Sorry that I'm not being descriptive enough. It doesn't help that he isn't doing it all the time. One minute he's racing around like a, well like Brody and the next minute something looks off.
I keep his nails pretty short but I'm starting to hear his nails from his back paws on the floors. He is dragging his back paws more.
He isn't acting in pain and he leaps in and out of the car fine.
Brody's symptoms sound very similar to what our Olga went through. One day we went for a walk, and suddenly she arched her back and started to walk as if she was walking on her back tip toes, then laid down and refused to go any further. We could get her up to go a few yards, and then she would stop. We went to our regular vet, who suspected lymes. After the lyme test can back negative, the vet wanted to do xrays. If there was an ortho issue, we would not use our regular vet and knew that any orthopedic surgeon would do their own xrays. Instead of having Olga placed under anesthesia for two sets of xrays and the attendant costs, we made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon at Angell in Boston. The orthopedic surgeon examined her and felt nothing out of place or any weakness. The orthopedic surgeon thought it was just as likely a neurological issue (e.g. an infection causing pressure on the spine) as an ortho issue. We decided to see the neurologist first so that any tests the neurologist would require could be performed at the same time without having to put Olga under anesthesia multiple times.
The neurologist at Angell (Dr. Sisson) was fantastic. He took Olga outside and ran with her until she showed her symptoms of arching her back and then walking funny and lying down. The neurologist gave a diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, which, at the most basic level, is an autoimmune disease that attacks neurological receptors in the muscle, meaning that the muscles don't receive the signals from the brain. Effectively, the muscles appear weak and rest until the chemical levels rise back up to sufficient levels after resting so that the muscles respond to the signals from the brain. The good thing we learned is that the dog feels no pain, just weakness.
If MG is the culprit, it is not curable, but, if caught early, it can be treated with medication and, once the proper levels of the medicine are reached, the dog will live a normal life span without problems. It has now been two months since Olga was diagnosed, and we now have our Olga back. Just a couple months ago, we couldn't take her for a walk of longer than 50 yards. Now we're back to our regular 1.5 mile walks.
We caught Olga's MG very early. Most vets don't think of MG unless there are also symptoms of megaesophagus present (e.g. regurgitating food). Our best advice is to go to the ortho and neuro specialists. We ended up avoiding pointless xrays and anesthesia, and got an almost immediate diagnosis. Although the specialists have higher consult fees, we ended up saving a lot on general vet bills.
