Vet School

Today was a long day at the vet school. Duncan’s appointment was at 9:45, and we finally saw the first vet at 10:30. After the student did an exam, the neurologist came in. We spent about an hour with the two of them, and then they took Duncan for a visit with the chief neurologist. They told me they wanted Duncan to see the ortho vet again, just to find out if there were any significant changes from our last visit. They initially said the ortho could see us between 2pm and 4pm, so Duncan and I left the vet school around 12:30 to get some lunch. We found a nice little Italian place that let Duncan sit on the patio with me while I ate. We got back to the vet school about 1:00 and were lucky that the ortho schedule had cleared up and he could see Duncan right then. We finally made it home a little before 3pm.

After all of that, we’re a little farther ahead than we were after our last visit, but not a lot. The neurologist doesn’t think Duncan has DM, thank goodness. He isn’t making any promises, of course, but he said it would be the oddest presentation of DM he’s ever seen. All of the vets are in agreement that something is very wrong, the primary problem is neurological, and his orthopedic issues are a result, but not the cause. His knee is still a separate issue, of course, but they don’t think that’s gotten any worse. They also think he’s scuffing and dragging his feet because he’s so low to the ground, not because he doesn’t recognize where his feet are. They said he basically just can’t get his feet up high enough to keep them from scuffing.

Duncan goes back in Thursday morning and will spend the day having electrodiagnostic tests done. The tests are electromyography (for the muscles) and nerve conduction studies. They’re looking for any odd results. If they find something, they’ll take biopsies of the nerves or muscles and send them to a lab for testing. There are three possible outcomes. 1) They find nothing, and I’m broke and really, really annoyed. 2) They find something, but the lab results come back very general and untreatable, and I’m broke and really, really annoyed. 3) They find something and the lab results come back specific and treatable, and I’m broke but not annoyed. Cross your paws for option three. The bad part is if they do biopsies, it’ll be 10-14 days before we get the results.