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Bailey and her SM

kimy27

Well-known member
Bailey is almost seven and was diagnosed with SM about four years ago. She's been doing ok although I often wonder how much pain she is in on a day to day basis. She is still able to enjoy walks, loves her food and enjoys playing with her brother :)

Most days she is fine. Just now she is on 100mg gabapentin and 50mg Zitac three times per day. The last few days when I have been lifting her head to give her her medicine I have noticed that it causes her to scratch her head/neck. This is obviously causing her some pain.

Really I'm just here to ask if there is any more I could be doing for her? Should I look into increasing the dosage (I worry about her liver/kidneys) or are there other medications I could be trying?

I will speak to my vet but I wanted to ask here because there are a lot of very knowledgable people on this forum.

Thanks.
 
100mg is the basic dose of gabapentin and an increase will not affect Bailey's kidneys (it's the CSF inhibitors like Zitac that can do that), so perhaps discuss with your vet/neurologist increasing the gabapentin to 200mg x 3. The maximum dose is 300mg x 3, so there is still leeway there, and if the SM progresses beyond that, a refined form of of gabapentin called Lyrica can often be effective (but unfortunately expensive!). SM is a progressive disease and very individual in how it affects a particular dog, so regular tweaking of medication in response to symptoms is normal.

Hope you can keep Bailey comfortable.

Kate, Oliver and Aled (both with CM/SM)
 
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