Gosh Nanette that must have been terribly distressing. I know a lot of breeders say they used to regularly see scratching cavaliers and often this was referred to as 'the scratching disease' in cavaliers, though no one knew what caused it or what it was. Neurologist Geoff Skerritt told me he had a case in the 70s as well. A neighbour here in Ireland told me of a family member with a cavalier in the 70s or early 80s that could not be touched anywhere and screamed and couldn't be walked without scratching and complaining so the dog eventually got extremely fat due to hardly being able to move for pain, then was eventually pts. Almost certainly a case of SM.