Loss of Fred

[StellaBabe]

Hi everyone. It's a rather long, medically difficult & very sad story... so I won't go into full depth. However a few days ago -- my cousin Amy had to "put down" her 2 yr old frenchie Fred.:( :(

It was one of those random & complicated situations. The other night, Amy & her husband went to sleep (all was fine) & the next morning, they found Fred unable to stand... his back legs were spread out, completely paralyzed & moaning from the pain. It was a sever case of intervertebral disc degeneration -- (I don't know the complete medical details). However, sadly it was so severe the vet didn't think Fred would even make it through surgery. And sadly the surgery costs would have been well over $7,000. The entire situation was that tragic. So, thus - he didn't make it. :( :( :(

I was both torn and extremely heart broken. He was young, very very active, and without early (visual) signs of pain or discomfort.

So, my question to all of you... I have 2 frenchies (both under 1.5 yrs) -- are there any preventative measures that I/we can take to protect our babies from back/disk/spinal problems? (I suppose the ultimate ?)... but should they be x-rayed now when nothing is wrong? or for ex: should they not jump off beds?

Thanks... & it sure makes me value my babies even more!! It's heartbreaking.

[SadPandas]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear of the passing of Fred. I am sorry for you and your cousin, and please let her know there are people (like me) thinking of her. That is such a sudden and terrifying situation, I just can’t imagine having to be in her shoes. My heart goes out to her and her husband.

I do not know about the preventative measures, but would like to if there are any ones. I know spinal problem come with this breed and I believe Gwyneth or Fran, or someone else posted a study somewhere on this board about the large percentage of Frenchies who have some sort of spinal issue. I have thought about getting an x-ray to check things out too.

[franp]

Please offer my condolences to your family.. and tell them that at the AMC there is a wonderful grief counselor..

I feel that we must take the quality of life of the animal into consideration.. Sometimes the cure is worse than the illness..

Many breeds have back issues; not just ours. Dane; Dobie ; Doxies , to name a few..Hemivertibrae is a congenital defect. it is there, does not get worse or better. The Vertabrae is deformed/malformed..from birth.What does change with age is the space between the vertabrae ; that causes pressure on the disc.. and when there is too much pressure the disc will herniate or rupture. This can happen with perfectly formed vertabrae.

There was a study done a number of years ago with people showing that most had herniations at the point of normal vertabrae..And Dr Keller, the Radiologist at OFA , who reads frenchie exrays says that there does not seem to be a relation between degenerative disc disease (the probable cause of herniation) and hemivertabrae..

Should we have our dogs exrayed?It is good to have a baseline in case anything would happen.. Can we prevent anything? Keeping our dogs at an appropriate weight and not letting them jump does help..

But in the long run, I don't know.There have been dogs with OFA perfect spines ( a RARE occurance) that have had back issues..

All we can do as owners is to take the best care we can..and if something like this happens NOT to blame ourselves..

[franp]

How do we stop we stop our dogs from jumping? I wish I knew.. Dari is the original circus dog at the park...
What I try and do is not let her jump from very high places..that is the best I can do..

[StellaBabe]

thx again everyone. This was surely not meant to scare all you great frenchie owners... :) but I must admit that it shook me up & (it seems that) I've been online researching ever since. :( I just wanted some advise... for my cousin recovering & things that people have done to check for physical conditions, etc. My girl Stella already has a minor (stage 1) of a luxating patella (& that worries me to begin with)... the whole weak joint deal. She seems fine (besides stretching that leg quite often)? What's a mum to do? Love our babies now!:)

[L. Cammack]

Hi everyone. It's a rather long, medically difficult & very sad story... so I won't go into full depth. However a few days ago -- my cousin Amy had to "put down" her 2 yr old frenchie Fred.:( :(

It was one of those random & complicated situations. The other night, Amy & her husband went to sleep (all was fine) & the next morning, they found Fred unable to stand... his back legs were spread out, completely paralyzed & moaning from the pain. It was a sever case of intervertebral disc degeneration -- (I don't know the complete medical details). However, sadly it was so severe the vet didn't think Fred would even make it through surgery. And sadly the surgery costs would have been well over $7,000. The entire situation was that tragic. So, thus - he didn't make it. :( :( :(

I was both torn and extremely heart broken. He was young, very very active, and without early (visual) signs of pain or discomfort.


So, my question to all of you... I have 2 frenchies (both under 1.5 yrs) -- are there any preventative measures that I/we can take to protect our babies from back/disk/spinal problems? (I suppose the ultimate ?)... but should they be x-rayed now when nothing is wrong? or for ex: should they not jump off beds?

Thanks... & it sure makes me value my babies even more!! It's heartbreaking.

After reading this posting, I wanted to let everyone know that I lost Bunny on May 8 at the age of six months due to a severe curvature of the spine, which my vet called lordosis. The upper part of her spine below her neck was curved to the point that the vertebraes and nerves were basically in a knot. You could actually feel the curve on her spine, which I didn't notice until after seeing the xray. My vet said she should have been about 2-3 inches longer. I will try to make this story short due to my inability to keep from crying as I write this. I noticed that she seemed "weak" in her back legs, but all of you know how they flatten their back legs behind them all the time so at first I just thought it was a Frenchie/Frog Dog thing and since she was my first Frenchie, I thought it was normal. She never acted like she was in pain and was active and loved to play, but after she started having trouble walking (her back legs would collaspe) at about the age of 5 months, I knew in my heart something wasn't right. I made an appointment at my vet to have her spayed, and at that time, I asked him to watch her walk and xray her spine and hips, and that is when I got the bad news. He said that eventually she would be paralyzed and would not have a good quality of life and he recommended that I notify my breeder and return her. My vet is Penn Hip certified so I felt that he was qualified to make the diagnosis. I called my breeder and she said absolutely bring her back, and she wanted her vet to examine Bunny also. She was hoping her vet would send her to Texas A&M Vet school to see if they could help her, but the curvature was too severe so ultimately, she ended up in Doggie Heaven and is now running and playing with a perfect body with Fred and all the other Frenchies.

The breeder was wonderful to me and and gave me first priority for a puppy from her next litter. Bunny was from her mother's first litter, but the breeder said she would not breed Bunny's parents again (even though they are champions) from fear of this happening to another puppy. She has bred and shown Frenchies for 16 years and this was her first bad experience.

On June 27, I picked up my precious Lily. Lily can never replace Bunny, but having her has helped me manage my grief. We can't protect our babies from everything, but I try to watch Lily and I don't let her jump off anything at this point in her life while she is a puppy and developing and I don't let Maggie (1 yr. old) jump off anything tall like the bed. I don't plan to have Lily or Maggie xrayed unless I see a reason. All we can do is our best to protect them, but we have to let them run and play and enjoy life. I feel better now that I have finally written this posting about Bunny.

Linda,
Lily and Maggie

[lovemyfrenchy]

I am very sorry to hear about your bad news. My condolences as well. I feel so sad for your heartbreaking news. Peace be with the family.