Thanks in advance if you’re reading this 
I have a 7 year old boy, turns 8 in June. He started presenting with issues in his hind legs about 6 months ago, and it began with him being a bit slower than usual to get up from bed, or a bit cranky if I tried to move him off a sleeping surface to get him to go somewhere else. We started supplementing his diet with joint supplements, hoping they would help. Around mid Dec, I noticed that he stared slipping on our hardwood on his hind side, legs splaying, or he’d fall on his but, which only ever used to happen if he’d been running around, but now became a fairly frequent occurrence even if he was just slightly accelerating. Took him to the vet, did extensive X rays, they said he didn’t have displasia, his hips looked fine, but did have some arthritis, and we got him on Librela shot once a month, Galiprant and Gabapentin. I mentioned that things haven’t exactly changed for the better and the vet suggested he might be suffering from degenerative myelopathy. We ran his blood for gene copies associated with DM, he doesn’t have any, which doesn’t eliminate the risk, but it reduces it markedly. I took him to a veterinary hospital recently for additional analysis and got Amantadine prescribed, and a suggestion that he might have disc disease in 2-3 places which might be causing him pain and instability. I’m about to take him for an MRI next week to eliminate cancer.
Right now, we have him wear rubberized socks around the house to prevent sliding and falling and it seems to help at least with that, but I’m wondering if anyone has dealt with anything similar and if anyone has advice? I took him in for physical therapy, got a couple of exercises designed to strengthen his hind legs, but I don’t get the impression that strength is an issue - he seems primarily unstable to me, as if perhaps he has some sort of groin injury or something, but there’s no pain, or at least he’s not showing any.
Any thoughts or advice are greatly appreciated!!!
I have a 7 year old boy, turns 8 in June. He started presenting with issues in his hind legs about 6 months ago, and it began with him being a bit slower than usual to get up from bed, or a bit cranky if I tried to move him off a sleeping surface to get him to go somewhere else. We started supplementing his diet with joint supplements, hoping they would help. Around mid Dec, I noticed that he stared slipping on our hardwood on his hind side, legs splaying, or he’d fall on his but, which only ever used to happen if he’d been running around, but now became a fairly frequent occurrence even if he was just slightly accelerating. Took him to the vet, did extensive X rays, they said he didn’t have displasia, his hips looked fine, but did have some arthritis, and we got him on Librela shot once a month, Galiprant and Gabapentin. I mentioned that things haven’t exactly changed for the better and the vet suggested he might be suffering from degenerative myelopathy. We ran his blood for gene copies associated with DM, he doesn’t have any, which doesn’t eliminate the risk, but it reduces it markedly. I took him to a veterinary hospital recently for additional analysis and got Amantadine prescribed, and a suggestion that he might have disc disease in 2-3 places which might be causing him pain and instability. I’m about to take him for an MRI next week to eliminate cancer. Right now, we have him wear rubberized socks around the house to prevent sliding and falling and it seems to help at least with that, but I’m wondering if anyone has dealt with anything similar and if anyone has advice? I took him in for physical therapy, got a couple of exercises designed to strengthen his hind legs, but I don’t get the impression that strength is an issue - he seems primarily unstable to me, as if perhaps he has some sort of groin injury or something, but there’s no pain, or at least he’s not showing any.
Any thoughts or advice are greatly appreciated!!!
Ours lost a bit of weight since before NYE, from about 100 down to 93, and I’ll weigh him again next week when we go for the MRI, but his appetite is the same. Getting up being an issue is how I noticed our boy’s problem to begin with. Basically out of ideas right now, after the MRI there’s only therapy left. He doesn’t like the water treadmill (freaked out last time he was in it) and if MRI comes negative for cancer, I’m probably going to buy a Cat 3 laser for home use because even if I can drop $200 per therapy session, if I’m not doing the water treadmill, I can do everything else at home (I.e., laser and exercises)… Is your boy stable walking? Does he drag feet sometimes, trip on his own legs?