Hi all !
I have 5 years old cavalier boy and I suspect he is having SM. Unfortunately in Finland there isn't very much information available so luckily I found your website.
My dog is scratching his left side, no pain or yelping, no screaming. Touching certain area on the left side of his neck (behind the ear) causes scratching.
Mostly scratches in lead (we are using harnesses) and when excited. During exercise (jogging, agility) after warm up he is not usually scratching, some how it seems that when body is warmed up - no scratching. Vet physiotherapist said that probably the exercise increases secretion of endorphines and encefalines - reduces feel of possible pain.
One week ago I noticed that he was licking he's front feet (not excessively) and then last weekend he had some kind of seizure - like "fly catching" from the floor.
This was the first time I noticed these things and made me more confident about the SM.
There might be days when he is not scratching at all. It was about 1.5 years ago when I first noticed that this kind of scratching doesn't seem to be normal behaviour.
We went to xray (head & neck area) and nothing abnormal was found, and also skin has been checked. The vet said that liquid in the middle ear (PSOM) would have been shown in the xray picture so PSOM should have been eliminated. MRI is in my future plans (cost 700 eur and 700 km away from my city). Vet gave Rimadyl for 5 days but as the current symptoms are so mild and vary from day to day, difficult to say if Rimadyl has any effect or not.
As cavalier people in UK are much more familiar with the SM than in Finland, I would appreciate your comments:
Do you agree that my dog most probably have SM ?
Has anyone tried acupunction for pain relief ?
Any experience on homeopathy ?
Does my dog feel pain (even no yelping, no screaming), is he scratching because of pain or other "feelings" in the neck area ?
How do you feel about agility ? (our favourite hobby where we have gained very nice results) Does the dog suffer from training, should we quit ?
Any experience giving extra B vitamin (neuropain relief) ?
Should we continue with Rimadyl or other medication even the symptoms are not severe ?
Thank you for this site, any advises, comments are welcome.
Best regards,
Tanja
I have 5 years old cavalier boy and I suspect he is having SM. Unfortunately in Finland there isn't very much information available so luckily I found your website.
My dog is scratching his left side, no pain or yelping, no screaming. Touching certain area on the left side of his neck (behind the ear) causes scratching.
Mostly scratches in lead (we are using harnesses) and when excited. During exercise (jogging, agility) after warm up he is not usually scratching, some how it seems that when body is warmed up - no scratching. Vet physiotherapist said that probably the exercise increases secretion of endorphines and encefalines - reduces feel of possible pain.
One week ago I noticed that he was licking he's front feet (not excessively) and then last weekend he had some kind of seizure - like "fly catching" from the floor.
This was the first time I noticed these things and made me more confident about the SM.
There might be days when he is not scratching at all. It was about 1.5 years ago when I first noticed that this kind of scratching doesn't seem to be normal behaviour.
We went to xray (head & neck area) and nothing abnormal was found, and also skin has been checked. The vet said that liquid in the middle ear (PSOM) would have been shown in the xray picture so PSOM should have been eliminated. MRI is in my future plans (cost 700 eur and 700 km away from my city). Vet gave Rimadyl for 5 days but as the current symptoms are so mild and vary from day to day, difficult to say if Rimadyl has any effect or not.
As cavalier people in UK are much more familiar with the SM than in Finland, I would appreciate your comments:
Do you agree that my dog most probably have SM ?
Has anyone tried acupunction for pain relief ?
Any experience on homeopathy ?
Does my dog feel pain (even no yelping, no screaming), is he scratching because of pain or other "feelings" in the neck area ?
How do you feel about agility ? (our favourite hobby where we have gained very nice results) Does the dog suffer from training, should we quit ?
Any experience giving extra B vitamin (neuropain relief) ?
Should we continue with Rimadyl or other medication even the symptoms are not severe ?
Thank you for this site, any advises, comments are welcome.
Best regards,
Tanja
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