Claude the blind Great Dane
Claude was dumped in a Sacramento shelter as a blind 4-month old puppy. A Great Dane rescue group pulled him out and contacted us. The photo they sent us showed a forlorn puppy sitting in a stark concrete-walled kennel, looking sad and depressed. (See that photo here.)
We agreed to take the youngster. The rescue group drove him up to Portland, Oregon, and we met them there and brought him back to the ranch.
This big, gentle fellow first had to learn how to navigate around a house full of Dachshunds and other dogs of the “short-leg” variety. At times he looked like he was walking on hot coals or wading through a group of snapping turtles, because whenever he started to walk across the floor, some small dog was growling, “Watch where you're going, you big lug!” As soon as they'd growl, he'd pick his feet up carefully to avoid stepping on them.
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We noticed when he arrived that blindness – from microphthalmia, or shrunken eyeball – didn't appear to be his real problem. He seemed flat-footed, his spine was hunched, and he was a bit uncoordinated. The clumsiness we attributed to Claude being a big, blind, goofy puppy. The orthopedic issues disturbed us, and we took him to our vets for an evaluation.
They diagnosed the flat-footedness as a rare condition called carpel laxity syndrome, which puppies can grow out of, and there isn't any treatment for it other than time. They couldn't find anything specifically wrong with his spine, nor any neurological symptoms.
A few months later, still concerned about his back, we had our vets, including our internal medicine specialist, do another exam. Still nothing conclusive.
Then, when he was about 10 months old, he started becoming very clumsy. He began slipping and falling. His back legs would go out from underneath him on occasion. When he walked on smooth surfaces, like linoleum, he'd slip and go down.
Uh oh.
Back to the vet he went. This time, our specialist said he suspected Wobbler's Syndrome, a rare neurological condition that affects young Great Danes and older Dobermans (although the actual disease processes are different). In Dane puppies, it means their vertebrae grow in such a way that the spinal cord is compressed as it passes through the vertebrae. The pressure on the cord affects the nerve signals to the rest of the body, causing the wobbliness and clumsiness. It's a progressive disease.
Time for an MRI
Our specialist recommended we take Claude to Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine for an MRI. Sure enough, the MRI confirmed that Claude had a serious case of Wobbler's Syndrome. The vertebrae were pressing on the spinal cord in his neck. But we also found out from further diagnostics at WSU that this 10-month old puppy already had a severe case of hip dysplasia! When the WSU neurologist put the X-rays up on the light-board, they looked like the hips of a 15-year old dog. We were stunned.
We had two choices for treating his Wobblers Syndrome. One option was spine surgery, which is excruciatingly painful and requires a nearly three-week long recovery in the hospital. The surgery would not make Claude better, but could prevent him from getting worse. But the odds of success weren't a slam-dunk by any means: the WSU neurologist said they did five of these surgeries per year on average, and had successful outcomes in three of them.
Moreover, fixing the problem in the area of his neck where the MRI identified the cord compression wouldn't mean the same condition couldn't develop elsewhere farther down his spine. Because he was so young and still growing, he was at risk for this happening again elsewhere along his spinal column. One of our vets told us we could be “chasing” this problem until he reached adulthood and stopped growing. That's why the surgery for Wobbler's is more problematic in Dane puppies than in older Dobermans.
The other option was medical management – treating Claude with drugs, lifestyle changes, and special foods. The neurologist told us that they had seen medical management yield similar results as surgery, but it's not a long-term solution.
And then there was Claude's hip dysplasia to consider. At 10 months of age, he already had the hips of an elderly dog. Clearly this would ultimately affect his quality of life, too… and sooner rather than later.
Making a difficult decision
After reviewing the results and consulting with the neurologist, the attending veterinarian at WSU who was Claude's case manager, and by phone with our own vets in Montana, we agonized all night over what to do. We had never in 6 years of running the sanctuary decided not to do a surgery on an animal. Our natural inclination is to be very aggressive medically.
But this… this was different. We couldn't see putting Claude through the surgery, with only a 3-in-5 chance of success at best, only to leave him like he is. Add the severe hip dysplasia to the mix, and the prognosis was grim.
The next morning we met with the neurologist and the attending veterinarian. We told them we had decided to pursue the medical management option and not the surgery. We explained the reasons, and said this was the hardest medical decision we'd ever made.
The neurologist looked at us and said, “I want you to know that I think you made the right decision.” The attending veterinarian added, “If this had been my dog, I would have made the decision you made.” They cited the same concerns we had about doing the surgery, and said that with Claude's hip dysplasia complicating any chance of him having a normal lifespan, they reached the same conclusion.
Whew. We needed to hear that.
Today, as we post Claude's story on our Web site in early April 2007, we've been medically managing his Wobbler's Syndrome for more than a month. His symptoms have improved dramatically. He isn't falling down like he used to do, nor is he as clumsy as he was. His spine is also beginning to straighten out, and he looks and acts like the big, happy puppy he is. We're taking this day-by-day, and counting every day we have with Claude as a blessing.
