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Border Collie with Hydrosyringomyelia

I don't think we know why he has it. Like you say some dogs are known to have a severe head impact or whiplash type injury which causes the condition, but we cannot think of anything that happened to Blue like this, he is with us 24/7. I think given the severity of his scan results & the fact that he has coped so well, it kind of suggests that it has been developing slowly for some time, and his nervous system has compensated. He had a bad fall which led to the scan being done, but the concensus is that the SM caused the fall, and he was exhibiting scratching & yelping symptoms about a month before the fall.
I halved his frusemide from Wednesday night as suggested by Mr S, but by last night I could see he wasn't quite as bright, he was certainly wobbling again & was catching his right paw. Interestingly his left paw is the bad one, so i can assume that the damage to the nerves supplying his left paw is over & done with. When he deteriorates its his good right leg that starts to weaken, which makes gait real difficult, so the nerves must be ok as long as the pressure is kept down. I put him back on the full tablet last night & his balance has improved, and he seems a bit brighter.
Obviously without the tablets he wouldn't be here now, and its such a fine line between him being happy & the SM becoming a problem. Its a horrid condition, you seem to have a happy spell where you can almost forget there is a problem, then something crops up and bashes you over the head!
 
Just to say I am glad your visit to Chestergate went well. It makes you feel so much better when you talk to someone like Mr Skerritt and they are trying to answer your questions. Love the photo of Blue on the beach, he is a beautiful boy. He looks like he is having fun.
 
You said in your previous post

Its a horrid condition, you seem to have a happy spell where you can almost forget there is a problem, then something crops up and bashes you over the head!

That’s how I feel. 2 out of my three Cavaliers have CM/SM. My other dog friends are very supportive but nobody knows what it is really like. At the moment everything is fine, my Harley has stopped limping for nearly 2 month now and he is his bright playful usual self and he isn’t on any pain relief only on Zitac. But it’s like sitting on a time bomb. I wish I could put it to the back of my mind but I can’t. I let them run and enjoy life because that’s what dogs should do and I just deal with it when something else happens. But like you said you are just always ready for something else to bash you over the head.
 
That’s how I feel. 2 out of my three Cavaliers have CM/SM. My other dog friends are very supportive but nobody knows what it is really like. At the moment everything is fine, my Harley has stopped limping for nearly 2 month now and he is his bright playful usual self and he isn’t on any pain relief only on Zitac. But it’s like sitting on a time bomb. I wish I could put it to the back of my mind but I can’t. I let them run and enjoy life because that’s what dogs should do and I just deal with it when something else happens. But like you said you are just always ready for something else to bash you over the head.

I agree, I'm sure some friends see videos of Blue bouncing round or see him in the flesh, and think i am being a drama queen. My close friend who has Blues brother has been fab, and she has seen him on bad days as well as good. There are people who think I should have him PTS outright....nice people eh?....but they havent said it to my face, cos I would flip.

He is enjoying his life bless him, and like you say its always at the back of my mind too. But on the other hand I am incredibly proud of him and its made us closer. :hug:
 
But on the other hand I am incredibly proud of him and its made us closer. :hug:
That's exactly how I feel about Riley. She is my heart dog, the one I didn't expect to live this long so every day I get with her is a gift. I just look at her and my heart melts. I guess it's partly because I'm aware that there will come a day that her medication will stop working or the side effects of the prednisone will become too much for her and we'll have to stop the only drug that works for her. But until then, she is loving life, she is happy, and I am loving her.
 
Blues having an off day today, i have just given him an extra gabapentin as the vet said i could do, so we are on three a day now, the trouble is that I am fully aware that he is going to deteriorate at some point, he has done staggeringly well to get this far, and each time he goes off his feet its like a punch to the stomach, as i think "well this could be it". And some of you guys have two or more dogs with the same condition...my heart really goes out to you, you are all so brave.
 
Blues having an off day today, i have just given him an extra gabapentin as the vet said i could do, so we are on three a day now, the trouble is that I am fully aware that he is going to deteriorate at some point, he has done staggeringly well to get this far, and each time he goes off his feet its like a punch to the stomach, as i think "well this could be it". And some of you guys have two or more dogs with the same condition...my heart really goes out to you, you are all so brave.

Ull be surprised how many times they can and do bounce back


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Oh I really hope so, he seems bright in himself but his neck is very twisted tonight and his balance is off, we have a pet service at our church this weekend, where people bring their dogs, cats, rats, rabbits etc for a blessing, I hope he is well enough to go, but I am making some doggy garlic and liver treats so he is scrounging in the kitchen at the moment!
 
Blue's of day could have something to do with the fact that air pressure has been pretty high in the UK today - round the 1020mb level. It's forecast to drop quite a lot over the next few days, so you may find that Blue perks up again. Air pressure does seem to affect dogs with SM.

We had a pet service at my church on St Francis day, 4 October, which is our church dedication. Oliver went along in his Pets as Therapy jacket and I was 'interviewed' about him and my rescue Cavalier Aled instead of having a sermon. Hope you manage to get Blue to yours.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
Blue's of day could have something to do with the fact that air pressure has been pretty high in the UK today - round the 1020mb level. It's forecast to drop quite a lot over the next few days, so you may find that Blue perks up again. Air pressure does seem to affect dogs with SM.

