my 41/2yr old siberian has been diagnosed with possible lumbar sacral disease
this has come after approx 4 week lameness on his hind leg - initially we thought he had may have hip problem as the pain appeareed mainly in his left hip
after a course of cartrophen there has been no improvement so hes been in for xrays today
on exam today he was very painful over his hip, stifle + lower back
hes been prescribed cont restriced excercise + nsaids for 2 weeks then back for a review with poss view to refer him for mri
does anyone have any experience of this??
i am slightly worried as hes only a young dog + worried how this is going to affect his quality of life if it turns out to be a spinal problem
any thoughts/advise would be appreciated :)

My GSP has lumbosacral spondylosis. He had an MRI done at the start of June - he's 7 and a half. He'd been having problems for a bit - unfortunately his is quite severe - there is leakage of disc material pressing on nerve roots, and nothing very effective that can be done. He started on tramadol which made little difference (in his case rest and NSAIDs had no effect), and has just started PLT which seems to be having slightly more of an impact. He's never going to be right though. :-(

But I think if it's mild disease they will sometimes do a lot better - especially if there isn't the disc leakage and spinal compression, which is the problem poor Dorain has. :-( Have they Xrayed to see if it's lumbosacral or spondylosis further up the spine, and how bad it looks on Xray? The Xray won't show any disc problems - but it will give some idea - Dorain had very severe spondylosis.

Hope your boy's problem is not as bad and rest and pain relief restores him to good health. :-)

thanks for your reply
they xrayed his lumber spine,hips + stifles, theres no sign of any spondylosis at this stage at least and theres only 1 suspicious area on the lumber spine, we'll see how he responds + refer for mri if we think ness, he is insured so luckily the cost isnt so much of an issue
sounds like your fella is going through it a bit bless him - ive used plt in the past with my old arthritic girl and had good response - i hope your lad does the same :)