10 mth old Flemish Reluctance to walk

Question
Hello,
I'm torn as to what to do or try with my 10 month old Flemish. Let me give you a little history first. We got Thumper when she was 7 weeks old. She is litter trained and free roaming. She has approximately 160 sq ft area that is open to her all the time and is free to roam (in bunny safe areas) when we are home.
She was spayed at 3 months old.
When she was 5 mths old she had a case of head tilt and weepy eye. (no ear infection). I caught this within a few days. The vet placed her on a sulfur based antibiotic for 5 weeks along with Bene-Bac. Just before this, she had weepy eye which was treated with Tobramycin.(sp). She seemed to recover fully from both.

She continued running and playing and doing her "binky's". About 4 weeks ago she started showing a reluctance to walk.
Instead of hopping, she walks. Once she gets going, she seems to hop ok, not great or normal, but ok. No binkys or running though. She show issues with jumping up into her cage where her food and litter box is. I built her a ramp to that area that she uses now.

The basement stairs are in her area and she has access to those. She used to love to run up and down the stairs. She no longer will go up the stairs to our kitchen. If I carry her upstairs, she will go down them but not after sitting at the top "thinking" about it for a while. The vet and I determined that maybe she fell down a few stairs at some point which caused her to be scared of the stairs. This would explain the stairs issue, but not the reluctance to walk issue. The vet did a full physical exam on her and did not find any broken bones or tender points on Thumper.

I'm in the process of building her more ramps so that she can access the upstairs when we are home without having to go up or down the stairs. This all came about with another case of weepy eye, smaller droppings and loose cecal drops and she had lost almost 2 lbs. She also seems to have issues cleaning her right back paw. I do have a few videos of her walking and trying to clean her paw. The vet put her on two weeks of the antibiotic and the eye drops again in-case head-tilt was to present itself again and some fresh pineapple juice to clear up any hairballs. The droppings have mostly returned to normal. She has gained back a few ounces. The eye is still weepy with a milky discharge. The walking / moving issue has not changed. We decided to try metacam for 4 days to see if she maybe was in pain. She hopped all around and had ~15% improvement. She went halfway up the stairs, and then went back down. No binkys, no running, but she was hopping instead of walking everywhere. We have been referred to an exotic pet specialist which is over 2 hours away.
Should I try Cetyl-M or a supplement like that before I put her through all the stress of x-rays etc.


In Summary:
5months : Weepy Eye and Head-Tilt- all seemed to cure up with treatment
10 months: Weepy Eye, Reluctance to walk, lost 2 lbs, won't climb stairs or jump period., won't lay down like she used to: she always sits when she used to lay down and stretch out, eats and drinks normally (timothy hay and oat hay unlimited, heaping bowl of greens a day (about 3 cups or so), gets bene-bac every other day. Tobramycin did not clear up weepy eye, she has gained back about 5 ounces. She was 12.1 lbs, down to 10.3 lbs and now back to almost 11 lbs. She started molting at 6 months and is still molting around her belly and dew lap.  

She doesn't seem depressed and still likes to play with her ball and paper towel rolls. She has a healthy appetite but just doesn't move around easily.

I appreciate any advise you have. If you are interested I can send you the videos I have of her.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. So much is going on with her it is difficult to organize everything into a time line with attempted treatments etc. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Answer
Hi, Angie

I don't think I'd start any supplements or treatment without knowing what's going on.  Radiographs/x rays are important, since they would show if she now has arthritis or other problem from a previous injury.  A Flemish giant is prone to skeletal problems, being so big.  It's unfortunate that this has presented itself when she's so young.  But all you can do is go forward and hope this is just a temporary soreness that will resolve.

We've found that Cetyl-M can really help, as can metacam.  But any NSAID should be used with caution because of potential long-term damage to the kidneys.

Hope this helps.

Dana