karlin said:
she implied he was just trying to get attention,
You know, with that attitude I'd be inclined to look for a different vet. I do not think animals are drama queens or kings -- and the extreme sensitivity of cavaliers in the neck area is very well known anecdotally. MOST vets I have met say 'cavaliers are wimps about injections'. I don't believe this to be true; on the contrary, if they are suffering to the degree that seems likely from SM, mild to severe, I think they are incredibly stoic amd brave. Some dogs will yelp at injections as sometimes vets will accidentally pinch or hit a nerve -- we have probably all had that experience ourselves with an injection. But real discomfort I think tends to come from the fact that many cavaliers ARE extra sensitive in the neck because most seem to have at least the malformation in the skull -- a kind of spur -- that blocks the flow of the fluid around the brain and down the spine. This increases the pressure which probably at the very least makes them more sensitive in the neck even if they never develop syringomyelia.Just FYI when I had Leo in for his lepto injection (the only one I give him annually now, as he likes to swim which potentially exposes him to lepto) I asked the vet to not give it in his neck and before I could say anything he gave it in his back instead. Leo went crazy in the same way Zack did -- was clearly very aggravated and tried to reach ther spot by scratching and nipping. The vet says sometimes the injection stings a bit and I know this may have been it but as Leo has a syrinx I suspect he was very uncomfortable from the injection. Next time I will ask for it in his thigh or somewhere else.
That visit when the vet said Zack could not really be in pain from those injections was the last time I had him in there. I did have a long talk with the other vet from that practice two days later on the phone, and that was the time when she told me the next step was endoscopy or exploratory surgery, and that short of those interventions, there was nothing more that could be done for Zack. I did deliver a stool sample to them that day to test for giardia etc, but i haven't had Zack there again. I saw another vet that same day. I liked the other vet, she is sensitive, humble and thoughtful, and intelligent, but she was stumped by Zack's condition too, so I moved on to a third vet who apparently made the right diagnosis and put an end to his chronic suffering and deteriorating condition.
Zack didn't scream at all when he had his last puppy shot in the back of the neck, so i figured the shots that he got that made him scream involved a medication that caused stinging or some more extreme kind of irritation.
I think you make a really good point about the courage and strength of cavaliers, the way they cope with various painful and disabling conditions.
I have printed up stuff from your site to fax to all three vets but only actually provided it to one of them, the last one that I plan to use as my main one for now. But i will fax these things to the other vets too, in hopes that it will help raise their level of knowledge and help any affected dogs they may encounter. All three showed the ignorance you speak of. The first one I saw when i first got Zack and we were talking about possible causes of his scratching, told me right up front that...the way she put it was, "How many dogs of this breed to you think we see in this practice?', the answer being that it's extremely rare. I think her point was that it was unrealistic to expect them to be familiar with such conditions? i guess she felt defensive just because i asked about whether the scratching could be from SM and she didn't know what SM was (she had never heard of it). The second vet said, in response to my questioning whether Zack might have SM, "You would be able to feel the skull malformation on examination." But she wasn't dogmatic about it. I know she will be glad to receive info about it.
about oral anti-inflamatory drugs, i know they make liquid advil for kids. And Sheri's idea about baby aspirin sounds reasonable. You would probably want to be cautious about giving those drugs orally if there's any reason to suspect the dog has any stomach problems since they are harsh to the stomach, and are one of the two leading causes of stomach ulcer disease in humans.