Margaret C
Well-known member
Just after the showing of the second Pedigree Dogs Exposed film a breeder wrote a widely circulated letter questioning the SM research.
She refuted the conclusions of a study based on 500 plus MRI scanned cavaliers without symptoms because her five scanned dogs gave a different result.
This week the Dog World Newspaper has published a reply written by the mother of a young woman diagnosed with SM.
I would like to think that this will also be widely circulated on cavalier breeders forums.
[h=2]Don’t wait for science[/h]
I felt I had to reply to Bridgette Evans’ letter ‘Is the science right?’(DW March 9 2012)
Although Bridgette is to be applauded for raising the subject of Syringomyelia in Cavaliers at her breed club AGM, I am dismayed by the woeful lack of progress in the ensuing ten years.
I have to say at the outset that I have zero experience in this breed. Therefore you may ask, am I qualified to give an opinion? Well, sadly, my knowledge of this devastating condition has been learned the hardest way of all.
My 31-year old daughter, Gem, has suffered the horrendous effects of SM since childhood, thought due to the ongoing universal ‘ignorance’ of this condition she was not diagnosed until in sheer desperation we went to the Mayo Clinic in Florida in 2001, where an MRI revealed the terrible truth.
Gem’s whole life has been difficult, to say the least. She was in a wheelchair by 18 and is now virtually bedbound. Despite the best medical care in the UK, hope has all but disappeared.
Gem’s syrinx measures only 3mm at its widest point, yet has devastated her life and, to a lesser extent, that of her family. It is important to note that as Bridgette has said, much larger syrinxes can be present with fewer symptoms and can even be asymptomatic. Why? Who knows?
I have spent the last 11 years researching SM, in an effort to find anything that may make my daughter’s life easier to bear, with little success. She is currently on enough pain medication to down a bull elephant, yet still the agonies continue, unabated and largely undiminished.
Gem’s life continues to be blighted with severe pain, particularly in her lower body. In addition to this pain, 24/7 headaches, wild temperature fluctuations, skin hypersensitivity and photo sensitivity, not surprisingly mean that despair and depression are never far away. Her future seems bleak indeed.
So yes, sadly I think I am more than qualified.
Bridgette disputes the statistics cited on the sequel to Pedigree Dogs Exposed, on the grounds that too small a sample was used, citing her own rather different experiences with five of her own dogs. So, for arguments sake, let’s just say that her findings are more accurate, which they very well might be. In her own words, one dog out of the four to be rescanned was found to have progressive and degenerative SM, representing 25% of the sample. What she is telling us therefore, is that out of the estimated 100,000 Cavalier population, according to her own experience, 25,000 Cavaliers may eventually suffer the agonies of acute, neurological pain for the rest of their tortured days!
I am beyond horrified.
If one Cavalier has to endure this nightmare situation – it is one too many.
Bridgette says, ‘Many ask why we are expected to adopt a scheme in black and white for a condition which has obvious shades of grey?’
If the Cavalier people are waiting for black and white they will be waiting a very long time and it their dogs who will be paying the painful price for their inaction.
Answers? Everyone wants answers. Neurologists have been looking for more than 100 years for answers to this complex, contradictory and downright perplexing condition, but in the main they have been depressingly unsuccessful.
So I make a heartfelt plea to all Cavalier societies, breeders and owners. Do not sit back and wait for science to furnish you with the answers you seek- because it isn’t going to happen! You and you alone have to take action now to stop the suffering and the potential suffering of your beloved breed. Complacency and denial will cost your Cavaliers dear.
When I told my Gem that Cavaliers have SM too, she said they were lucky. Puzzled by her response, I asked her why. She replied, ‘Because they can be put to sleep and be at peace.’
Cathy Harding
The actual letter can be seen here:
http://www.cavaliertalk.com/DWSMletter.pdf ( To read it properly change the magnification on the top from 51% to 100% )
The original letter can be read on Post 9 here:
http://www.cavaliertalk.com/forums/showthread.php?40934-More-points-raised-by-PDE2
She refuted the conclusions of a study based on 500 plus MRI scanned cavaliers without symptoms because her five scanned dogs gave a different result.
