The Medical Conditions of the Dachshund
Lucille Cruickshank DVM
A few conditions are over represented in Dachshunds compared to the overall dog population, as far as or disease states exist. This article will briefly explore those conditions, what to watch for, and how they can be diagnosed and treated.
Obesity is not only a problem for people, but for dogs here in the United States. If your hot dog is looking more like a bratwurst you really need to address this problem, because obesity is an inflammatory disease, and fat tissue is a major endocrine organ of the body.¹
If you have honestly tried a diet, eliminating the snacks and treats and your dachshund is still not loosing, or maybe even still gaining then you need to consider two possible medical conditions, Cushing’s disease and hypothyroidism. Before that it may be useful to define “diet”.
If you feed what is on the label of the bag you are probably feeding too much. The general rule of thumb is 1 cup of food per day for every 20 pounds of dog, or one large can for every 20 pounds of body weight daily. If you are feeding a restricted calorie food like Purina OM ® or Hills RD ® then you need to feed the amount your veterinarian tells you to and nothing extra.
Hypothyroidism is a condition where the thyroid gland in the neck does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Signs of this condition are failure to grow in the young, weight gain, increased and or repeated pyodermas or skin infections. Your veterinarian will want to run a thyroid panel to try to see where the trouble lies. Thyroid stimulating hormone from the pituitary gland may be insufficient. The hormone produced may be destroyed by antibodies from the immune system, or the hormone must undergo a few conversion steps that are malfunctioning. The condition is easily treated with thyroid replacement hormone in tablet form. The dosage must be customized and periodically monitored.
Cushing’s Disease is a disease where the body adrenal glands produce too much cortisone. This causes the appetite to increase, store more fat, especially in the abdomen and drink and urinate more. There is a master endocrine gland at the base of the brain called the pituitary gland. Small functional tumors of either the pituitary of the adrenal gland itself can cause Cushing’s. It can be difficult to diagnose with either of both an ACTH stimulation test of a dexamethisone suppression test. Adrenal tumors can be surgically removed. Pituitary tumors can be treated a number of ways.
Lysodren® or mitotane, is a chemotherapeutic agent that selectively destroys adrenal tissue. This can be done as a complete destruction of the gland, making hormone replacement necessary, or in part until the symptoms abate, or retesting shows normal reactions and cortisol levels, and then when they increase again, one starts the medication again.
Anipryl®or selegiline and ketoconazole work together well together for some of the pituitary tumors and are usually well tolerated. Liver enzymes must be periodically evaluated and seizures which stop with medication withdrawal or dosage lowering are possible.
Trilostan has been hard to get and is available in Europe, however it has been reported that optimal treatment regimen has not been worked out.²
If there are accompanying central nervous system signs then pituitary radiation can be considered, it probably won’t control the signs of Cushing’s. Hypophysectomy can be attempted for large pituitary masses, and MRI and replacement of thyroid, desmopressin, and glucocorticoids all need to be done possibly creating dry eye and diabetes insipidus possibly being created as well.
Intervertebral disc disease is not unique to dachshunds but happens most often in this breed. It is thought to be more frequent because the same process that causes the early calcification of the growth plates on the legs, thus giving the their short stature, contributes to their early disc calcification. Rupture of this material into the spinal canal can happen slowly or very quickly. Slow discs resulting in a mild to profound lameness, often respond to cortisone treatment and muscle relaxants and recovery is usually fairly complete in a few weeks to months. It has been thought that obesity increases the likely hood for IVD, but recent article in JAVMA states “mean T1-S1 distance and the median tuber calcaneus-to-patellar tendon(TC-PT)distance were significantly shorter in affected animals that unaffected dogs. A1 cm decrease in T1-S1 distance was associated with a 2.1 times greater odds of being affected, and a 1 cm decrease in the TC-PT distance was associated with and 11.1-times greater odds of being affected. Results of multivariable logistic regression also indicated that the affected dogs were taller at the withers and had a larger pelvic circumference than the un affected dogs, after adjusting for other body measurements. Results of ordinal logistic regression indicated that longer T1-S1 distance taller height at the withers, and smaller pelvic circumference were associated with more severe spinal chord injury.)³
Most serious is the rapid extrusion of material into the canal and up against the spinal chord. This can result in complete paralysis, loss of bladder and bowel control and deep pain reflexes. Once deep pain is lost rapid surgical intervention is needed to decompress the nerves. Recovery can take months to a year.
Electro acupuncture combined with standard treatment can shorten recovery times. I have found that physical therapy and patterning, similar to that done in human stroke victims,is helpful to insure function on recovery even in the case of subluxation of the spine, in two cases without surgical intervention.
1. Abstract from 2006 Nestlé/Purina Nutrition Forum; D.P Laflamme, DVM PHD, DACVN.
2. Cassandra Brown DVM, Thomas K Graves, DVM, PHD, DACVIM; Hyperadrenocorticism: Treating Dogs : Compendium for Continuing Education, vol. 29(3) March 2007
3. Jonathan M Levine, DVM, DACVIM et al.; Association between various physical factors and acute thoracolumbar Intervertebral disc disease in Dachshunds: JAVMA Vol 229 No. 3 august 1,2006
4. Ayne Murata Hayashi DVM, MSc et al; Evaluation of electro acupuncture treatment for thoracolumbar Intervertebral disc disease in dogs: JAVMA Vol 231 NO. 6 September 15, 2007.
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