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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>First, I want to send drool to everyone who needs
some. Second, I’d like to ask for drool for Oswald again, but also
some advice. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>About 2 and a half weeks ago, Oz started having back pain,
so we took him to the vet who gave him a shot of Rimadyl and then sent us home
with 3 days worth of Rimadyl pills to try to help since he couldn’t
figure exactly what was wrong without an x-ray. He said if he was feeling
better by the time the pain meds ran out then it was likely just a strained
muscle or something like that. Well he was still moving a little slower
than usual after the pain meds were gone, but seemed like he was getting
better, so the Hubby and I went on our 5 day trip we had planned, leaving
Oswald with my brother-in-law. He said he seemed like he was still moving
slowly, but had been giving him a doggy aspirin a day to try to make sure he
wasn’t hurting. Well, the day we were coming back, Oz was in bad
shape. He was obviously in pain and had a very difficult time standing up
without shaking panting and shaking in pain. We got home that night and
gave him a second aspirin and he obviously felt a bit better. We called
the vet the next morning and scheduled an x-ray as Oz’s back was
obviously not getting better and that led us to believe it was something much
more severe than a muscle sprain. It turns out that when the vet saw the
x-ray, he saw that Oswald has Spondylosis Deformons. He told us that we
could take Oz to a specialist, but that the diagnostics alone would probably be
several thousand dollars and that’s not even counting the surgery that
would likely follow. The other option is to treat with pain meds as
necessary, but as this is a degenerative disease it probably will get worse
over time, which could lead to paralysis of his back end. There’s
also the fact that all that pain medicine is bad for internal organs. The
problem we have is what should we do? I am really leaning towards the
pain medicine right now because I don’t really have the money for surgery
and/or diagnostics, and if this is a degenerative disease, won’t it just
get bad after the surgery? What are your experiences with this
disease? I really want the best for Oswald, he’s our kid and we
love him dearly. Thanks ahead of time for the advice!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>--Kat, Mom to Oswald with an ouchie back.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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