Hi,
Bosco has been on gabapentin, 100mg, 3x daily since last May. On its own it never did a whole lot for him, he was very sleepy and sluggish. Since January he has also been taking 3mg of prednisone daily, and this is what has made a huge difference for him too.
There are a couple of side effects - his coat is very fluffy and he seems to lose handfuls any time I rub him, or brush him. Also, he is ravenous the whole time. The minute someone leaves the table to put their dishes in the dishwasher, he is over to give them a little prewash of his own
. He is also very fond of trying to get into the bin. Any food that is left out tantalises him, poor thing. We are trying to train him away from the bin and the dishwasher, but he is always hungry, and doesn't have an ounce of spare flesh....if only that would work for me
(Not that I would want SM though)
We also tried losec and metacam, but didn't feel they added any benefit. Every dog with SM seems to experience it differently, and likewise, there seems to be a lot of different meds, and combination of meds that help our dogs. It seems to be a case of keep trying, and hopefully, eventually something will help to give a good (or better) quality of life to them. :xfngr:.
I would def ask your vet for gabapentin, it would be worth trying anyway, also, has he seen Clare Rusbriges' treatment algorithm, which is here:
http://www.veterinary-neurologist.co.uk/syringomyelia/docs/treatalgo.pdf.
Good luck, hopefully Bailey will feel better soon.