Quote Originally Posted by lv4dogs
Thanks for the well wishes! I was just wondering, how did you diagnose the problem without doing an MRI? Or is it just a probable diagnosis? Did they do a spinal tap or myelogram at least? My understanding is that disc disease is nearly impossible to diagnose (a definate diagnosis anyways) without an MRI &/or myelogram. I'm just curious is all, if there is another way to diagnose her problem I'd love to hear about it.
Physical exam. A trained neurologist (or regular vet who is really good) can generally localize the lesion to the spinal cord (and location along the cord, ie, thoracic, lumbar, etc), the nerve root, the muscle, etc. Imaging is done if surgery would be considered, or if the type of lesion would matter (ie, if you are considering an infection), or if there is uncertainty based on physical exam.

Jake's mom