2 year old cavalier with sm

Hi my name is jennifer I have a 2 year old cavalier blenheim boy called jack who started showing symtoms of sm at the age of 10 weeks started screaming one day after playing in the garden. He had an mri at around 6 months when he started to show more symtoms hind leg weakness, scratching, loss of vision during a screaming attack. He is slowly getting worse and is medicated with gabapentin and rimadyl in 2 weeks time he is going to a pain management clinic at glasgow vet school hope they can make him more comfortable. He still enjoys walks, his food and a cuddle.
If anyone has any other tips for making jack comfortable they are more than welcome.

sorry to hear about your little man my ruby has sm also she three now bless her:lotsaluv: by the looks of it your doing all you can yourself ruby unfortunately carnt walk far now but like you said has lots of love and attention and of cause medication to make them as comfortable and loved as possible is the best we can do for these special little angels:hug:

icon_welcome Hi Jen, I'm so sorry to hear about Jack :hug: My dog has SM too. The first thing I would do is not use a collar but use a harness, a step-in harness is the best for dogs with SM. Raise food bowls so Jack doesn't have to bend down for his food. Don't have the house too warm, you may have noticed jack looking for a cold floor to lie on sometimes? No doggie clothes for us though some people put tight clothes on an SM dog to stop the crawling sensations, after a few days, Dylan won't stop scratching. That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to PM me anytime You have come to the right place for advice on SM, this forum is wonderful and the members are very caring. :flwr:

I am so sorry, my little girl has SM as well. There was a wonderful thread here on tips for living with SM. There were some excellent ideas. I agree with Pauline - changing to a harness is very helpful as well as raised food bowls. Also, Ilsa loves her acupuncture sessions and I see a huge difference for several days afterwards.

Take care and PM if you need anything

Jen and Ilsa

I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. There are a number of suggestions and tips pinned at the top of this section, which might be of help?

Hi im so sorry to hear about Jack, my girl Ruby has SM too, we got the diagnosis 2weeks ago.Ive just ordered her a raised feeding station,harness,a cooling scarf,& doggie steps-no more jumping from the furniture for her. ive put the links in the shopping section,& i believe theres a thread in there on the best harnesses for SM dogs too, also as said theres the tips at the top of here.
You'll get lots of help & support on here& if youre not sure of anything just ask. i wasnt sure which steps were best so asked & got great advise on which to order
PM me if i can be of help

Wow, never heard of a cooling collar, where did you get that tupup?

I also have steps for Dylan to get onto my bed.

Hi Pauline
I found it on amazon £3.50 when i was ordering the steps you recommended! On site it says cooling bandanna,black& white dots.You soak it in water, cystals in it swell holding water& its meant to stay cool for hours! However its more a scarf& you have to spread the crystals evenly prior to use, not a problem except theyre so stuck in a bunch inside the material Ive given it to a friend to do the seperating
Did you see the link i put in shopping to the cooling jackets i found, there were cooling mats to lie on around too,i think i just googled cooling jackets for dogs to begin with.
We have the steps now, theyre great & we're doing 5mins training at a time, she's using them IF im there to remind her,im sure she will use them by habit soon, being an intelligent cavalier!

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. I'll start googling now!

Jacks vet school visit

Just to let you all know jack was at the vet school on Friday to see a pain management specialist and is now going for surgery on Tuesday. Because of his strange gait caused by sm he now has hip and knee problems. Will let you all know how he gets on fingers crossed should get him back on Thursday.

Is he going for the decompression surgery or surgery for his gait? If for the latter, wouldn't this possibly make Jack's pain worse? It would seem a greater challenge for an SM dog to recover from a surgery given that they have so much neuropathic pain, though if he has a lot of pain from the gait issue maybe that's important to address. I have a parent with neuropathic pain and anything extra to deal with -- eg any extra pain from another cause -- makes the neuropathic pain a lot worse for her.