Just curious really, as our tale is rather long.....but my very active, fit and athletic patterdale terrier has had such severe back/pelvic pain for 3 weeks that her gait is painfully slow and stilted, she has difficulty rising from laying down, she can't jump at all and she is very subdued.

She's been seen by 3 vets at our regular practice, has been on Rimadyl for a good 14 days, and yowled blue murder when they each touched her spine.  She yelps in pain if she bumps into something, or moves a hind limb too abruptly.  Her x-rays show nothing, so today she went to an orthopaedic specialist (at an entirely different location, and with a somewhat different approach) who manipulated her hind limbs at extraordinary angles, pressed frighteningly firmly between every spinous process from neck to tail, and all but turned her legs inside out.  But she held her breath, went rock solid from top to toe, and gave not a flicker of a pain response at all.

Yet she still can't walk properly. :(

Is it possible that under certain circumstances, they can hide even severe pain?  How can she show no pain response upon examination, yet be unable to walk normally?

Don't get me wrong, I trust the specialist (and the x-rays) implicitly, and if he says her pain is purely muscular I believe him. But isn't it a bit strange that she gave no pain response at all?

An old instinct for the days of the wild ( a clearly injured animal would not fair well)
   My Eurasier had quite a nasty conective tissue rupture/ leg injury, in fact she was in so much pain if she were to 'forget herself' and put weight on the leg then she would shoot up in the air and look around behind her (convinced something had touched her to cause the pain) an almost reflex and clearly painful response. Yet when we got her to the Vet she incredibly stoically did not flinch or react on palpation and manipulation by the Vet!! I couldn't believe it!

So yep, does happen!

Hmm....interesting!!  She's ALWAYS hysterical with the regular vets (one pointed out that she was shrieking the place down long after he'd stopped touching her), but with this specialist she was weirdly mute.  Even he shook his head in disbelief!

The worry is, that as a result of her (unusual) stoic silence they've put it down to muscular damage and we've skipped the MRI scan.  What if there IS something going on in there!!!

This happens quite a lot, dogs become very stoic, I call it the canine version of white coat syndrome. Recently my 10 year old didn't even wince when examined but at home was on 3 legs.

Our 7yr old springer never even flickered an eyelid despite his dewclaw literally hanging off!  Just stood there looking slightly depressed that he wasn't allowed out to run in the woods......

as you are worried why not take a video of her in action showing the bad gait etc and email it to the specialist?

Thanks everyone....I guess it is entirely possible then. :(

The specialist has seen her in action, and seen her weird, hunched up, crabby duck-waddle and tippy-toe steps for himself.  He just unable to find the exact source of the pain.  He's done the neurological tests (such as the toe-under test, or whatever the proper name is for that) and there is no lack of co-ordination, or evidence of spinal weakness......no evidence of any rupture or tear to the cruciates etc......but no matter what he does to her, she won't even flinch to tell him where it hurts!

What I should video is the incidental occasions where she yelps in pain - mildly bumping a hindleg into the sofa, sometimes when we pet her, frequently when we lift her etc.  Perhaps I should emulate some of the moves he was putting her limbs through at home, and get my husband to video it - maybe then she'd yell where it hurt!

We'll just have to see if she imroves with rest on the rimadyl I suppose.  It's 3 weeks today since she came flying across the living room and crashed into the fireplace, and she is still painfully stiff and twisted to one side, my poor little girl. :(

My bitch Daisy injured herself at three months old and developed a "dishing " gait on her right front leg ( she still has it ) she was sent to the Dick vet in Edinburgh at 6 months old and was examined from top to toe by a ( very dashing ) neurologist, little tyke walked perfectly !. She did go on to have an MRI scan and a double lumber puncture ( still found nothing ). As soon as we stepped out of the vets doors she started "dishing" again.

My lurcher showed no pain when his backlegs were manipulated quite hard by the specialist, though showed a pain response when the back was examined. Three vets were sure it was a back problem, not a leg problem: the issue was in the end damaged cruciates though. So my lurcher hid his pain well.

My saluki also showed absolutely no pain response when my normal vet examined him (due to a hopping gait at times), showed some pain when the specialist examined him, but not too drastic. Upon doing an MRI it turned out having a damaged disk in his back and being in quite a lot of pain.

Dogs hide pain well. In your case I would probably insist on an MRI scan as that can reveal things that x-rays or manual examination can't as shown in both my dogs.

Always amazed how problems disappear when you go to the vets, think it may be something to do with an adrenalin rush.

Lurchergirl, that's my worry entirely...that there IS something going on and we're simply missing it. :(

Hubby took her for 3 ten minute slow walks on a lead today, and this evening she looked MUCH better - much more fluid and a little happier.

But after laying in her bed for an hour while we had dinner, she went to get up just now and it took her quite a while to get herself up on all 4's again. :(

My dogs are always magically better before going to the vet's I feel a fraud sometimes.  However, upon returning home after some chicken the whimpering returns.

I have learnt the hard way that dogs are very clever and manipulative. x

that there IS something going on and we're simply missing it.

All I can say is be persistent, ask for a referral if necessary! I have great vets and they believed me when I said that something was wrong eventhough they couldn't find anything at all, so were happy to refer me to an orthopedic specialist. The MRI only showed the problem up because the specialist hyperextended Flash's back which is the only position where the damaged disk shows as a problem. Most vets wouldn't have thought of doing that and that's why it is important to find good specialists if your own vet can't find anything.