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Ted diagnosed with SM today

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Mrs Crilly

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Our dog Ted who is 14mths old got his mri today and has been diagnosed with SM, they say it's a very mild form of it at present and they feel he is a very good candidate for surgery. We are booked in for Thursday week.

Should I be positive about this? I have read up a lot about this and I know there is no cure. I was very upset when we got the news today, (I think I scared the vet, I was already flooding the practice when he got his sedative injection and he fell asleep in my arms)

I know this might work and reduce his symptoms, I know it could make them worse, it could make them alright for a while and then worse. One of the questions I never really asked the vet was what's the life expectancy of a Cavalier when the surgery works and when it doesn't work.

It kills me to say this but if my Ted is in pain I have to be sensible and think about putting him asleep, how can I justify keeping him alive in pain?? I don't want to have to do it as I would be inconsolable but it's just not fair.
 
I'm so sorry Ted was diagnosed with SM...there are several people on this board who are going through this right now, having just found out their dog has it, and at least 1 or 2 people who have gone with the decompression surgery...I'm sure they will reply to your post. I don't really have any advice, but at least it was caught early so you can treat it right away. Good luck, and keep us posted on Ted :lotsaluv:
 
I'm sorry sorry to hear about Ted.
This is so awful, it must have been hard to go with surgery as the outcome is not gauranteed.
I hope all goes well with the surgery.


Best Wishes

Sam
 
I'm so sorry to hear about Ted. It's so sad he is so young :( I hope the surgery goes well on Thursday. Thinking of you. :hug:
 
14 months old? Have you contacted your breeder? I would never want to return a puppy, but you might really want to have a long chat with your breeder. 14 months old is very young for major problems and...well I guess you get the point. At least look into it. I'm so sorry for Ted.

:xfngr: Everything goes well.
 
SM is such a devastating diagnosis. Riley had decompression surgery last June, 2008 and is doing well. She will never be complely normal, but she seems happy and content. I don't know if I've prolonged her life by doing the surgery, but at this point that seems like a moot point to me. At the time she was diagnosed I felt emotionally that I had no option but to try every thing I could to give her a better quality of life. I'm also aware of the fact (and thankful) that I could afford the surgery and was not faced with the awful dilemma of trying to scrimp and save for a procedure with no guarantees. At this point, I have no regrets about doing the surgery. It's a long recovery - but I think it was worse on me than Riley. During her recovery is when I questioned every day whether I was doing the right thing, and spent many days just crying over it. But, I'm happy with my decision and I will cherish each day she is with me. Since surgery was strongly recommended for her, I think I would always question my decision if I had chosen not to do the surgery, whereas now, I am totally at peace with it. Like you though, I wish someone could give a more definitive answer about expected life spans post-op. Good luck and I will be thinking of you and Ted and wishing for the best.
 
Abbey was diagnosed 12 days ago with sm and I did ask that question. I was told that sm was not what would kill her. She would probably live the normal life espectancy which with cavaliers isn't that old. She has a heart murmur so who knows. We also have opted to do the surgery only to keep it from progressing. Time will tell on what it does for her present symptoms. We also couldn't take the risk of not doing the surgery to have it progress to things like falling over or seizures all the time etc. At that point its too late. I know what you are going through as we're in about the same time frame here. Our surgery is on the 2nd. In regards to being so young my dear Abbey had a seizure 2 weeks after getting her and I contacted the person we got her from and they wanted to take her back--I couldn't have returned her for nothing. I was in love from day 1. We also got her from the newspaper and she came from Slovakia--yea we were dumbies BUT the neurologist said to me in his exact words "you saved her". I would contact the breeder no matter what as she/he needs to know. Hang in there--easy for me to say when this is the first day I haven't cried--nope take that back --watched Claire's video and was in tears. Thinking of you and wish you were closeby and I'd give you a great big hug. Also, at this point don't be thinking about putting him to sleep etc. There are meds etc. and take one day at a time. Try to think positive and believe me I know thats very hard. Its so scarey--the brain.
 
Thanks for all your messages ladies, I will be contacting the breeder to let her know what has happened to Ted. He did come with a full bill of health when he was a puppy but I suppose how do you know they are going to develop sm?

I really hope I am doing the right thing by having surgery, the recovery period seems quite harsh. I am suprised by how upset I am, if this is what it's like now I can only imagine what I will be like when it's Ted's time to go.
 
Ted

Having only found out last week about my Charlie having SM., I know just what you are feeling. Im so, so sorry. I must say, I am very pleased with Charlies reaction to the Gabapentin hes on.All the licking & chewing etc have stopped & hes very bright & seems to be without pain. I would not go down the route of surgery but the difference is my dog is 7yrs next month & yours is only baby,we each have to do what we feel is right for our particular dog, I feel. I shall be thinking of you when he has his op. Be brave for him . Lots of good wishes. :xfngr::xfngr:
 
Hello and so sorry to hear about Ted. My dogs were diagnosed last November. Ginger has compression and is in pain, while Charley isn't in as much pain and has a syrinx that has filled about 90% of his spinal cord. The neurologist can't believe the lack of pain while having a syrinx that large, it just goes to show how devastating it can be. Ginger has been on gabapentin and it doesn't seem to be effective. Both of them will be going into surgery sometime late March early April as I'm doing some fundraising, etc.

Hang in there.......and please keep us posted.

Bernie-
 
Hi ladies

Silly question but when they are biting and licking but not making any noises would the dog be in pain. Does the pain only really show when noises and yelps would be made during these actions?
 
Hi, Just wanted to send my love and good thoughts. We are waiting for an MRI at the moment. The vet called today to say she knows of a vet within travelling distance of me who is doing a study into SM at the moment and is looking for Cavaliers. If I agree to the study they will MRI Leo for free.
I want to talk to him first to see what the study involves.
Hope all goes well on thursday, will be thinking of you.

Mel X
 
From reading all your replies it seems as though the mri's and the operations are quite costly, do you have pet insurance at all? I have it with Allianz and it's €19 per month and they have covered his mri and his operation.
 
Hi Mrs Crilly!
I'm sorry to hear that Ted has been officially diagnosed.Can you or Ste Pm me with the name of the neurologist you were referred to.I'm going to ask my vet to refer us asap to Vet college as we've ruled out allergies,fleas,mites and ear infection.We have the allianz petplan as well.
I suspected about 10 weeks ago that all was not right and things seem to be deteriorating rapidly.She's lost the ability to jump on the furniture unaided and gets long bouts of scratching a couple of times a day.We really need to rule out SM at this stage.She turned two on 1 st January.
Sins
 
Hi Fiona. Just thinking of you ALOT today as I know today was Ted's surgery. Please post when you're able and e-mail me also. You're all in my thoughts and prayers. I'm right behind you as you know as Abbey has surgery in 4 days--on monday.
 
I hadn't realised you'd scheduled the surgery so soon Fiona.Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery and a successful outcome.
Sins
 
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