Older dog’s symptoms can be arthritis

I share an 8-year-old spayed female spaniel mutt dog with my ex-husband. A few months ago, she started shaking some and doing a belly crawl. She was seen by a vet, they found nothing significant, and the dog was sent home with something called Carprofen for a few days. She improved and the meds ran out. The problem started again about a week ago, so I took her in where she was given a tick panel that was negative, but positive for anaplasmosis. Pending a PCR, I was given Carprofen and a week of doxycycline for the dog. The PCR came back negative and again, she seems to be doing much better, but I worry that when the medications run out again that things will be as they were. What do I do now, and would you suggest any other testing? I was told that she is otherwise fine except for being a bit overweight and always being a bit anxious and barking a lot. Are there any other medications that you think she should have?

In the absence of any real lameness, it can be hard to diagnosis what is going on. You describe a belly crawl, but does she have any trouble with stairs or jumping up such as onto a bed or couch? A few things come to mind after ruling out tick-borne diseases, which can cause some issues.

Since she has responded favorably to Carprofen, she may just be starting to have some arthritis, which can be well controlled using this drug, which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. If that is the case, she may need to take it long term with blood tests run about every six months to check her liver values and to know that she is tolerating it well.

The doxycycline was likely given awaiting the PCR test results because it would be the drug of choice for possible anaplasmosis as well as other tick-borne diseases such as Lyme. Now that it has been ruled out, you can discontinue the medication or finish up what you have with no ill effects. Another possible condition could be immune mediated polyarthropathy but you did not describe any swollen joints, which would be a key finding.

One last diagnostic that might be explored if things do not stay normal or if there is continued challenge to normal ambulation are spinal radiographs to look for any changes including disc disease, ankylosing spondylosis or other issues. Lastly, you mentioned that she is a bit overweight, and the best thing one can do for an older dog that is heavy to help with mobility is to get its weight down. Put her on a diet and work with your veterinarian to resolve the issues you are dealing with. Hopefully, her condition is nothing more than a little older dog arthritis and between weight loss and the use of appropriate medication she will be comfortable and do well for several years ahead.

Dr. John de Jong owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic. He can be reached at 781-899-9994.