Charlies Result today....

Just to let you all know that we are back from Clares after charlies MRI today- he is happily sleeping off his day whilest resting his wee head on his brand new pillow- courtesy of Tania- thankyou very much xxxxxx

He has Chiari and dialated ventricles- no sign of a syrinx or pre syrinx so the best result I could have hoped for really (it is sad that I wright that!!)

On my long journey home it got me to thinking back over Ruby. if I had bitten the bullet and all the right information was available would I have scanned her earlier and caught the problem before the diease had time to progress in to SM
Obviously Charlie is only 14 months old and to scan him at this age was for some quite strange but having a dog with SM already I knew what I was looking for and insinctively knew something was wrong.
This leads me on to the question- being that it is classed by some as 'normal ' for a Cavalier to have CM should we be treating all Cavvies under the thought that they will all go on to develop SM or have a chance of going on to develop SM.
Should we being giving every Cav a chance by putting them on a diuretic so that it minimises the chance of developing in to SM.
I cant help but think if I had done this for Ruby as I am Charlie her life would be very different to what it is now.

Just a thought xx

Thanks again to Tania who came and sat with me during the long and anxious wait

For those who are intrested my mum is in surgery as I write this and will be out by 10pm (fingers crossed)

Thanks again to all the support you have shown me over the last few weeks xxxxx

Well all things considered, that is a good result. What did Clare say? Does she think he is showing some problems due to CM or does she think he may have been uncomfortable due to some other cause? It must be a relief to have no syrinxes as that was your big worry.

Thinking of your mum and hoping her surgery goes perfectly. Not too much longer before you get the call when she is through and in recovery. I hope the evening passes quickly. :flwr:

She was surprised at how funny he is about his head being touched (its a no go area at the momment) and he did flinch when she put pressure on the upper neck area.
We are starting him on Cimetidine for a month and see if his symptoms lesson but he isnt on any pain releif at the momment- apart from the metacam which I always have a good supply of. I also have gabapentin spare that she said I can give him on a bad day if he has it.

She said its quite probable that he is suffering from headaches due to the Chiari but hopefully the Cimetidine will help ease the pressure.

Im pleased that there are no syrinxs visible and also pleased that I got him scanned at this point so hopefully it wont progress on to anything worse!! One of the reasons I felt the urge to scan him early was due to the MVD and I dont want to have to aneathetise him at a greater age as his heart will only get worse over time!

Take each day at a time- ive ordered myself a nice little 7 day pill organiser as this is all getting rather complicated

Oliver has a small syrinx but the few problems he has seem to come more from his CM and dilated ventricles. He gets occasional headaches and I've noticed that he gets them more when he is dozing flat on his tummy with his head between his paws - this seems to put pressure on his skull. Rolling him gently on to his side usually helps. His weakness in his front leg could also be caused by the dilated ventricles and not by his syrinx, and it has been much better lately, so I'm hoping the frusemide is reducing the dilation. I'm hoping to take him to Chestergates for the next Midland Club scanning day to see if anything is happening.

Geoff Skerritt and Clare Rusbridge have reported positive results from starting a diuretic before a syrinx develops, so I hope this will work with Charlie.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

tanias little Molly had a pre syrinx that dispersed completely after giving a diuretic so fingers crossed it stops any progression xxx

Karen im glad you got this not too bad result today(agree sad that we should think so). Interesting point made re duiretics prior to syrinx formation.
I hope you & your Mum are ok tonight,thinking of you x

Good news that there is no syrinx.
Hopefully the pain in his head will eventually only need occasional medication.

I hope everything went well with your Mum's operation

The pill organisers are really handy -- it is very easy to forget whether you gave a medication or not. They are also great for when you are away and need to leave the dogs with someone to mind them as they can easily see what pills to give.

Have to agree with the Pill Organiser, we have one for each dog so there is no confusion and we know everyone has done their job!

