About The Webinar
Many veterinary surgeons can feel overwhelmed when confronted by a neurological emergency. Acute hind limb paralysis is one of the most common and daunting neurological emergencies in dogs. It is a common misbelief that all dogs with acute hind limb paralysis need advanced and expensive further diagnostics, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is another misbelief that dogs with acute hind limb paralysis have a poor prognosis if they do not undergo emergency spinal surgery. Although these patients present indeed with severe and disabling clinical signs, not all acutely paralysed dogs need spinal surgery and not all acutely paralysed dogs need advanced diagnostics. Even more, not all dogs with acute hind limb paralysis can or need to be referred to specialist referral centres. In this lecture, we will discuss how to create a reliable list of the most likely differential diagnoses when confronted with an acutely paralysed dog, how to recognise if your patient needs to be referred for spinal surgery, and how to care and achieve a successful outcome in acutely paralysed patients yourself. You will realise that the combination of following a logical problem-based approach and having realistic expectations are key factors in successfully managing these challenging cases.
