[TeazelsMum]

Bassets don't suffer pain very well, and from my experience, will shiver/shake. But not the muscle jerking movement ALTHOUGH Frankie started doing this when older. He'd 'flick' a front leg when lying down and with him, this tended to happen more during the evening. I thought he had a trapped nerve but this was never confirmed. He went lame some time previously and was x-rayed where his hip situation was seen (subluxation) and some abnormalities down his spine including a mass at the top of his spine which my vet felt really needed MRI to confirm what was going on. A procedure we quite frankly couldn't afford - and as my vet said, if it was a nasty, then what! Putting him though all that would be stressful for him too. So we let him be. As said earlier, he finally went off his back legs at which point we all decided it was kindest to let him go. I think it was probably cancer - a tumor (the undefined mass at the top of his spine).

A specialist vet should be able to get to the bottom of what's going on with your old boy. I send good thoughts even if I can't really help.

 

[TeazelsMum]

Is there a particular type of specialist you took yours to? I guess I'm assuming neuro is the best because of the symptoms but if you have any other suggestions please share

Thank you again!

You are very welcome. No. We didn't opt for a neuro specialist - finally I've found a vet down here in the SW UK who I can trust - and it didn't hurt that he was really into Bassets and especially Frankie. As said, he felt an MRI might shed more light on what the mass was, which x-ray didn't but although I might have scraped the funds together had he been a young boy, he was getting up there in age so we just made him as comfortable as we could under the circumstances. He was on as low a dose of Metacam as I could stabilised him with. There are known side-effects with this, if used long-term, but until the end, when I'd had to put him up to a max dose (with our vet's instructions), he showed no side effects which weren't wanted. At the end, he spent the previous night upchucking, rather dark coloured bile, which may well have been the max. dose of Metacam. And he was on Gabapentin by then too, after he went off his back legs. Frankie was only 10.5 years when we had to say goodbye - and to this day I still feel robbed of the 2, maybe 3 years longer with him. Most of our home-breds made it into their 14th year (with exceptions - cancer). But we can only do as much as is right for us, and for our beloved hounds.