Laurie's Blogs.

Today's blog is a literature review I conducted and put into a past 4-Leg Newsletter.  I thought it was interesting enough to share with everyone.  We think we've seen some of these at my clinic, The Canine Fitness Centre... as sometimes, nothing else seemed to fit the clinical picture.  Happy reading!

Fisher SC, Shores A, Simpson ST.  Constrictive myelopathy secondary to hypoplasia or aplasia of the thoracolumbar caudal articular processes in Pugs: 11 cases (1993 – 2009).  J Am Vet Med Assoc 242(2): 223 – 229, 2013.

Purpose:  To report the presence of thoracolumbar caudal articular process (facet joint) malformations with secondary constrictive fibrosis of the spinal cord in Pugs. 

Subjects:  11 pugs with neurologic dysfunctions (secondary to constrictive fibrosis because of the facet joint malformations) and 5 Pugs with no neurologic dysfunction.

Method:  Medical records were reviewed for all Pugs that were managed medically or surgically for facet dysplasia or aplasia..

Results:  Most common finding was paraparesis with ataxia or paraplegia  without pain on palpation along the spine. Median age of the dogs was 7.7 years.  4 of the 11 dogs had urinary or fecal incontinence.  8 of the 11 underwent surgical exploration, but all (that survived surgery) continued to have neurological deficits. 

Conclusion:  Presence of aplastic of hypolastic facets in the thoracolumbar region did not always produce neurologic signs.  However fibrous constrictive myelopathy should be considered in Pugs with pelvic limb neurologic signs. 

Clinical Relevance:

This study is just for your information.  Perhaps your next patient will be a neurologic Pug!  Maybe dural mobilization techniques (to stretch the fibrous tissue) would be in order.  Perhaps manual therapies would help accomplish the same. It could be that you simply need to work on maintaining optimal function. Or maybe you’ll never see a Pug with this issue!  Who knows, but now you’re smarter for reading about it!