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Oliver and the RVC trial

Thanks Margaret - but there speaks a car driver! Getting to the RVC was one of my less complicated journeys, much helped by your lift. Getting to our favourite camping site in Norfolk involves a taxi, 2 trains and 2 buses, dragging a trolley full of camping gear and with 2 dogs, so a bus, 2 trains and a short walk without any luggage was a doddle!

Apparently Drug B deals with 'intercranial hypertension' - which is an excellent description of Oliver's headaches (as far as I can guess). Not the more obvious SM pain of sensitivity to touch, yelping and so on - what I would call a 'soprano pain'; Oliver's is a lower grade but frequent 'bass pain', like a tension headache in humans, which seems to derive from his CM - so the drug could potentially be helpful for a lot of dogs. But Oliver is only one dog in the trial, and the drug happens to have worked for him, so it will be interesting to see what results come in from all the other triallists.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
Yes Rod, Oliver has quite serious photophobia, due to either interference with or damage to the mechanism of his pupils. It will be interesting to see whether Drug B helps with that, by reducing the pressure behind the eyes. The lady who did his recent BAER test was also interested in the possibility that pressure might be affecting his ears. I've felt for a long time that Oliver's problem was pressure from his dilated ventricles rather than actual nerve damage due to his syrinx, which may be why a neurological pain blocker like gabapentin wasn't terribly effective at dealing with his headaches. Before the trial he was on the maximum dose of gabapentin and still getting headaches - at least we have assumed that his whimpering in his sleep when he is lying on his stomach is the sign of a headache. If I roll him gently on his side - ie move the pressure point of his ventricles away from the front of his skull - he immediately stops whimpering. Like human tension headaches, which tend to be behind the eyes and in the forehead.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
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