Cauda equina syndrome in the dog
Jaggy, A.; Lang, J.; Schawalder, P.
Schweizer Archiv für Tierheilkunde 129(4): 171-192
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-7281 PMID: 3589637 Document Number: 300039
A description is given of the clinical, neurological and radiological symptoms in 57 dogs with the cauda equina syndrome. Among the patients 45% were German shepherd dogs, the highest percentage for any one breed. Other mainly large breeds, such as Great Danes, Newfoundland dogs, Greyhounds, Leonbergers, Kuvasz, etc. together made up 48% of the cases. Most of the animals became diseased at an early age (average = 6.3 years) and showed partly progressive, partly fluctuating movement disturbances in the hind legs, tail paresis, pain in the lumbar-sacral region and trouble with micturition. In 50% of cases the diagnosis could be confirmed by means of blank X-rays and in the rest by myelography and/or tomography. In 21 cases in which there were severe chronic disturbances in movement with pain in the lumbar-sacral region, acute disturbances in micturition and a negative response to conservative treatment, the lumbar-sacral joint was decompressed surgically (laminectomy L/S). As regards differential diagnosis, lesions of the spinal cord, enlargements of the prostata and dysplasia of the hip-joint are all possibilities. These diseases can be excluded by radiological methods, or possibly by CSF-examination. As far as the pathogenesis and origin of the cauda equina syndrome is concerned, nothing definite has so far been established.