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A potential new medication for SM dogs

Margaret C

Well-known member
From Dr Clare Rusbridge's website http://www.veterinary-neurologist.co.uk/
News about the pain trial at the Royal Veterinary College. I think there may be one or two members here who took part in this.

I volunteered Tommy but he was not quite symptomatic enough at the time, and Matthew had too much of a heart murmur.........

Clinical Study Completed

The Veterinary Clinical Investigation Center has completed a clinical study evaluating the efficacy of a novel treatment for the control of pain associated with syringomyelia in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. The study was part of a collaborative effort between a Pharmaceutical Company, and the Schools of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pennsylvania and the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom.

The study actively recruited patients from November 2007 to October 2008 and after screening 119 dogs a total of fifty two patients participated in the trial. Following statistical analysis the results are promising. There is potential for further development of this new medication to help alleviate the pain associated with syringomyelia.


It will be wonderful if they do produce a new & effective pain control drug for the more severely affected dogs. The options do seem rather limited.

I have just had to start Matthew on prednisolone as he seemed really depressed and uncomfortable, hardly wanting to raise his head up from the 'sphinx' position on the floor. He is now a different dog........but I'm worried about the side effects

There is also information on Clare's website about 'mouth mops', a speedier method of collecting saliva samples.
 
I'm anxious to find out more about this and hope we'll learn more before too long about the trial. That's a good sample, at 52 dogs.

Sorry to hear about Matthew's discomfort.
 
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