13/07/2026
Since sharing Peanut’s diagnosis, one question keeps coming up: “What were his symptoms?”
There wasn’t one big moment where I thought oh he must have a spinal issue. In fact, I even put the behaviour change down to teenage brain chemistry initially.
BUT the very subtle bunny hop just didn’t feel right to me! Dogs don’t “just run like that”. There’s always a reason for it.
So we kept track and noticed he was stretching more, more unsettled and the weird biting and scratching was either in the evening or after exercise.
This was not just teenage stuff.
One of the biggest clues came when we started a neuropathic pain medication trial. The change was day and night.
I’m sharing this because I know how many people think we should see physical symptoms like yelping, limping or not wanting to play.
That was definitely not Peanut. He even moved MORE on, what I now know, are his sore days.
This isn’t a checklist for tethered cord, and these signs can be seen with many different orthopaedic and neurological conditions. He also did not have many of the other more known symptoms, like bladder/bowel issues, his tail never lost function, he has never lost back leg function, he also will come up and ask for a back massage 🤭
This is simply part of Peanut’s story.
If there’s one thing he taught me, it’s that ALL behaviour is communication.
A behaviour change is often the first sign of pain. An absence of physical symptoms does not mean an absence of pain.
In my next post, I’ll share how we finally got Peanut’s diagnosis, why it wasn’t straightforward, and the decisions that led us to surgery, and why he is having surgery again in September.
