Reptigirl
Well-known member
Hey everyone.... So I have suspected my pup may be affected with SM since I brought him home. Ever since I put his 1st collar on him he has itched and itched although at the time I assumed it was just the new collar thing. Then my vet assumed he might have food allergies and so on. Well he is going to be seeing a new vet the first week of October in hopes she will be a little more helpful but I wanted some other opinions to see if I'm just over worried and maybe there is a better explanation. I made a list of some of the symptoms I have seen:
* He itches at his shoulder/neck area a LOT (dozens of times a day). He is on frontline for fleas and I have not found on any fleas on him. But the itching is not always the same spot or the same side (although more often then not its on his right side.) Some times he just scratches air other times its his fur. A few of the scratching fits have been so bad that if I call him or try to get him to walk he has fallen over on his side still scratching. But most of the time he can stop after 10-30 seconds and go about what he was doing. On days where he is scratching the most he also butt scoots a LOT!
*Paw licking.... this is one thing that drives me nuts sometimes. He licks his paws so much it's a wonder he even has fur left on them! Its mostly his front paws. He will lick so much that when he gets up from the chair there will be a huge wet spot where he feet were! I try and nicely correct him so he will stop but he just looks sad and keeps doing it. Sometimes I will put my hand over his paws and he just keeps licking my hard where his paw would be. He paw licks most every night when we are sitting on the chair together or laying in bed.
*Lip licking.... sometimes I find him sitting with his head up in the air just licking his lips and the air.... Not sure if this is even relevant since I remember one of my grandparents poodles always doing it but just thought it might be.
* Every now and then he seems to have what I would call an "off" day. He just wants to sleep and doesn't really want to do anything. These "off" days almost always seem to start with a yelping fit. When he has these yelping fits (1-4 yelps) he usually sits or lays down and holds his head back. His back leg will sometimes seem "twitchy" and kicks for what seems no reason. He can't seem to control or stop it. Last time it happened he seemed a little freaked out and was trying to run on 3 legs. When he layed down his leg kept twitching for a good minute. To make things worse on these "off" days he sometimes dribbles pee as he walks. He has "dribbled" randomly on 4 different days all which were almost a week apart. (Other then these "off" days he has no problem peeing outside and doesn't usually have accidents in the house. ) It's like he has no clue he is doing it. Also on these off days he acts hungry and wants to eat but when I put his bowl down he just sniffs it and walks away. Since I got him a few months ago I would say he has had 7-8 of these "off" days. Usually these "off" days start later in day and he just seems to want to sleep (very deeply) and then by morning he is totally normal and playing. Just last night he was FINE when we went to bed. I noticed threw the night he kept moving around a lot in bed (Not normal. Usually he plants himself next to me and doesn't move.) Then some time during the night he woke me up yelping several times. When I turned the light on he was across the bed laying down and his poor little back leg was just trembling. I got up with him and in just a couple of minutes he seems fine. In my opinion these off days seem to slowly be getting worse. They also seem to be spaced out. Usually its a good 5-10 days in between them. After he has had his yelping fit and seems to calm down he sleeps VERY VERY deeply. It is very hard to get him to wake up and when he does he just moves away and goes back to sleep.
Now I know after reading about his "off" days your probably wondering why I haven't rushed him to the Emergency vet. For 1 the nearest one is a good 45 min to an hour away and second the episodes where you can see something if wrong don't last very long... usually less then a minute or so. Then he just wants to sleep. By morning when he wakes up he is totally normal playing and happy. It doesn't happen very often. Like i said the "off" days have only happened 7 or 8 times in 3 months.
*Some other random things I see him do: He rubs his head a lot on the floor but I'm not sure if its a puppy thing or not. Sometimes I can tell he is doing it because he is happy and playing but other times he seems serious and determined when he does it. He used to dig a lot in the carpet like he was trying to dig something up but he seems to have outgrown this. And he barks at nothing a LOT! I don't know HOW many times he has been barking at the carpet or the wall and NOTHING was there... I think that's just silly puppy but I could be wrong.
He has been to the vet and checkout. She did a skin scraping and checked him over. Her comment was it must be a food allergy to change his diet. She also commented on a "some kind of neck scratching in the breed but she had never seen it and didn't really know anything about it" even though she had "many years of experience" with the breed. But over all she found nothing wrong with him.
I have printed out a LOT of info on SM and PSOM for the new vet and I'm dropping it off on Monday so she has a good week to read up on it before my pups appointment.
Is there any other info you would recommend printing out? Its a little country vet so I really wonder if they have even seen a Cavalier in person before.
The weird thing about all of this is how young it started. I see most dogs don't show any symptoms until they are at least 6 months old. Mine was showing around 3 months and they just seem to be getting worse. He will be 6 months in a few weeks.
If you have any experience with SM does this sound like it could be? Could I just be over worried? All the other dogs I have raised we large breeds have never had any issues of the sort.
Also IF the new vet can't find anything wrong with him I'm going to push to see a neurologist. Hopefully she will refer us to one if she can't find anything wrong. I have not found any neurologist near where I am. Just wondering.. I found a neurologist I would like to take him to but they are a good 3-4 hour drive away. They are recommended on the neurologist page of Cavalier health so I feel confident in them as well. IF there is one in town who is a smaller clinic I have not heard anything about them.
My question is would you travel the 3-4 hour drive to one that you KNOW has at least seen a few Cavaliers before or stay closer to home to one that may not have seen many Cavaliers if any at all? I'm not sure if all neurologist are similar? Or would traveling 3-4 hours be silly and unpractical?
