• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

Episodes of circling in distress

J

Janevelyn

New member
Hi I’m new here so please forgive any faux pas like maybe posting in the wrong thread
My six year old tri girl Sadie has had numerous problems starting with both knees fully luxated
Got the surgery a few months ago on her worse side and for a while it seems she had a new lease on life- however, in the past couple weeks she showed signs of possible injury (we thought she jumped on moms couch wrong a couple times - at home I have doggy steps). Vets think her neck is very sore along with her legs. Been giving her the 3 prescriptions 2 and 3 times daily depending on med, and on schedule. However, every single morning she goes into this pacing / circling / moving nonstop but extremely slowly haunched with neck down for at least one hour. It’s been as long as almost 3 hours. And most days it returns for a slightly shorter duration in afternoon or early evening. She pants while doing this and almost seems to be in a trance! She circles to me repeatedly where I gently stroke her and speak lovingly. I’ve already taken her to 3 different vets and no real answers just pain management. Can anyone help???????
 
Hi and welcome, apologies for the delay in approving your post and am so sorry you are going through this worrying situation. I suspect your cavalier possibly is showing signs of syringomyelia. Ask for a referral to a neurologist, ideally... there's very good information that's easy to understand on www.cavaliermatters.org (check the menu up at the top to find relevant sections). Also refer your vet to leading expert Dr Clare Rusbridge's website which has a plethora of information for specialists, vets and pet owners including a treatment algorithm. Either way though I think this sounds like a specialist issue and to me, it sounds neurological not orthopedic. I've owned many cavaliers with SM and generally it can be managed with medications -- you might trial gabapentin from your vet and see if that helps, often the response is almost immediate. While a neurologist will generally want to do an MRI, this can be costly and the condition is actually so common that many neurologists simply choose to trial gabapentin to see if there's a response. Personally I feel that an MRI isn't necessary unless an owner wishes to consider surgery or really wants detail of what is going. If you have insurance then of course an MRI is an easier choice). Now sure where you are based but www.cavalierhealth.org has a section of qualified vet neurologists familiar with CM/SM in cavaliers.

NB: a neurologist may feel there are other possible causes for the circling and may want to do a scan on that basis of uncertainty. Please let us know what you hear back. There's also much info on SM and posts from people with affected cavaliers in the SM section of this board, though links may be outdated now. (I'm slowly working on bringing things up to date)
 
Hi there sorry to hear about your pup. From your description this sounds like behavioural (stereotypical) spinning. However as @Karlin said there are other causes of spinning which are important to rule out. I have produced a you tube video
and the behavioural spinning is at the 12.52 min time point. In your girl it unusual to get sudden onset behavioural spinning in an adult dog so important to look at other causes and triggers and it also sounds like optimising pain management will be very important. I hope that this helps and that she improves.
 
Thank you both so much for your replies. I should’ve come in here and updated you all - just a few days after I posted that, she stopped doing it. Was just so bizarre though and it went on a good couple of weeks. I’m praying it never happens again! Thanks again and everyone and their precious pups be well.
 
Oh that's good to hear! If she starts again, I'd definitely review the info in Clare's video again, and see a specialist. Hopefully it won't happen again. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top