Quality of Life

I was having a fairly routine afternoon of annual physical exams, vaccines, ear infections when I entered Toby's room. This sweet gentleman of a dog was a dream to work with. His Mom told me that he'd been having some issues with his hind end and his right hip tended to bother him the most. Toby was certainly uncomfortable when I palpated his right hip but all he did was give me a look of "well, if you have to". At that point I was simply thinking he had arthritis.

It wasn't until I checked his proprioception in his legs that I started to get quite concerned. When we check for proprioception, what we are actually doing is checking to see if the animal knows where their legs are in space. It is a very easy test in that all we have to do is turn the foot upside down and wait to see how long it takes them to right it. A dog with normal reflexes won't even want you to do that. Toby didn't move his right hind limb until I moved it back to normal for him.


In this picture, Cardinal is my foot model and he is demonstrating the upside look with his foot.

Now, it isn't common for our dogs to get proprioceptive deficits from hip dysplasia. I've only ever seen it twice in my past thirteen years of practice. Generally, there is something else going on. I proceeded to do a rectal exam. Its not the glamorous part of my job, but important. I was not expecting to feel a mass the size of a very large kiwi on the right side of the pelvis!!! The poor boy has cancer that is putting pressure on his nerves.

Our main goal is to make sure we can make him comfortable in the time he has left with his Mom. Quality of life is something that both his Mom and I agreed on immediately. Due to his age, he is not a good candidate for the invasive surgery and chemo that would be required to buy him some extra time.