There are many possible reasons why a dog can't stand up, ranging from toxicity, injuries, and orthopedic reasons to infections, illnesses, and cardiovascular reasons.
A dog's inability to walk is typically due to either a problem with the dog's joints or issues with his spinal cord. Arthritis is probably the most common reason for a dog's inability to walk. It often develops with age, but can even occur in very young dogs.
Potential causes include inner/middle ear infections, intoxication, strokes, tumors, infectious or inflammatory diseases (meningitis), idiopathic vestibular disease (also called “old dog” vestibular syndrome), or other less likely causes.
If your dog is staggering, stumbling, or falling over, it may be the result of a variety of medical issues, including injury, stroke, poisoning, or an infection.
However, a disturbance of balance can happen to any dog, and causes vary from more common issues like ear infections, inner ear tumors, and hypothyroidism to much more serious conditions like brainstem tumors, strokes, and brain inflammation. Therefore, a professional diagnosis is critical if your dog can't stand up.
Although old age is the most common reason why a dog struggles to stand up on all four feet, there can be other more serious reasons, including a neurological condition that can impact a dog's mobility and leg strength.
If your dog suddenly loses the ability to stand or walk without showing any previous signs of trouble, an injury is the most likely culprit. Damage to the spinal cord or limbs can cause sudden loss of mobility and may require veterinary treatment. If your dog suddenly stops moving, examine them for signs of an injury.
What are the typical signs of pain in dogs? General behaviour: Shaking, flattened ears, low posture, aggression, grumpy temperament, panting or crying, excessive licking or scratching a specific area, reluctant to play, interact or exercise, lameness (limping), stiffness after rest, loss of appetite.
Some signs of a stroke in dogs include a head tilt, circling, loss of balance, and unusual eye movements. If you think that your dog is having a stroke, don't delay getting them to the vet for diagnosis and treatment. Treatment is mostly supportive, and it's important to treat any underlying causes.
Sudden paralysis in dogs can often be attributed to IVDD. Most dogs are diagnosed with sudden mobility loss from IVDD following a period of exercise. It's quite common for a dog's hind legs to collapse and even become paralyzed after a disc herniation from IVDD.
Weakness in back legs of dogs can be caused by a variety of things, including myasthenia gravis, heart problems, anemia, hypothyroidism, and Addison's disease.
A wide range of chronic conditions can leave dogs weak or lethargic. That includes heart problems, liver problems, diabetes, and hypoglycemia. Heart disease. Lethargy and reduced tolerance for exercise are the early signs of congestive heart failure in dogs.
Causes for paralysis in dogs include injury and trauma, neurological conditions, tick toxicity, rabies, and cancer.
What are the clinical signs of pancreatitis? The most common clinical signs include nausea, vomiting, fever, lethargy, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and decreased appetite. During an attack, dogs may take a 'praying position', with their rear end up in the air and their front legs and head lowered onto the floor.
My dog is walking sideways and falling over; what's going on? A few reasons your dog may be walking sideways are injury, hip dysplasia, and vestibular disease. If your dog has started to walk sideways, it's best to have him evaluated by a veterinarian for an underlying condition.
If your dog stops walking and won't move, it's always a good idea to call your vet to get advice and book a physical examination because many of the potential causes are due to an underlying medical condition or even a veterinary emergency.
Degenerative myelopathy (DM), also known as chronic degenerative radiculomyelopathy (CDRM), is a disease affecting the spinal cord, resulting in slowly progressive hind limb weakness and paralysis. The symptoms result from degeneration of the white matter of the spinal cord.
Degenerative myelopathy (also called Canine Degenerative Radiculomyelopathy or CDRM), is a disease that causes the nerves in the lower spine to stop working properly. It causes weakness, paralysis in the back legs, and incontinence (both urinary and faecal), all of which get worse over time.
Signs of botulism in dogs can unfold within hours to days after consuming the toxin, with rear limb weakness typically being the first to appear. However, both onset and severity of clinical signs depend on how much of the toxin has been ingested.
Recovery from back leg weakness may be possible, but this greatly depends on what's causing the loss of leg strength. For example, dogs who have experienced atrophy and muscle loss caused by injury or surgical recovery stand a good chance of regaining the strength in their back legs.
With support from orthopedic braces, a healthy diet, regular exercise, as well as homeopathic support, your older dog may have many happy and healthy years ahead, free of back leg collapse. Talk to your vet and ask if a hip brace may alleviate your older dog's hind leg weakness.
Acupuncture will help to strengthen the nerve-muscle connection and is our go-to therapy when there are incontinence issues along with the hind end weakness. With acupuncture there is an increased circulation to problematic areas, nerve and muscle stimulation, and usually a general sense of well being for the patient.
Cushing's disease results when the body produces too much of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is produced and stored by the adrenals, two small glands that sit on top of the kidneys.
A Spinal Stroke or Fibrocartilaginous embolism occurs when a piece of the vertebral disc breaks off and impedes blood flow to neurons in the spinal cord. When the blood flow to neurons in the spinal cord get cut off, the neurons die resulting in leg paralysis.