Advanced Imaging

[lexxdog]

I actually had to push my VET to refer me for an MRI.

My dog has now had two MRIs and several CT scans.

The first MRI diagnosed him with hydrocephalus. He has undergone shunt surgery to help alleviate the symptoms. Its a bit of a play though because the only way to see if the thing is actually WORKING is another CT scan. and another 1500 dollars.

We've done several and though I don't think that the surgery is curing him, I was glad to know that it wasn't "just epilepsy" because the treatment plan and things to watch for is quite different.

[CivilDog]

btt, very good discussion here.

I'm new to seizures and haven't posted our story yet.

we're in the "do we or don't we" stage for the MRI/spinal.

[Mirrorakay]

Riku made the decision for the MRI about as simple as he could for me. His trigger has been obvious from the start-- stress. It triggered 3 out of 4 of his siezures and the vet said the one that wasn't could very well have been caused by the stress from a nightmare simply because of his pattern. Not to mention he required a surgery that cost $1,300 in November leaving his vet fund nearly bone dry. Both of those factors made it so that my vet said, in all likelyhood, it is idiopathic epilepsy and they would not recommend the MRI. However, had both of those not been at play, I may have done otherwise; Riku is 5 years 7 months so I did have my concerns. Though, even with that in mind, my vet said they rarely encourage MRIs simply because they cost a great deal of money and there's a good chance they won't reveal anything of value.

[Apache]

Our vet made mention of the MRI and CT Scan at the very beginning, but never pressed the issue with us. First and foremost, his age was at that ripe time when seizures start with Epilepsy. Secondly, they wanted to help prevent further seizure activity and quickly started him on Phenobarbital. No word or suggestion on those tests since then.

That's no real great help to you, obviously. However, if you can well afford it you may want to consider it. That's how I look at it.

Good luck, and looking forward to reading your story.

Brian

[Anilasunny30]

If you can afford it consider doing an MRI. I am one of the girls who love my pets to the end. If my dog had an issue i will definitely do it.

[mariakatosvich]

what I'm getting at, is how often is it simply 'diagnostically interesting' (i.e. now we know what is wrong, but can't do anything different), how often is is clinically important (i.e. now we know that 'x' is wrong, we can do 'y' about it that we couldn't reasonably do before), and how often is it completely unrevealing.

I've read a lot of stories where people have spent a lot of money on advanced imaging, and a lot of stories that say "we found nothing", I've heard stories that went "we found 'x' and knew there was no hope", but I haven't yet read one that says "and because we did it, my dog was able to live a longer, healthier life"