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SM medication

kimy27

kimy27

Well-known member
What meds to you give your Cavs for SM? At the moment Bailey is taking 20mg of furosemide twice a day and Metacam. Although I think she is scratching less she still doesn't have a lot of energy and sleeps a lot. This might just be the way she is but I worry that it is SM related and that her head is hurting her.

I am tempted to ask the vet if I can give her gabapentin for a couple of weeks to see if there is any change in her. Do you think that would be a good idea?
 
Riley gets 5 mg prednisone and Denamarin (for liver support) every day. Those are her only meds. But her course of SM has been very different from most dogs - no scratching, just horrible balance issues, weakness in the legs, and a head tilt. She tried gbapentin but it made no difference in her symptoms. Prednisone is the only thing that has helped her live a good quality life.
 
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:D. 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:rolleyes: (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.
 
kimy27 said:
What meds to you give your Cavs for SM? At the moment Bailey is taking 20mg of furosemide twice a day and Metacam. Although I think she is scratching less she still doesn't have a lot of energy and sleeps a lot. This might just be the way she is but I worry that it is SM related and that her head is hurting her.

I am tempted to ask the vet if I can give her gabapentin for a couple of weeks to see if there is any change in her. Do you think that would be a good idea?
Click to expand...

Two of my boys have gabapentin, metacam and frusemide. Grumpy Wlliam's symptoms are controlled with just metacam and frusemide.

I think most people find that gabapentin helps their SM cavaliers and in your situation I would ask to give it a trial.
 
Thanks! I will speak to my vet and see what she thinks. I will also print off that flow chart for her because at the moment she is just following the instructions from Bailey's neurologist so she may find that helpful :)
 
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