We had a pet service at my church on St Francis day, 4 October, which is our church dedication. Oliver went along in his Pets as Therapy jacket and I was 'interviewed' about him and my rescue Cavalier Aled instead of having a sermon. Hope you manage to get Blue to yours.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

You guys are GREAT!
 
Blue's of day could have something to do with the fact that air pressure has been pretty high in the UK today - round the 1020mb level. It's forecast to drop quite a lot over the next few days, so you may find that Blue perks up again. Air pressure does seem to affect dogs with SM.
Kate, Oliver and Aled

Well like you say, the air pressure has dropped, he managed to eat his breakfast without choking, his neck is straighter, his balance is back.....and i suddenly feel a lot happier....new iphone app installed to monitor air pressure so I don't spend another day caterwauling when he goes wobbly again! :eek: But what a flipping b***er when even the air pressure is against our dogs!!
 
Which iphone app did you get? I'm thinking of getting it to monitor changes in Riley. Yesterday she was walking sideways and had trouble getting up the one step into the house and all this talk about the barometric pressure has me wondering if it's affecting her.
 
My friend gets migraines and she said last night it was a horrendous migraine cos of the pressure. I have one called weather board, and another one that was on my iPad, I think it's weather HD. They don't forecast they just measure. But you can go online and get a forecast of air pressure. He's a little better tonight but it will probably take him several days to recover.
 
If Blue does get affected by air pressure, it would be worth asking your vet or Chestergates if you could give him an extra gabapentin on those days, or keep some metacam in the cupboard for an emergency boost. They may not stop his wobbles but should help his pain and discomfort. Though he may be less affected as he gets more used to his medication.

I suppose it's not really surprising that air pressure affects dogs, when you think the dilated ventricles are pushing the skull outwards and then the air pressure starts pushing in the opposite direction from outside. It must feel rather like a very bad migraine - horribly painful, though not all SM dogs are affected so badly.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
i gave him an extra gabapentin anyway...my vet had said i could increase to three, and the sight of him hanging his head made me give him the extra dose. We had a pet service at our church today & he managed to go, its a lovely service. He's not as good as he was, but considering the width & extent of his syrinx he is amazing to be able to walk. He is happy enough, he has just been attacking the hoover!
 
3 times a day would be pretty normal for gabapentin, so I wouldn't feel too concerned at adding a 3rd dose if you are only doing two as the norm. It's probably useful to just keep in the back of your mind that it often is not enough to give it only twice a day, because it tends to begin to wear off at around 8 hours for most dogs (But not all). But it might be something you want to ask about at Chestergates at some future point, if you are consistently seeing occasional discomfort in Blue. Also, you may find that you end up needing to increase the dose he is on. It is really hard to know if that might happen, given that he doesn't have syringomyelia that is associated with the Chiari-like malformation. Recent research in cavaliers has indicated that the malformation can progress, as well as syringomyelia itself, but if there aren't the problems associated with the malformation, then I guess a lot more would be unknown (in a condition where already, so much remains unknown! One of the best known human specialists in this condition said that he still saw the condition as a complete enigma even after dedicating his life to understanding it better). I think it is hard to know whether some dogs need to increase their dose of gabapentin (just as some people do with the condition) because the condition is progressing, or because the effect of the drug begins to wear off. But a lot of us have found that we have had to increase dosage over time, and that we also need to go from 2 to 3 times a day.

Shifts in pressure definitely can affect dogs with this condition–Leo tends to be more uncomfortable when the weather is turning more stormy, but he also had a very hard time during a period when there was really good weather and we were over visiting in the UK. I usually give him something extra at those times.
 
Unfortunately his scan didn't cover his brain properly, Mr Skerritt thinks his middle ear might be affected too. Maybe that is affecting his balance. That seems to be his trouble at the moment, especially in the evening, his back legs seem quite wobbly when in the past they have been strong. He can still jump on the settee though and chase down the garden when it suits him!
I have taken the decision not to have surgery on him. He has such a severe syrinx that I think the stress of surgery and the separation from us is just not worth it. He has fought so hard and well and bravely that I don't want to put him through more of an ordeal for an uncertain outcome.
Tonight he has had roast beef etc and pancakes for pudding.....and now he is lay across my feet. He loves me so much and the feeling is mutual, I feel lucky to have him. X
 
Unfortunately his scan didn't cover his brain properly, Mr Skerritt thinks his middle ear might be affected too. Maybe that is affecting his balance. That seems to be his trouble at the moment, especially in the evening, his back legs seem quite wobbly when in the past they have been strong. He can still jump on the settee though and chase down the garden when it suits him!
I have taken the decision not to have surgery on him. He has such a severe syrinx that I think the stress of surgery and the separation from us is just not worth it. He has fought so hard and well and bravely that I don't want to put him through more of an ordeal for an uncertain outcome.
Tonight he has had roast beef etc and pancakes for pudding.....and now he is lay across my feet. He loves me so much and the feeling is mutual, I feel lucky to have him. X

I think everybody on this Forum can tell how much you love Blue. I know how you feel; I feel the same about my Harley. He is my world.
 
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