I hadn’t even thought about this blog for a long time.
Dante is doing well. In May it will be three years since his surgery. He is mainly managed by acupuncture and some herbal remedies for his IBD when he has a flare up if his back gets achy.
He’s eight years old now and other than some back pain that he has had since the surgery, I don’t see any signs of the chiari reasserting itself.
God willing this will continue.
He is doing very well. The acupuncture seems to be working very well for him.
At first I noticed that he had a lot more bounce. Poodles love to pounce on things and then shake the toy to death in their mouth. It’s so cute. That returned right away. He also had a lot more bark. More jumping up and on guard.
The treatment was every week for the first month and then went to every two weeks. Now, three months into it we are working on once a month. The treatment is $90 and is far less than the $200+ a month I was spending on medication (Nuerontin and Budesonide) for the Chiari and the IBD. He now is on no medication at all.
The goal is to work towards getting him to a once every three months treatment.
There will be times when he requires an additional treatment before the next scheduled appointment. This has already happened once. I can tell when he is slipping into pain again because his back begins to hunch up and his stool gets greasy. The pain causes the IBD in Dante’s case.
With Arnold Chiari disease, the surgery stops progression of the disease, if it works and if there is no scar tissue formation. In Dante’s case we caught the disease before he developed any syrnixes down his spine. It is my belief and the belief of his doctors that this is the reason we have gotten him to this point. We are very lucky.
The acupuncture has worked so well that I am going for an appointment with an acupuncturist next week for myself.
I will try and post more frequently going forward.
Kathy and Dante
Sorry to all followers of this blog.
I had to move suddenly and my job has been out of control so I pray you all accept my apology.
Back to the subject at hand.
We visited the new nuerologist who confirmed Dante’s Chiari malformation. He didn’t think scaring had occurred based on Dante’s symptoms and improvement after surgery. After examination we came to the conclusion that on top of it all, Dante has arthritis. This was confirmed by his reaction to Metacam which returned him to puppy activity, for a time. Eventually he barfed big time and had no appetite.
So, today, we had the first acupunture treatment. I hope this helps him.
As to Dante, he’s good. He has bad days, but if I had to quantify it somehow I would say he has two bad days a month, or at least in the last month.
We’ll see how this goes.
He’s good now. Lot’s of increased activity this night (Mr. Bark) but yet seems chilled out. Does this mean anything? I don’t know. The vet tells me that you know if acupuncture is going to work or not by the 4th or 6th treatment.
I’ll let you know.
Merry Christmas.
Dante and Kathleen
Still flaring but a bit less so. His head trembles are not as frequent and as bad.
Is this due to the antibiotic beginning to work? Who knows but that is what this seris of posts is trying to track.
Nuerontin maybe helps him a little, but not a lot. One of the things I need to figure out is what other alternatives there are. Hopefully a second nuero opinion will give me some insight on what might be good to try.
He’s off all meds. For IBD and for pain.
He took a BIG turn towards the old dog that he was about three weeks ago.
He’s doing great. I can’t believe it.
Just when you think you know anything about SM something changes.
I pray it lasts.
Well, the antibiotic didn’t help. If I miss his pain medication (fall asleep before giving him night dose, a rarity but it did happen last night) he cries before daybreak.
My neurologist tells me that we continue pain control and pursue alternative treatments like acupuncture.
I’ll tell you this: I love this dog and pray that the medication continues to control his pain and acupuncture helps, because I can’t even entertain the thought of putting him down.
I’ll assure you that decision is not immediate, but the realization that he won’t be getting any better and that they grow immune to pain meds makes me sick.
Given that this is the best it’s going to get, he get’s treats now. If the IBD gets ugly I’ll give him the steroid but until then, HE GETS TREATS, PERIOD.
If this wonderful dog is going to have to endure this he’s NOT going to be void of treats. Forget it. He’s not going to be an old dog. I want him to enjoy the life he has.
Dante’s Mom
We’ve added a muscle relaxer to his routine.
Whatever is happening, it causes his muscles to spasm which is the cause of his pain. It seems to have helped.
He is also on a broad spectrum antibiotic and he seems ickish on it. He’s not too into eating, unless it is my food which I made the mistake of giving him my leftovers two days in a row. He could be on a hunger strike having been given the forbidden IBD type of food. He’s done it before.
We also got some blood-work back which indicates that his thyroid may be going. They are doing more detailed blood-work to verify that so Dante may have loads more pills each day.
I should do a post with picture of the number of pills he takes at each sitting, three times a day. Good think Dr. Bush knew about a cheap compounding mail order place in Arizona or I’d be broke! Anything for the boy though.
I’ve been concerned that he was experiencing a bad period with the SM.
About 2 days ago I thought I heard him cry out. My nephew was here and I said, “Did he cry?” He said no. But tonight he did. Not a horrible cry, but a cry none the less. I felt his head and there was a muscle tremble. The first since app. 7/4/2006.
What this indicates is that the surgery stopped the progression but we are going to have to deal with some bad times. O.k. I’ll deal with it, but I really do wish that he would have a day without IBD or SM. I love him and will do whatever to keep him good. It is heartbreaking though to here him cry 😦
Spears: ‘I want to be buried with my dog’
I don’t need to say anything. Just go read it.
Frankendog 