extensive lumbosacral ventral spondylosis

Hi,

I have a 5 yr old Himi cat, approx. 10.7 lbs. She always had a slight wobble when she walked (like a raccoon) she has short stocky little legs but very playful, only an inside cat. The past week we  noticed she was "favoring" her right rear leg and when she ran , she had a slight bend to her body. We took her to the vet. they did a couple of x-rays and said she had extensive lumbo-sacral ventral spondylosis. Were bringing her for a second opinion to a ortho vet next week. In the meantime the vet put her on metacam for 1 x day for four days. Read a lot of horrow stories about this medicine, called about 8 different vets to get their opinion, they all said they use it but no more than 4 days.
I spoke to my Orthopedic Dr, he said of course he's not a vet, but in humans they don't usually experience this condition until an older age.
Do you have an info on this, and can it be treated on a cat with surgery with success ?

Thank you

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I think it’s great that you are taking your cat to a veterinary orthopedist.  The orthopedist may want to perform an MRI or other diagnostics to acquire as much as information as possible about your cats condition before he/she can make a prognosis or discuss treatment, or possible surgery.

Spondylosis, even bridging spondylosis is not usually corrected or treated  with surgery,  but of course,  your cat may be an exception.   And yes,  spondylosis  is usually a geriatric condition, or in other words, it is a  condition that is consistent with degenerative joint disease.  

Your cat may have been born with a spinal instability anomaly, or suffered trauma to the spine of which you may not have been aware,  which caused degenerative joint disease in the lumbar-sacral spine.

You will not be using  Metacam long term, so there will be little risk to your cat.  

Other therapy choices for your cat:

Tramadol,  a newer analgesic,  may be helpful in very low doses for your cat.

Acupuncture and Chinese herbs, either alone or in conjunction with traditional methods  has been shown to be very helpful in many forms of  degenerative joint diseases including spinal problems.

Stem cell therapy is also worth investigating.  Please check out the following website:  www.vet-stem.com/