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Hind leg weakness

Jane P

Well-known member
Dylan has been on Gabapentin for 10 days, 100mg 3 times a day. Today his hind legs seem very weak and he fell over twice during his walk. Is this a side effect of the Gabapentin or is it to do with his SM?
 
Dylan has been on Gabapentin for 10 days, 100mg 3 times a day. Today his hind legs seem very weak and he fell over twice during his walk. Is this a side effect of the Gabapentin or is it to do with his SM?

How old is he, and in what shape is his heart?
 
I noticed some loss of balance at first but put it down the the Rimadyl. My Dylan was on both Gabapetin and Rimadyl at first. It did go away.
 
Rod, he is 4 and his heart is fine.

My Dylan's on Metacam as well as Gabapentin but he's been on the Metacam since March so its not that. Hopefully it will go away once his system is used to the Gabapentin.
 
Dylan has been on Gabapentin for 10 days, 100mg 3 times a day. Today his hind legs seem very weak and he fell over twice during his walk. Is this a side effect of the Gabapentin or is it to do with his SM?


These things are so difficult to know. If he has been on gabapentin for 10 days, I would have thought that side effects would have shown up sooner.

The first time I tried Matthew on gabapentin it did not seem to have any effect on his SM symptoms, so we went on to steroids which worked well.
He then got a very painful eye ulcer, probably from a scratch. He had to be slowly weaned off the steroid to allow the ulcer to heal. He was put back on gabapentin but could not have metacam as well because of contra-indications with the medrone.

He was in a terrible state, face rubbing, legs collapsing, falling over, I have been very close to calling time on him, especially as the eye was so terribly sore and it could not heal until the steroid was out of his system, and that process of tapering off took over two weeks.

We are now on a more even keel. The eye seems much less painful, he has stopped falling over, although his back left leg still quivers like a jelly all the time he is standing. The gabapentin and metacam together seem to be controlling the SM symptoms.

I really don't know why he was falling so much, it may have been early effects of the gabapentin, it may have been his general state of health.

I was happy with him when he was on the steroids, & my daughter's SM cavalier was maintained on them for years, but I would now regard them as very much a last resort. Scratched eyes are not unknown here because the Chins often playfight with the cavalier's heads whether they reciprocate or not ( my old cavaliers are so very tolerant )
If the gabapentin stops working I would now probably try Tramadol

I hope that whatever is causing Dylan's problem soon gets sorted out.
 
Hi Jane

I too had the same problems with Gabapentin and it didnt start for a couple of weeks after we started it.
Ruby got very weak in the front legs and started tripping up curbs and stumbling alot. One day she just fell flat on her face.
We went beck to see Clare thinking she was deteriorating rapidly and clare said that it was the gabapentin after doing a few tests with ruby.
We have been on Pregabalin instead now for 6 weeks and Ruby is doing remarkably well. No stumbling or tripping and her symptoms have pretty much come to a halt apart from the odd scratch.

I hope you are insured as if you do decide to try the pregabalin (brand name Lyrica) it is extremely pricy. We pay £150 for 2 months supply.

Hope this helps but either way you will need to go back and see the neurologist.
I forgot to add that Pregabalin isnt easily available through Vets and we got the 1st lot through Boots pharmacy with a prescription but i am getting it from PetDrugs online where it is slightly cheaper.

Karen
 
Thank you everyone for your kind replies. Dylan seems better today and I have not seen his back legs give way since yesterday.:) I think it maybe is a reaction to the gabapentin and if it keeps happening I will contact Clare Rusbridge and see what she thinks.
 
I'm sure many puzzling "symptoms" can often be attributed to medications and getting the dosage correct.

But don't forget that, just because a dog has SM, it doesn't mean that they might not get other problems too. For example, my ruby Megan (now almost 11) was first diagnosed with SM in 2005 when she had an MRI scan for a sudden-onset limp in one of her hind legs. At the time, the neurologist didn't think that the SM was responsible for this limp and, after a few months, it did seem to go away, though she occasionally had trembling in that leg and or stiffness, which caused her to try to walk with it sticking straight out at the side.

Then in 2007 she developed more neurological symptoms and a 2nd MRI scan showed hydrocephalus and also 2 degraded spinal discs. We now feel that it is the latter which are mainly responsible for her hind limb weaknesses - though noone can really say for absolute certain.

In addition, a couple of weeks after starting gabapentin, she suddenly lost all the hair on her beautiful tail. At first the neurologist thought that this might be a rare side-effect of the drug, but, in the end, it turned out that she had contracted mange (from local foxes which come into our patch) at a time when her whole system was under siege and she was obviously very vulnerable. None of my other dogs caught it, thank goodness.

As things stand now, Megan is stabilised on frusemide and an anti-inflammatory, we have had no further neurological symptoms since August 2007 and the hind leg problems can usually be avoided by careful exercise regimes and rest when necessary.

SM is a complicated disease, but unfortunately it doesn't stop our beloved dogs having other problems at the same time.

Every good wish, Marie-Anne
 
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