When doctors get it wrong, keep looking and talking

I haven't been posting today because this morning I woke up to a big shock. I have a 13 year old Golden Retriever. His name is Brandon. He's one of the best dogs a person could ever hope for. Yesterday he seemed to really be having a problem. He never complains about pain, so it's always a guessing game. His appetite was great as usual, but he kept losing his balance. He's been treated for arthritis, so I assumed it was acting up again. Last night he still wanted to play with his favorite toy, a stuffed duck that quacks. He pounced around the house like he's a puppy again with the thing sticking out of his mouth as he shakes his head trying to "kill it" but then lays down when he's done playing and laps it. Last night he kept falling down but got right back up and kept on playing.

This morning, I got his food ready but he didn't come as soon as he heard the fork in the bowl. I put the bowl down and went to get him. He couldn't get up. Right away I thought it was his hips, so I picked him up. No easy task since he's a huge breed of Golden and weighs about 90 pounds. He couldn't stand up.

I called his vet and was advised to get him to the emergency Vet's office because they had all the right diagnostic equipment. We picked him up, carried him to the car and the techs at the vet's met us at the door. After several tests, they found a problem with compressed discs in his spine, which meant he needed something stronger than that other medicine he was taking. They found a little arthritis in his hips, which was a relief in a way. They also said he had Idiopathic vestibular disease. Read about that here.

Idiopathic Vestibular Disease in Dogs
veterinaryhelp Questions and Answers Thursday, 27 July 2006

Idiopathic vestibular disease is also referred to as old dog vestibular disease or geriatric vestibular syndrome because it is typically seen in older dogs. Clinical signs are acute in onset and are often described as a stroke. This is due to disruption of the peripheral vestibular system that controls balance.

Signs seen with this disease are consistent with those expected in other peripheral vestibular diseases - peripheral meaning not involving the brain but the vestibulocochlear nerve in the ear. Patients may be unable to stand, fall to one side, tilt the head to one side or have an abnormal flicking of the eyes called nystagmus.
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The poor dog is dizzy and his head is tilted to the side. There is no way of knowing when this disease really started but the vet said he'll get worse before he gets better. We are going to try to keep him home because we don't want him to be alone in a cage as the vet takes care of him. We'll see how this goes over the next day or so and then decide what to do. The Vet was sure that he'll recover well but may end up with a tilted head. It's also good to know that he needs to have the right medicine for his spine instead of his hips.

There is a point to all of this.

His regular vet is wonderful and she is very caring. She thought since large dogs have problems with their hips and arthritis, that was why he was having some problems. It's was an easy guess to make. It also didn't cause any questions when he seemed to be having an easier time walking on the medicine he was on. Naturally dogs can't tell you when we're wrong. Dogs like Brandon, very stoic when it comes to pain, usually don't let you know when there is something seriously wrong either. It's up to us to notice the changes in them and know when it's time to get them more help than we can give.

All of this boils down to humans being diagnosed as well. When it's PTSD, the doctors can get it wrong simply because if they are looking for depression, bingo, they find depression. If they are looking for bipolar, they find it. If they are looking for paranoia or schizophrenia, they find that too. The problem with PTSD is that PTSD comes after trauma. If the doctor doesn't really listen and we don't pay enough attention, then we walk away with the wrong diagnosis and most of the time medicine that seems to help for a time, but the real problem is getting worse.

I know it sounds odd to compare a dog to a person with PTSD but when you think about it, it does make sense. People with PTSD are usually not looking for it since they don't know what it is. Doctors won't look for it unless they know something happened to the patient they are just meeting. The wrong medicine and the wrong treatment may mask the real problem and it's very important for the families to know the difference. PTSD patients often are in denial and too often never connect a traumatic event to what they are going through, so they don't communicate with doctors any better than a dog does with a Vet. It takes the right tests to know what they are dealing with. I've seen this happen too many times.

People suffer because we don't communicate well enough with doctors but most of that comes from our own lack of knowledge. Just as I was totally lost this morning with my beloved dog, we can all feel lost if we have no understanding at all. Had I not known what PTSD was before my husband was finally diagnosed, I would have settled for the original diagnosis of possible bipolar. I opened my mouth and told the doctor what I knew.

It's up to us as someone who knows them to make sure they are taken care of the right way. Just as my dog was in pain and I didn't know it, or at least knew the right cause of it, too many PTSD wounded are in pain and if we don't have a clue what it is, we make a lot of mistakes while they suffer. Make sure you know what PTSD and then open your mouth to the doctor so they can test for the right thing. Otherwise, the real problem is just being covered up.

I'll keep you posted on my dog as well. Pretty ironic though that one thing lead to another since this was not the original intent of this post.