of course, what dog parent does get that?

I will decide October 15th if I’m going to Sweden for my dear friend Alex’s wedding in December. Right now, I’m feeling optimistic. 

With each week, we’re going to know more about what she can and can’t do. For now, I’m reveling in the unexpected joy that she’s so happy and comfortable.