Webinar Plus: He’s Off His Legs! Managing The Acute Spinal Cord Patient 2026
Royal Veterinary College
15 hours ago 
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Date: Monday 2nd November, 2026 - Sunday 29th November, 2026
Start time: 12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Cost: £429
Key Areas
How to perform a complete neurological and orthopaedic examination of the ‘off backlegs’ dog and cat
How to reach an accurate neuroanatomical localisation based on your neurological examination findings
How to use the 5-finger rule to decide on an ordered list of differentials
Develop an understanding of the main causes of acute onset non-ambulatory paraparesis/ paraplegia in dogs and cats and how to recognise them
Develop an understanding of the main orthopaedic causes of acute reluctance to walk in dogs and cats
Decide on an appropriate diagnostic and management plan for the ‘off backlegs’ patient
About this course
Do you feel out of depth when a dog or cat comes in off its back legs? Would you like to better understand the main causes for this presentation and how to manage them?
The dog or cat presenting “off back legs” is a common emergency presentation in clinical practice. Is it neurological, orthopaedic or something else? Is it likely to progress? Does it require urgent interventions such as spinal decompression or stabilisation? This course will give you the confidence to recognise and successfully manage these challenging, yet often highly rewarding, patients in practice.
We will discuss how to accurately assess your patient to decide whether it has a neurological disorder and if so, how to define the neuroanatomical localisation. We will work through the major causes of acute onset spinal cord disorders in dogs and cats, including how to recognise and manage them. We will then move on to consider the important orthopaedic causes of acute reluctance to walk. We will utilise clinical reasoning to formulate an ordered list of differentials and will support learning with relevant case examples and up to date literature.
Why do this course?
Delegates will build confidence in recognising and managing patients with acute onset non-ambulatory paraparesis/ paraplegia. We will cover how to stabilise the emergency patient, as well as how to decide on an appropriate diagnostic and management plan. We will work through multiple important causes of spinal cord injury and of orthopaedic disorders. All learning will be supported by current literature to ensure the most up to date information and recommendations are provided.
The webinars for this course will be pre-recorded and can be viewed as recorded versions throughout the course. Live Q&A sessions with the tutors will run on the following dates at 1.30pm London time.
Webinar dates:
Thursday 5th November
Thursday 12th November
Thursday 26th November
Who is it for?
Vets
The Speakers
Please see the RVC's website for speaker details
Number of CPD hours this event can be recorded as
16 hours
Registration and Booking
Click here to reserve your place
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