The dog suffers from slowly worsening exercise intolerance and may develop gait abnormalities, especially in the hind limbs that may progress to ambulatory paraparesis, in some severe cases deteriorating to
non-ambulatory tetraparesis.
paresis or paralysis, often most noticeable in the hind limbs as ataxia, followed
by tetraparesis and tetraparalysis
At 6 weeks of age, 2 female puppies from a litter of 9 were presented to the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Veterinary Teaching Hospital with a 3 - to 4 - week history of exercise -
induced tetraparesis.
Neurological examination was consistent with a generalized neuromuscular disease with marked short -
strided tetraparesis that worsened with exercise.
The remaining 48 % of patients showed varying degrees of neurological dysfunction, including paraparesis (27 dogs), postural reaction deficits only (14), paraplegia with absent deep pain perception (7), paraplegia with intact pain sensation (6), and
tetraparesis (5).
About 10 % of dogs will have
tetraparesis (neurologic dysfunction of all 4 legs) and a portion of these animals will be non-ambulatory.