Soren's Story: LS Disease & Shock Wave Therapy

Meet my dog Soren. If you look up the definition of a “good dog” his picture would most definitely pop up. Soren is a Dutch Shepherd x Whippet mix who was bred for dog sports and boy did he love sports (he was a real jock). He competed in flyball, dock diving, disc, competition obedience, you name it Soren wanted to try it.

Around the age of 4, Soren began to show some very small, early symptoms of his LS disease. A low rear foot on the flyball box here and there, seeming “off” in his tracking of a toy for dock diving from time to time, but nothing major. Then he started to have what I will refer to as “episodes”. They started small and very infrequent (maybe every 3-5 months) where he would be running the yard and he would let out a scream, hold up his right rear leg, but then within a few minutes be back to normal. The first few times I chalked it up to him stepping on something in the yard (like an acorn) and they were so infrequent it took me awhile to link them together. When he just before his 5th birthday they started to become more frequent and happen during sports related activities and now I knew something was up.

I scheduled an appointment for him at VOSM (Veterinary Orthopedic and Sports Medicine) in MD. His gait analysis was normal, his exam was normal except for some pain on palpation of his psoas muscle on both sides (but particularly his right). We did a musculoskeletal ultrasound and confirmed not only a grade 1 strain of both iliopsoas muscles, but also a grade 1 strain of his internal obturator muscle which could be leading to sciatic nerve impingement, which would explain those hot and cold pain episodes. We began rehab for these injuries and I was pretty optimistic he would make a full recovery and be able to return to sports.

He had another msk ultrasound half way through his rehab and things were looking good! One week before his final recheck, he had another episode. When we went for his recheck, all his muscle strains were healed. This indicated these might be compensation injuries and something bigger might be at play. At this point his episodes got rapidly worse, 3-4x a week he was having them and things as simple as walking up the stairs or trotting to a bush to go pee would trigger them. I went to a local neurology center who I knew could do a same day MRI as that was our next step. He once again had a normal exam and unfortunately I did not have a video of his episodes at this time because I typically was so concerned with him I was thinking to record them. They kindly proceeded with the MRI (as well as a spina tap). The MRI came back with mild LS stenosis on the right side and a slight disc protrusion at L7-S1. With him having such frequent episodes I knew I needed to do something to help him. We had tried NSAIDs and rest with no luck. Laser therapy and acupuncture seemed to help, but I wanted him to be able to be dog, even if he couldn’t do sports I wanted him to have the most comfortable and fulfilled life he could. I mean he is so young!

After speaking with one of the rehab vets I was working with (Dr. Leslie Eide of The Total Canine), she recommended shock wave therapy as she had had lots of success with shock wave and LS dogs at her practice on the west coast. Upon reading about shock wave and upon he recommendation I knew I wanted him to get Pulse Vet shock wave. I came across a specialist center in Portland, ME who had this machine and made an appointment with them. After the first treatment I noticed a difference. I noticed Soren started to stretch his back legs, prior to this he always stretched his front, but never his back and I just figured that was “just him”. His rear limb tremors lessened and he had more energy. His episodes related to his stenosis stopped. He went from having them multiple times a week even on complete rest, to being able to return to pet dog activity without any! He was able to go to the beach and be a dog. He still had his limits being a dog with LS disease, but this was a huge improvement.

We traveled the 6 hours round trip every other week for a total of 6 shock wave treatments and he was feeling great! At this point we figured we would try and stop the shock wave and see how he did. He was doing great until about a month later when he got off the couch in a frantic pretzel motion and upon doing another MRI we found out he had further prolapsed that L7-S1 disc. We put him on lots of pain meds and even did oral steroids and a steroid epidural to help his pain. We had to wait until the disc was more stable until we could do shock wave again. He had been doing okay, but still not making huge strides in his comfort. 2 weeks post steroid injection (4 weeks post the event that further prolapsed that disc) Soren was able to get a shock wave treatment. And once again he felt like a new dog; he started pulling me on the leash again and barking at me wanting to play. This just further cemented the fact that shock wave is his modality and I would do anything to keep him feeling this good!

I contacted Pulse Vet and talked to them about Soren’s case and was delighted to hear that he could have shock wave for the rest of his life as a maintenance procedure. Now unfortunately Soren’s insurance does not cover shock wave therapy (Pet’s Best, you really need to change that!) and with having to travel so far and the price of the treatments, I decided to look into buying one for Soren to have. Pulse Vet was amazing to work with and I was able to buy Soren his own machine!

I’m truly so thankful for this modality. It has given my dog, who can no longer any of the sports and activities he loves so much at such a young age, a chance to live out the rest of his life as a (modified) pet dog and be comfortable and mentally content. Without this modality I really don’t know what I would have done or what Soren’s life would look like right now, but I can assure you that it wouldn’t be half of what it is right now. I’m so thankful I am able to have this machine for him to provide him the best life possible, and I can also share that with other dogs who have injuries or conditions that would benefit from shock wave!