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.