Deerhound-neck

Those of you that know us might be rather shocked that we start a health-issue,
but as this “Trauma” had been on all kind of pages, we would like to share our experiences.

Three of our dogs had “it”; one male and one bitch over ten years of age, and one bitch in the whelping box (in over 25 years of owning Deerhounds).

The dog gets a short-acting cortisone injection plus a high Vitamin-B injection(from the vet!).
Parallel high dosage of oral Vitamin-B(complex) tablets for at least a fortnight.
In our three cases, that worked very well.

Our puppies/youngsters nor adults are ever walked on anything else but a rope or leather lead without a “STOP” (excuse my English). They never pull, and when I am able to walk again (ha,ha) I can have six and they do not pull.
And we think the course is: - lack of galloping exercise!-……

Have fun without any “Deerhound-neck”

Hi, please mail me and explain what you mean by this, I must be stupid, i did not understand it at all. What have the injections to do with pull the lead? I am sorry that I not understand.

Hi deerhound neck is a trouble affecting the neck of some deerhounds. It's really painfull, they cry when moving the head some are more affected than other
I've a too 3 deerhounds suffering deerhound neck
the first was Albaine went really quick
then Holly in welping box, was difficult because she cannot have med as she was nuturing the pups
then earrach during a coursing season
I'm not sure it's realted to a lac of exercice as earrach was really fit when it's appeared
they too don't pull. Dàn and Diata who were pulling a lot never suffered from deerhound neck

Keijke wrote:


Hello Keijke,

You are right and I am sorry for my misleading writing.
The “Deerhound neck” can happen and it is described best like a slipped disk, lumbago or a disc prolaps in the neck.
No doubt there are even more explanations for it. And the result is a stiff neck.
The reason why I mentioned the lead or type of lead is, that some people think if you use a lead like a “Halty” or a “Harness” it will not happen. But we think that that is not the cure.

Hi Bjorn, we have had it explained to us by a vet that you and I both know, that it is a problem of the neck muscles and particularly in young dogs, the developing muscles,which are in layers,grow at different rates and work against each other and cause this sudden and brief pain.
Nice Dutch dog on the scene I hear!

Ok thanks Bjorn for telling me, now I understand. But how did they got the Deerhound neck is it by breed or can I do something wrong like pulling back in the lead to give him that or what?
Norbert is pulling the leach somethimes but I training him not to and for the moment he is very good but sometimes when he wants to sy hello to someone or some dog I nearly can't hold him, I try to learn him to sit before he can salute. But now I be afraid if I can give him this problem by doing something wrong

This is a very interesting discussion. I have a 6 year old Deerhound Bitch who had no problems with her neck until she had a litter of pups 2 years ago and then she got the dreaded Deerhound neck!. In the last few weeks it seems to have disappeared and she is back to running and playing as normal. Her litter sister suffered the same thing after her puppies were born so I am wondering could it be something to do with them being in Whelp, maybe hormonal?.
Joan.

Odd that there seems to be a lot of pregnant dogs affected. Amelie, Cailean's Mom developed dh neck in the late stages of pregnancy with her last litter. It is dreadfully uncomfortable for the dog and made her quite clumsy with the pups.
I wonder if it has to do with loosening of the joints in prep. for delivery.
It was so wonderful to see her when she started to feel better gambol about like a puppy leaping for joy.

When Murphy was about 16 months old, we were over fields and we spotted my brother in law with his dog. Murphy shot over to him, but pulled up suddenly. We laughed because his dog has rolled in fox pooh and stank, we assumed Murphy didn't want to go near him because of that.
The next morning, he was screaming in pain, everytime he tried to get up, lay down, any movement made him yelp. I took him to the vets who gave him Rimadyl. He had one tablet and within 20 minutes was haring round the garden at full pelt! It certainly worked!
Touch wood he has never had it since. He was very well excercised (still is) off lead daily for a couple of hours, so it wasn't lack of excercise or anything.

At least two of the Cusidh bitches have suffered Deerhound neck related symptoms when pregnant. We took them both to Patrick MacManaway who treats both people and animals (horses and dogs mainly). He is a complementary health practitioner and is based Strathmiglo, Fife, UK. He uses gentle manipulation and massage to release trapped nerves and muscle strain etc. I appreciate that as a complementary practitioner his methods won't be universally accepted but it certainly seemed to help with our Deerhounds. His contact info in case it's of interest is:

Patrick MacManaway
Westbank Natural Health Centre
Strathmiglo Fife KY14 7QP
United Kingdom

Phone 01337-868-945

I'm sure there will be other practitioners in other areas/countries

I don't think that its got anything to do with pulling on a lead and we havn't ever had a bitch affected, only one dog who is almost never on a lead and he eventualy recovered after suffering a couple of bouts,and one dog pup that we sold as mentiond earlier, so I don't know of any common factors that might trigger an eppisode. We could do with a couple or more vet on here to listen to their opinions.