This post was originally written and posted to Corgi-L on August 15, 2010. Since that time we find ourselves facing DM once again in our now oldest Corgi Helen. My thoughts haven’t changed.
I’ve been fairly quiet on the topic of DM (“Canine Degenerative Myelopathy“) since Guido passed away early last year. In part, it’s the grieving process, and in part it’s taken me that long to get my head around the issues and understand where I wanted to land. I actually wrote the majority of this months ago, deciding to let it sit to make sure my thoughts were clear and emotions reasonable.
My perspective is simply as a pet owner, and in particular as a pet owner who’s had a DM dog progress through the disease from start to finish, as well as having had other dogs over the years. And as a pet owner with enough science and engineering background to understand a few of the genetic issues as well.