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Fearing the vet visit

vicarrieous

Well-known member
After reading some of the posts here and the research in this forum, I am dreading my dr. appointment tomorrow for my little Albie. I will be HEARTBROKEN to hear if he has SM. I watched some of the clips of symptoms and some are eerily similar. He does scratch quite often at and around his ear/neck and hinds of his legs. It seems to be concentrated to his one side and often gets matts at the bottom and back of his ears I think from scratching near and around them. The other day I found a half dollar sized scab on his upper neck closer to his head. I cannot think of any other reason for him to have this except of scratching at it. He doesnt yelp or seem to do this on a lead, but he does scratch quite often. I am praying for some type of allergy but trying to prepare for the worst. (Isn't it horrible I am praying for my little guy to have an allergy?) I guess I am just trying to get some feedback on whether or not this sounds like it could be SM or not and what kind of questions I need to be asking my vet. Tomorrow is his first visit and I want to be asking the right question so we can rule anything else out first. It has been hard enough to write this post (I am holding back tears) because I truly dont know what to think.
 
scratching is only one of the many symptoms, stay positive! i'm sure he'll be fine but even if you do find out he has it (god forbid) it's not the end of the world. There is so much support you can get especially from this forum. But theres no harm in praying its an allergy!
hope he's ok!:xfngr::lotsaluv:
 
Thanks for the positivity. Right now I dont know what to think. His scratching is very similar and its fairly often. I guess it could be something else, but its hard to pin something down with his main symptom is scratching and finding the scabs.
 
If there are scabs then surely he is being bitten by something, i think just itching an area would make it sore and red, but actual scabs i doubt it, lets hope anyway, di
 
There are many reasons for scratching, so don't despair too soon.
Please let us know what the Vet says.

Margaret C
 
We went to the Vet today and had a LONG discussion. As of now she is suggesting we do a food switch to see if allergies are the main culprit. She checked his skin and it looks normal except for a little pinkish in his arm pits. She really wants to rule out everything else first. My only concern is that she is not very familiar with SM and I dont think many vets around here (Southeast WI) are. We discussed it some and she assured me that we would monitor his actions and see if we can figure out what is triggering it if it is food or another allergy first. She saw where the scab was and felt that it could be from an allergy or something else. We did some research and per our vets advice to switch to a lamb and rice formula we decided on Blue Buffalo. Does anyone have experience with this brand? Its a natural dry food and has a lot of the ingrediants our vet suggested to find. We previously had tried Royal Canin but they got sick on that. Any other suggestions before we commit?

Thanks!
 
No advice on that particular food,but I do have Pippin(who suffered from colitis) on lamb and rice and he is doing very well on it.

I hope you get this sorted and it turns out to be an allergy rather than sm.
 
This is the right route for a vet to take -- they need to eliminate other possibilities before a referral to a neurologist. You don't want to go to a specialist unnecessarily. That said, yes, excessive scratching to the point of scabs could be SM but it could also be other things. Leo has scab formation under his ear and towards the back of his neck on the side he scratches most often. I am upping his gabapentin dosage to try and address this.

There is a neurologist familiar with SM in Madison. If you are concerned you could ring them to see if they can recommend a vet familiar with SM but even then the vet would probably take the same route as yours -- vets do not generally have the expertise to make an SM diagnosis!

Wisconsin

Dr. Helena Ulrika Rylander
Dept. of Medical Sciences
School of Veterinary Medicine
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
2015 Linden Dr., West
Madison, WI 53706-1102
Tel: 608-263-8399; 608-265-3112
E-mail: [email protected]
www.vetmed.wisc.edu
 
Thanks Karlin for the contact info! I think we will stick with this food change and see how they do. I am hoping it will make a difference! I will keep you all posted and :xfngr: my fingers for good luck!
 
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