Kate H
Well-known member
The generally accepted wisdom is that many more Cavaliers have cm/sm than ever get diagnosed, because they don't show any symptoms. When Oliver had his first scan at the age of 6, and his small syrinx showed up, I would have said that he had no symptoms. Nearly 4 years later, having lived with his mild SM, I would say that I was wrong then. With hindsight I can see that the signs were there from the time I had him at a year old, but because they didn't seem very serious, I don't think I even mentioned them to my vet; it was just the way Oliver was.
For example, he has always been a restless sleeper, moving from bed to floor and back several times during the night - presumably trying to get comfortable; so perhaps he had headaches even back then. He has also always been slightly light phobic: at an indoor show, where he was looking up at strong fluorescent lighting, he would start to squint as if his eyes were hurting a bit. So I just kept him out of strong light as much as possible, and it didn't seem to bother him very much. Now, it is one of his major symptoms, due to his dilated ventricles, though again easily controlled by keeping him away from bright sunlight; it seems to be a slightly unusual and not very common symptom. Most GP vets would probably not recognise either of these as symptoms of CM/SM, and most owners, like me, probably don't take much notice of them. So perhaps the Cavaliers with undiagnosed SM aren't as asymptomatic as people think - we simply don't know all the warning signs which taken together could lead to a positive diagnosis.
I would guess that a lot of people on this forum could recount similar experiences of warning signs which are only recognised in hindsight, or early signs of what later became positive symptoms (not the generally recognised scratching, yelping, etc, but the more subtle signs that we missed at the time but now wonder if there was a connection). I wondered if it would be a useful exercise to list them, so that vets can become more aware of small pointers which, taken together, could suggest further investigation? Knowing what I know now about CM/SM, if I had a dog who was both restless and light phobic, I would take him to a neurologist pretty smartly! If more vets could say 'Well, given this collection of little things wrong, I think it might be worth checking out SM', we could be saving a lot of Cavaliers at the best some discomfort, and at the worst real but unrecognised pain.
What do people think?
Kate, Oliver and Aled
For example, he has always been a restless sleeper, moving from bed to floor and back several times during the night - presumably trying to get comfortable; so perhaps he had headaches even back then. He has also always been slightly light phobic: at an indoor show, where he was looking up at strong fluorescent lighting, he would start to squint as if his eyes were hurting a bit. So I just kept him out of strong light as much as possible, and it didn't seem to bother him very much. Now, it is one of his major symptoms, due to his dilated ventricles, though again easily controlled by keeping him away from bright sunlight; it seems to be a slightly unusual and not very common symptom. Most GP vets would probably not recognise either of these as symptoms of CM/SM, and most owners, like me, probably don't take much notice of them. So perhaps the Cavaliers with undiagnosed SM aren't as asymptomatic as people think - we simply don't know all the warning signs which taken together could lead to a positive diagnosis.
I would guess that a lot of people on this forum could recount similar experiences of warning signs which are only recognised in hindsight, or early signs of what later became positive symptoms (not the generally recognised scratching, yelping, etc, but the more subtle signs that we missed at the time but now wonder if there was a connection). I wondered if it would be a useful exercise to list them, so that vets can become more aware of small pointers which, taken together, could suggest further investigation? Knowing what I know now about CM/SM, if I had a dog who was both restless and light phobic, I would take him to a neurologist pretty smartly! If more vets could say 'Well, given this collection of little things wrong, I think it might be worth checking out SM', we could be saving a lot of Cavaliers at the best some discomfort, and at the worst real but unrecognised pain.
What do people think?
Kate, Oliver and Aled