I've just got a 7 month old male Irish wolfhound called Lewis. He had been retained by the breeders with his brother and sister as a show prospect, but early in January he developed a clumsy gait, and began whimpering and yelping in his sleep. The breeders' vet suspected OCD, and put him on calcium supplements (!) and 50mg rimadyl twice a day. Later a friend of the breeders' who is a vet and experienced IW breeder suggested adding 2gms ascorbic acid (vit C) per day, minimal exercise and weight reduction.

I first saw him in mid-January, when he was much taller than his brother & sister, had far more bone, but was - to my eyes -overweight. (His father is a very tall IW, and Lewis himself is greedy and was the largest of the litter from birth.) His gait was abnormal at that time, but it was difficult to say just how. He didn't extend his hind legs fully and tended to stand crouched 'over his legs'. When he did move properly however, he looked very promising indeed.

I got him home at the weekend, and he is still - again to my mind - too heavy. Watchiing him carefully, the yelping only occurs when he is lying down on his left side, and moves his right fore away from his body, if it is moved in that direction, or if traction is put on that leg. (The breeders' always felt that the pain was localised to the right shoulder.) He shows no lameness at all, and never has. His stance is still crouched, he doesn't extend well, holds his head low and he is very clumsy but his movement improves a great deal with exercise. I allowed him unrestriced access to my other dogs for the first 48 hours so that I could observe him, and he went through most of the normal sighthound play repetoire - rearing up, bending low to catch the other dog's legs etc, with no evidence of pain or balance problems, but he tired quickly and was reluctant to chase, or run for the others to chase him.

I took Lewis to John, one of my own vets who has a particular interest in orthopaedics, yesterday and John felt that he has Wobblers syndrome. (The appointment was first thing in the morning, before Lewis had any exercise at all, and he was dozy and moving particularly badly, so I do wonder if John would have reached the same conclusion that evening, when Lewis was dancing backwards on his hind legs, trying to snatch food out of the measure I was using to fill the dog bowls.) An appointment has been made for the 25th with a specialist in developmental orthopaedic problems. In the interim Lewis is to have lead exercise only, and be fed a little less than he wants of a quality adult maintenance complete diet with no supplements.

I'm very alarmed at the idea of Lewis having Wobbler's. I didn't know much about it until yesterday, and I have no personal experience of it at all. So I'd be very grateful for information from anyone who has had a dog with the problem, who has experience of an IW/giant breed with similar symptoms for any reason, or anyone who has other suggestions.

Thanks, Sharon

Hi Sharon.
I had a Dobermann with wobblers or "Cervical Spondylopathy"

I know it is found in Dobes, Danes, Pugs and Bassetts but have not heard of it in Wolfhounds before.
You can verify if it is wobblers by a neck X-ray as it is the cervical vertibrae that is affected, they even score the neck with a list of digits for each vertibrae. There is an operation that can be done, I personally wouldn't go that way and my dog was 12yrs old when he died, but I do know people who have had their pets operated on with much success.

There appears to be a definate "gait" to a dog with wobblers. A low head carriage is common, but more so they tend to "miss a step" with their hind legs when walking. My dog could run far better than he could walk, he was much more co-ordinated.

I hope he improves, it is no fun having a large dog collapse on you and your dog would make 2 of mine!

Hope this helps
Dawn.

Hi Dawn,

I'd hoped that Lewis' improvement on exercise might indicate that he doesn't have wobblers, but it sounds as if maybe he just moves better when he is excited and so moving faster. He doesn't exactly miss steps when walking, but he is definitely more co-ordinated when he runs.

Its good to hear that your dobe was diagnosed on plain X-rays. John is takling about myelograms, which apparently can be risky in dogs. From what I've read dobes get symptoms later than danes, and Lewis seems to conform to the dane pattern. I hope that he doesn't need surgery, because it sounds pretty major. I completely agree with you about your dog that got to 12, but Lewis is only a pup, so if the orthopaedic specialist advises surgery, and says that the prognosis is at least reasonable I probably will proceed as long as the breeders agree. (They refused payment for Lewis until and unless is 'comes right', so technically he still belongs to them, and although I knew he had a problem when I collected him, they offered take him back or pay all vets bills as soon as they heard it might be Wobblers. If only all breeders were like that.)

Thanks very much for the reply. It helps to hear from someone else who has been in this position.

All the best, Sharon

Hi Sharon,

Sorry to hear about Lewis and hope it is not CS.

I understand that mylogram's are much more definitive in diagnosing it than x-rays, if you would like a few web pages to check out here is my list

http://worldaccessnet.com/~harldane/wobblers.htm - by Louise Feddema - Dane
owner

http://www.syllysylvia.com/ Sylvia's Story - Dobermann owner who now does agility with her bitch that had it after gold bead therapy (sort of permanent acupunture) plus neck wraps

http://www.gdr.com/past/wobbler.htm Wobblersl - Bruce R Wittles DVM

http://web.vet.cornell.edu/index_cvm/imaging/510_vertebral.htm Cornell Verterbral information - if you work your way though this one you will learn a lot about reading x-rays of the verterbral column !

Hi Christine,

Thanks for the good wishes and links. The Cornell one was particularly good.

Keep your fingers crossed for us on the 25th!

All the best, Sharon