Tuni’s disease continues to progress, although not alarmingly fast. She is a little clumsier, falling occasionally, head shake is about the same. She seems happy and still tears out the door to chase whatever there is to chase. We still have some good quality time it seems.
A few new videos
This first one shows the head shake.
This video is from a year ago. Tuni is the beautiful brown girl at the end of the video. Notice her wide stance. Helps her balance.
Lessons learned…..insurance rejected the entire bill for Tuni. We didn’t get pet insurance on her until age 2. Unfortunately her neurological symptoms started around age 1. It’s important to get pet insurance right from the beginning and don’t wait. Who knows though as insurance always seems to find ways to get out of paying. It’s a racket.
On a very positive note, Tuni’s breeder, returned 1/2 the original purchase cost which we are truly grateful. The $ definitely helped with vet bills. Very kind ethical breeders do exist. ❤️
Progress report for past few weeks….Instability is getting worse. She had a few falls. One of her favorite times is when she’s the on,y dog in the house she loves to play on the couch. Flipping, flopping and spinning around. She did fall down off the couch. It makes her so happy though that I’d rather she have her fun than try keep her off the couch. I’ll probably have to put some cushions on the floor to help.
Video of Tuni having a hard time stabilizing so Steve was comforting her. It almost is seizure like. Or stiffness. Just uncomfortable feeling she was having.
I want to share some difficult news about our beloved Petunia, whom we call Tuni. Tuni is a 3-year-old Lagotto Romagnolo. We’ve noticed health issues that have been concerning us for some time. She started having head tremors around the age of one and showed signs of stiffness in her hips. While these symptoms were slight, they were noticeable enough to cause concern.
When Tuni was two, we began testing her health to see if she could be a mom. We started with a DNA Embark test that reports over 250 genetic health risks. We then did OFA testing of hips, patella, heart, eyes, elbows, and dental. All tests came back good, except for slight dysplasia in her left elbow. Her temperament also seemed off, so we decided not to breed her and had her spayed at three years old. During the pre-op for her spay surgery, I asked the vet to check her hips again, suspecting hip dysplasia despite her good OFA results. The vet observed her stance and head tremor and suggested that Tuni might have Cerebral Hypoplasia, a condition where the cerebellum, responsible for motor control, is underdeveloped.
After discussing with members of the Lagotto Romagnolo health committee, we learned that Cerebral Hypoplasia is not commonly seen in Lagottos. However, there is a similar, more degenerative condition called Cerebellar Abiotrophy (CA), which also presents with a wobbly, uncoordinated gait and balance issues. While Cerebellar Abiotrophy is progressive and life-limiting, Cerebral Hypoplasia does not worsen over time.
Another possibility is Lysosomal Storage Disease Lagotto Romagnolo type (LSD), though tests for LSD can sometimes be inconclusive.
On Monday, July 19, we took Tuni to VCA Animal Specialty Care. After an examination, she underwent several tests, including an MRI, which revealed a smaller than normal cerebellum, consistent with CA. She also had a spinal tap and multiple blood tests. It will take about a month to get all the results, which will help the health committee with