This week the Dog World Newspaper has published a reply written by the mother of a young woman diagnosed with SM.
I would like to think that this will also be widely circulated on cavalier breeders forums.
[h=2]Don’t wait for science[/h]
I felt I had to reply to Bridgette Evans’ letter ‘Is the science right?’(DW March 9 2012)
Although Bridgette is to be applauded for raising the subject of Syringomyelia in Cavaliers at her breed club AGM, I am dismayed by the woeful lack of progress in the ensuing ten years.
I have to say at the outset that I have zero experience in this breed. Therefore you may ask, am I qualified to give an opinion? Well, sadly, my knowledge of this devastating condition has been learned the hardest way of all.
My 31-year old daughter, Gem, has suffered the horrendous effects of SM since childhood, thought due to the ongoing universal ‘ignorance’ of this condition she was not diagnosed until in sheer desperation we went to the Mayo Clinic in Florida in 2001, where an MRI revealed the terrible truth.
Gem’s whole life has been difficult, to say the least. She was in a wheelchair by 18 and is now virtually bedbound. Despite the best medical care in the UK, hope has all but disappeared.
Gem’s syrinx measures only 3mm at its widest point, yet has devastated her life and, to a lesser extent, that of her family. It is important to note that as Bridgette has said, much larger syrinxes can be present with fewer symptoms and can even be asymptomatic. Why? Who knows?
I have spent the last 11 years researching SM, in an effort to find anything that may make my daughter’s life easier to bear, with little success. She is currently on enough pain medication to down a bull elephant, yet still the agonies continue, unabated and largely undiminished.
Gem’s life continues to be blighted with severe pain, particularly in her lower body. In addition to this pain, 24/7 headaches, wild temperature fluctuations, skin hypersensitivity and photo sensitivity, not surprisingly mean that despair and depression are never far away. Her future seems bleak indeed.
So yes, sadly I think I am more than qualified.
Bridgette disputes the statistics cited on the sequel to Pedigree Dogs Exposed, on the grounds that too small a sample was used, citing her own rather different experiences with five of her own dogs. So, for arguments sake, let’s just say that her findings are more accurate, which they very well might be. In her own words, one dog out of the four to be rescanned was found to have progressive and degenerative SM, representing 25% of the sample. What she is telling us therefore, is that out of the estimated 100,000 Cavalier population, according to her own experience, 25,000 Cavaliers may eventually suffer the agonies of acute, neurological pain for the rest of their tortured days!
I am beyond horrified.
If one Cavalier has to endure this nightmare situation – it is one too many.
Bridgette says, ‘Many ask why we are expected to adopt a scheme in black and white for a condition which has obvious shades of grey?’
If the Cavalier people are waiting for black and white they will be waiting a very long time and it their dogs who will be paying the painful price for their inaction.
Answers? Everyone wants answers. Neurologists have been looking for more than 100 years for answers to this complex, contradictory and downright perplexing condition, but in the main they have been depressingly unsuccessful.
So I make a heartfelt plea to all Cavalier societies, breeders and owners. Do not sit back and wait for science to furnish you with the answers you seek- because it isn’t going to happen! You and you alone have to take action now to stop the suffering and the potential suffering of your beloved breed. Complacency and denial will cost your Cavaliers dear.
When I told my Gem that Cavaliers have SM too, she said they were lucky. Puzzled by her response, I asked her why. She replied, ‘Because they can be put to sleep and be at peace.’
Cathy Harding
The actual letter can be seen here:
http://www.cavaliertalk.com/DWSMletter.pdf ( To read it properly change the magnification on the top from 51% to 100% )
The original letter can be read on Post 9 here:
http://www.cavaliertalk.com/forums/showthread.php?40934-More-points-raised-by-PDE2
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