Just wondering what other peoples opinions on all this would be... I'm really disappointed and unsure about vets right now after my last experience. The last vet I saw was unable to give me much advise with my Cavalier (AND my cat). Sorry for the long post... Just a worried Cavalier mommy!
* He itches at his shoulder/neck area a LOT (dozens of times a day). He is on frontline for fleas and I have not found on any fleas on him. But the itching is not always the same spot or the same side (although more often then not its on his right side.) Some times he just scratches air other times its his fur. A few of the scratching fits have been so bad that if I call him or try to get him to walk he has fallen over on his side still scratching. But most of the time he can stop after 10-30 seconds and go about what he was doing. On days where he is scratching the most he also butt scoots a LOT!
*Paw licking.... this is one thing that drives me nuts sometimes. He licks his paws so much it's a wonder he even has fur left on them! Its mostly his front paws. He will lick so much that when he gets up from the chair there will be a huge wet spot where he feet were! I try and nicely correct him so he will stop but he just looks sad and keeps doing it. Sometimes I will put my hand over his paws and he just keeps licking my hard where his paw would be. He paw licks most every night when we are sitting on the chair together or laying in bed.
*Lip licking.... sometimes I find him sitting with his head up in the air just licking his lips and the air.... Not sure if this is even relevant since I remember one of my grandparents poodles always doing it but just thought it might be.
* Every now and then he seems to have what I would call an "off" day. He just wants to sleep and doesn't really want to do anything. These "off" days almost always seem to start with a yelping fit. When he has these yelping fits (1-4 yelps) he usually sits or lays down and holds his head back. His back leg will sometimes seem "twitchy" and kicks for what seems no reason. He can't seem to control or stop it. Last time it happened he seemed a little freaked out and was trying to run on 3 legs. When he layed down his leg kept twitching for a good minute. To make things worse on these "off" days he sometimes dribbles pee as he walks. He has "dribbled" randomly on 4 different days all which were almost a week apart. (Other then these "off" days he has no problem peeing outside and doesn't usually have accidents in the house. ) It's like he has no clue he is doing it. Also on these off days he acts hungry and wants to eat but when I put his bowl down he just sniffs it and walks away. Since I got him a few months ago I would say he has had 7-8 of these "off" days. Usually these "off" days start later in day and he just seems to want to sleep (very deeply) and then by morning he is totally normal and playing. Just last night he was FINE when we went to bed. I noticed threw the night he kept moving around a lot in bed (Not normal. Usually he plants himself next to me and doesn't move.) Then some time during the night he woke me up yelping several times. When I turned the light on he was across the bed laying down and his poor little back leg was just trembling. I got up with him and in just a couple of minutes he seems fine. In my opinion these off days seem to slowly be getting worse. They also seem to be spaced out. Usually its a good 5-10 days in between them. After he has had his yelping fit and seems to calm down he sleeps VERY VERY deeply. It is very hard to get him to wake up and when he does he just moves away and goes back to sleep.
Now I know after reading about his "off" days your probably wondering why I haven't rushed him to the Emergency vet. For 1 the nearest one is a good 45 min to an hour away and second the episodes where you can see something if wrong don't last very long... usually less then a minute or so. Then he just wants to sleep. By morning when he wakes up he is totally normal playing and happy. It doesn't happen very often. Like i said the "off" days have only happened 7 or 8 times in 3 months.
*Some other random things I see him do: He rubs his head a lot on the floor but I'm not sure if its a puppy thing or not. Sometimes I can tell he is doing it because he is happy and playing but other times he seems serious and determined when he does it. He used to dig a lot in the carpet like he was trying to dig something up but he seems to have outgrown this. And he barks at nothing a LOT! I don't know HOW many times he has been barking at the carpet or the wall and NOTHING was there... I think that's just silly puppy but I could be wrong.
He has been to the vet and checkout. She did a skin scraping and checked him over. Her comment was it must be a food allergy to change his diet. She also commented on a "some kind of neck scratching in the breed but she had never seen it and didn't really know anything about it" even though she had "many years of experience" with the breed. But over all she found nothing wrong with him.
I have printed out a LOT of info on SM and PSOM for the new vet and I'm dropping it off on Monday so she has a good week to read up on it before my pups appointment.
Is there any other info you would recommend printing out? Its a little country vet so I really wonder if they have even seen a Cavalier in person before.
The weird thing about all of this is how young it started. I see most dogs don't show any symptoms until they are at least 6 months old. Mine was showing around 3 months and they just seem to be getting worse. He will be 6 months in a few weeks.
If you have any experience with SM does this sound like it could be? Could I just be over worried? All the other dogs I have raised we large breeds have never had any issues of the sort.
Also IF the new vet can't find anything wrong with him I'm going to push to see a neurologist. Hopefully she will refer us to one if she can't find anything wrong. I have not found any neurologist near where I am. Just wondering.. I found a neurologist I would like to take him to but they are a good 3-4 hour drive away. They are recommended on the neurologist page of Cavalier health so I feel confident in them as well. IF there is one in town who is a smaller clinic I have not heard anything about them.
My question is would you travel the 3-4 hour drive to one that you KNOW has at least seen a few Cavaliers before or stay closer to home to one that may not have seen many Cavaliers if any at all? I'm not sure if all neurologist are similar? Or would traveling 3-4 hours be silly and unpractical?
Just wondering what other peoples opinions on all this would be... I'm really disappointed and unsure about vets right now after my last experience. The last vet I saw was unable to give me much advise with my Cavalier (AND my cat). Sorry for the long post... Just a worried Cavalier mommy!