When Molly saw the first specialist he put her on Garbapentin immeidately but not Cimetidine! He said come back in six weeks, he said there was nothing he could really do for her and she would probably be dead within a few months! His bedside manner was non existent! :cry*ing:

I spent a few days washing down walls as I didn't know what to do!! I got a copy of the PDE finally got in
touch with Clare Rusbridge who put Molly immediately on Cimitedine, low dose of Previcox and off Garbapentin. Mollys pre-syrinx is on Clares website. The next scan revelead the pre-syrix had disappeared. Molly had a scan last week, I think everything is stable but I am waiting for the report to be sure.

Dougall who has cm is on Cimitedine plus a low dose of Previcox and what a big difference that has made, we thought he was a quiet dog, he is far from that now. I do worry about Dougall a lot because he also has PSOM which even though there is plenty of information, I am not certain how this is going to affect him long term.

That's really good news that Charlie doesn't have SM and hopefully the medication will keep it that way. Don't feel bad about not treating Ruby sooner - you didn't have the information then that you have now.

I hope your mum's doing well.
xx

Glad everything went as well as could be for Charlie. Hopefully with the right meds he will get relief from the headaches :hug:

Karen, so pleased to hear the news about Charlie not being as bad as you thought. I know exactly how you feel about Ruby, I feel the same about Chaos. Its such a pity that neither of us knew about SM when Ruby and Chaos started showing symptoms as I am sure they would not be so bad as they are with earlier treatment. That is why I am pleased it is becomig more recognised now and I also tell anyone who sees Chaos in her buggy what is wrong with her. Some people see me pushing the empty buggy when Chaos is walking and ask if it is for Armani who is trotting along behind me and I explain who its for and why.
I agree its a good idea to have the pill container. A friend bought one for me as a Xmas present because I was always forgetting if I had taken my pills or not but I am using it for Chaos's meds. Some mornings she needs three and other days she has four so I can make up a week's supply and not have to remember which day it is. My friend asked me if I was using it and I hate lying to just said "yes its got the pills in", didn't want to tell her it was Chaos's.
Hope that all has gone well with your mum's op.:hug:

It really is amazing how differently the CM and dilated ventricles affects dogs. I hope Charlie gets relief rom his headaches and you can figure out the right meds for him. By the way, how do you know he has a headache? What are his symptoms? I guess I never thought about a dog having headaches, even though Riley has SM.

Also, how is your mom doing? I hope the surgery was successful, the tumor was benign, and they are keeping her comfortable. Please let us know.

That's good news that he doesn't have any syrinxes! I hope his symptoms improve on the diuretic and that it doesn't progress to SM. My Bentley is like your Charlie, with just a CM diagnosis but with symptoms.

I'm sorry you are having to go through this with both your dogs. And I hope the surgery went well for your mom.

Love my Cavaliers said:

It really is amazing how differently the CM and dilated ventricles affects dogs. I hope Charlie gets relief rom his headaches and you can figure out the right meds for him. By the way, how do you know he has a headache? What are his symptoms? I guess I never thought about a dog having headaches, even though Riley has SM.

Also, how is your mom doing? I hope the surgery was successful, the tumor was benign, and they are keeping her comfortable. Please let us know.

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Hi Bev- his symptoms are very similer to Rubys, however he is far more head sensitive than she ever was or is. He wont have anything go over his head or approach his head. He backs away when people aproach to stroke him there. He also uses his front paws and literally claws at his head. He scratches quite a great deal. I was really surprised that he has no SM. He quite often groans as he is rubbing his head and will let out a squeak occasionally. His vetricles are quite badly dialated from what I can see on the scan results- its like two huge black wholes in his head!

My mum is out of surgery- we wont know for a while whether she has cancer and the surgeon is talking to them both tomorrow to discuss exactly what he could remove and what he couldnt- it was attatched to her chord so I can only imagine he couldnt have got it all.
She has been purposely paralysed to prevent any scar tissue from damaging the site of the surgery x
We all have our fingers crossed but I was able to speak with her today so I was pleased with that xx

Thanks again for all the support every one has given me recently through all my trials and tribulations- it has been a very tough start to the year but hopefully it can only get better xx

:hug:sending some hugs for you. Hope Charlie is feeling a bit better now and keeping fingers crossed for your mum. Best wishes