Degenerative Myelopathy Symptoms - Page 7

Sorry, Kougar, I do not know how to do that. It's a damned shame that a thread regarding something so very important to the future of this breed could get spun around and used as an attempt to discredit another.

I wish the arguements would go private- DM is far too important a topic to allow people to ruin a topic by fighting. First, lets set the record straight with the facts- DM is no longer an OLDER dog disease! My Missie T was dx with it when she was 4 yrs old- thats not old, to me! A 4 yr old dog should have its life ahead of it! Once upon a time, DM was an older dog disease- now, however, that is not necessarily the case. I dont believe DR Clemmons will be patenting the test, as, I previosuly stated, he has just sent it on to the AKC Canine Health Foundation, as part of his grant proposal. Dr Clemmons doesnt do things for recognition, but rather for the dogs- they come first to him, and he takes his oath as a veterinarian, "First Do No Harm" quite seriously. He doesnt believe that hoarding discoveries, *egos* or a quest for fame have any place in medicine, if one is truly dedicated.

Patenting an invention isn't necessarily always about ego gratification or hoarding discoveries. If anything, doing so might provide him with the funding he needs to carry on the DM research he's doing without having to rely solely on the unpredicability of grant and gift sources.

"]]DM doesn't show up on spinal fluid, at least that's what I was told when my now almost 11 year old was diagnosed at 4." FYI: Some new information re DM showing up in spinal fluid: Dogs with GSDM do have elevated MBP(myelin basic protein)in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) suggesting that there may be a relationship between MBP and GSDM.

There seems to be a lot of info here, but have you looked at Fred Lantings suggestions of how to help a dog with this problem ? He suggests 1000mg Vit E capsules together with Vit B & C and high strenth Fish Oil. I have a dog also with this problem but I think it was possibly brought on by injury at a young age, he has had MRI scans sometime ago now and there was scar tissue on the spine. This dog has been dosed daily with all of the above, and also with high strength glucosomine, he is not cured but there is an improvement and it appears to slow this awful condition. He was one of a litter of 10 and I am not aware of any others having the problem, I had 2 sisters here until last year and lost one with cancer, the other is still fine, they are 9 now.

Fred Lanting is referring to DR Clemmons pragram, I believe. There is a lot more than just those few things you mentioned. Check Dr Clemmons DM website: http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/DM_Web/DMofGS.htm