Daisy's Medication

[Brian M]

Hi


With Daisy taking Omepprazole this seems to have been the magic ingrediant for her its made a huge difference to her
scratching and general well being and interaction with the other three ,she is even back to chasing balls but has never
picked them up and also back to squabbling with Pops over who is the Top Cavalier .With regard to her MVD she again acts
and behaves as though there is absolutely nothing wrong with her and bounced back superbly after her recent operation so
for now we have a house of four content and happy girls ,and to top it we haven't been to our Vets with any for at least three
months but that excludes C/Gates.

Best Wishes

Happy Bri

[Sabby]

Hi Brian
I would see how you get on. The only thing at the moment is the air pressure is terrible. My Ebony has been bad since the weekend. Last night she had me up at 2.30 am. As I couldn’t give her another Gabapentin (last one was at 11.30 pm) I had to give her Previcox. She settled after 30 min. I had to increase her gabapentin from 3 to 4 a day. Once the air pressure is ok again she be back to normal. Harley that has SM is not too bad but Ebony that has symtomatic CM is a lot worse then him.

SM is a learning curve that's for sure.

[Lacibaby]

Sabby

I have seen a few posts about the air pressure. Is it high pressure or low pressure that affects the dogs? Change in air pressure?

Brian--Best of luck with Daisy.

[murphy's mum]

With mine its the actual change in pressures that does it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kate H]

As an indirect answer to Lacibaby's query about air pressure - a sort of case study (Oliver's main problem is headaches from seriously dilated ventricles and he is on a new medication that targets that specifically, rather than a general neurological pain suppressant like gabapentin).

I've been a bit slow on the uptake but am gradually beginning to make connections:

* Yesterday morning Oliver wouldn't eat his breakfast. He was obviously wanting to, but backed away from it barking. This has happened several times before during the last month.
* Yesterday the air pressure rose steadily from dawn to dusk, 20mb in all, which is a BIG jump.
* On days when the pressure rises or falls rapidly, Oliver gets uncomfortable, although generally his new medication works very well. I have permission from the researchers at the Royal Veterinary College to give him an extra pill on those days, 4 instead of 3 (though they admitted they didn't know what the result would be - and not to do it regularly). The air pressure in August has been going up and down like a yo-yo.
* Over the past three weeks Oliver has had a stomach upset - initially the vet thought colitis, but antibiotics didn't help. It got a little bit better for a couple of days, then worse again - after one of Oliver's refusing his breakfast episodes. Query a tummy bug, but before we could send off a sample it started getting better on its own.
* Looked at the side effects for humans of his new medication (which hasn't been used for CM/SM in dogs before, so nobody's sure how it's going to work) - most common side effect: diarrhoea and stomach upset.

I haven't kept records, but I'm beginning to see a possible pattern. Does Oliver refuse to eat breakfast on days when the pressure is moving quickly, perhaps because although I raise his food dish, he still has to lower his head slightly to eat and that gives him a headache? The uneven pressure days are usually his uncomfortable days when I give him an extra pill. The 2 or 3 times he has refused his breakfast have been followed, either later that day or the following day, by a bout of diarrhoea. My feeling is that 3 pills a day are fine and he does very well on them, but 4 pills in one day are too much for his stomach. Yesterday after barking at his breakfast he didn't have an extra pill, didn't get diarrhoea and ate his usual supper, though he didn't eat his weekly sardines, which he usually enjoys, so perhaps he was still a little queasy from the leap in air pressure and was being sensible. By supper time the air pressure had done its climb and levelled off. This is all guesswork, of course!

I sometimes think Cavalier owners have to be a scientific genius, meteorologist, specialist vet and neurologist all rolled into one to manage SM!! The question now is can we find something to give Oliver on his uncomfortable days to supplement his regular pills without upsetting his stomach?

I think many owners of CM/SM dogs on this forum would say that their dogs have bad days when the air pressure jumps up or down - more headaches, more scratching, more restlessness, depending on the dog. I have friends who have regular migraines who say it affects them as well.

Sorry Brian - a bit off-topic from Daisy's medication!

Kate, Oliver and Aled

[Tania]

Both our boys we believe are affected by air pressure. We are starting to keep records to see if there is a definate link.

I sometimes think Cavalier owners have to be a scientific genius, meteorologist, specialist vet and neurologist all rolled into one to manage SM!! The question now is can we find something to give Oliver on his uncomfortable days to supplement his regular pills without upsetting his stomach?

Totally agree Kate.

[daffymum]

My sm boy has been scratching a lot this afternoon and panting a bit, the humidity increased by 30 points; at noon it was 50 now 80: I sometimes give him an extra tablet (pregablin) or a one off tramadol (1/2 capsule) on days like this, normally he gets this 2x a day.As we are seeing his neurologist this Wednesday I will discuss with her on his meds to keep him comfortable in these times.

[Brian M]

Hi
Its now four days since Daisy had any of her Omeprazole medication and she has hardly scratched at all ,I presumed within 24/48 hours without
her tablet she would be scratching as much as she was prior to this being added in .?

[daffymum]

Hi there
During our visit to Daffy's neurologist, we found out much to my relief that the extra scratching was due to fleas. I was so focus on his sm and overlooked the obvious cause of scratching could be few fleas and Daffy do get an allergic reaction to them. So flea treatment was given and no change to his sm medication. He also got treated for his dry eyes (slight redness around his pupils) which is unrelated to his sm or head pressure.