Proprioceptive deficits found in 1 of 4 dogs without neurologic signs

Twenty-six percent of the dogs brought to a Cornell veterinary teaching hospital for problems that had nothing to do with the nervous system showed at least one delayed postural reaction — a finding most clinicians would read as neurologic disease.

The animals were presented between May and July 2025 to the internal medicine, soft tissue surgery, ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, oncology and dentistry services. Two veterinary students and a rotating intern, trained by a neurology resident and blinded to each dog's age, worked through the hopping and paw replacement tests in the exam rooms, grading every limb of every dog.

The results, published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, give primary care veterinarians a background rate for a finding they see routinely and, until now, had no population-based benchmark for.

What did the investigators actually examine?

The study was cross-sectional and prospective in its examination. Owners of the client-owned dogs reported no history of seizures, no changes in behavior or mentation, and no abnormal gait or posture.

Of the 323 dogs examined, 277 met the inclusion criteria. Researchers excluded dogs receiving gabapentin or trazodone, dogs with previous orthopedic surgery or orthopedic disease other than osteoarthritis, and dogs with cranial nerve deficits. Dogs with osteoarthritis were not excluded, which matters because that population makes up a large share of older clinic patients.

To account for size-related differences in longevity, the investigators calculated each dog's fractional lifespan (FL), defined as age divided by estimated lifespan based on height and weight. Dogs were grouped as adult (FL ≤ 0.5), middle-aged (FL > 0.5 to 0.75) and senior (FL > 0.75).

How strong is the age signal?

Seventy-two dogs, or 26.0% of the 277 enrolled, had delayed postural reactions in at least one limb (95% CI, 20.9% to 31.7%). Prevalence rose in each successive age band: 11.8% in adult dogs, 27.1% in middle-aged dogs and 39.0% in senior dogs. Those differences reached significance for adult versus middle-aged dogs and for adult versus senior dogs, but not for middle-aged versus senior dogs.

The odds of general proprioceptive deficits (GPD) increased 22% for every additional year of age (odds ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.33) and 31% for each 0.1 increase in fractional lifespan (odds ratio, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.18 to 1.46). The fractional-lifespan measure produced the sharper signal, which is why the authors favor it over raw age for large and small breeds alike.

Where the deficits clustered, and what the authors say explains them

The deficits were concentrated in the hindquarters: 65 of the 72 affected dogs (90%) had pelvic limb deficits only. Every affected dog retained normal spinal reflexes, and only one showed increased limb tone.

The authors noted that age-related changes in receptors, muscle fibers and central processing may contribute to the pattern. They also cautioned that subtle spinal cord lesions cannot be ruled out, an admission that keeps the finding provisional rather than settled.

Do sex and breed change the picture?

Neither sex nor chondrodystrophic breed status was independently associated with GPD once age was accounted for. Two limitations attach to that conclusion. Chondrodystrophy status was inferred from breed rather than genotype, and dogs with previous neurologic episodes were excluded, which the authors acknowledged may have underrepresented affected chondrodystrophic dogs.

What changes at the exam table?

Hopping proved more sensitive than paw replacement. Among affected dogs, 43% showed delayed hopping only, compared with 4% with delayed paw replacement only. On that basis, the authors recommended assessing hopping in all four limbs during routine neurologic screening of older dogs.

They also proposed a fractional lifespan of 0.5 — roughly the transition from adulthood to middle age — as a practical threshold for adding postural reaction testing to wellness examinations.

Because the examiners received training comparable to that of general practitioners, the authors argued the results apply directly to primary care rather than only to referral neurology. Knowing the expected background rate of GPD, the authors concluded, can help practitioners neither overinterpret an incidental deficit nor normalize the early signs of progressive neurologic disease in aging dogs.

How far can these findings travel?

The study population came from a teaching hospital, no formal interexaminer reliability testing was performed, and the cross-sectional design cannot show whether deficits progress, stabilize or resolve over time. The findings concern client-owned companion dogs only; the study carried no food-animal or public-health implications.

The reference is Tam A, Carney P, Merbl Y, "Prevalence of proprioception deficits in dogs visiting veterinary clinics for non-neurologic reasons: a cross-sectional study," J Vet Intern Med. 2026;40(5):aalag236, doi:10.1093/jvimsj/aalag236.

What remains open is the trajectory: the design establishes that deficits accumulate with age, and the next studies will have to show whether an older dog with a delayed hop in May carries that deficit forward, improves, or worsens.