Erin's Barkus 2/28 conservative NECK Shar Pei

We took him to Oradell early this morning because he wouldn't even come out of his crate and just looked miserable. They admitted him for monitoring. The neurologist is not in until Tuesday though but I feel if he can't even come out of the crate at home then maybe it's better for him to be there for now. We never reduced the gab, even though bottle said 8-12 hours they had said to do it every 12 hours, only the tram but maybe that's it. Maybe we reduced too early. The vet who saw him was confused because he did not exhibit signs of pain when she manipulated his neck or touched his spine or belly but yet he cries when being picked up and is still walking gingerly. His back legs still slide forward and he is slow to turn over his paws and she said its almost like he's not aware of his feet. He's still on pepcid and eating drinking and going to bathroom fine. I'll ask them about the sucralfate. I'm going to speak with the Oradell neurologist about the surgery again and ask her to send his MRI results etc to Red Bank so I can move forward with getting the second opinion once he is released.

Oradell just called and said they still don't have his pain under control and it is getting worse. They are starting IV pain meds now. They may recommend another MRI tomorrow since they believe he is exhibiting pain higher in his neck than before. I'm so upset at the thought that he is in so much pain.

Thank you for the healing vibes. It took a while to get his pain under control. The vet told us he was finally comfortable and had perked up. We went to visit him last night but it didn't go very well. He became very anxious at our presence and started crying and whimpering something awful. We cut the visit short because it seemed to only be putting him in distress. The vet wasn't very concerned by his reaction and said it could have been due to his meds and anxiety seeing us. The neurologist is only in on Tuesdays and Thursdays so he will finally see her today and most likely have an MRI. The neurologist had mentioned maybe another spinal tap but I am hesitant to since he just had one in February that was clear. The vet also agreed that since his Neuro symptoms were better after the IV it might not be a return of the encephalitis/meningitis. But his back legs are still sliding a bit. I'm hopeful that today we'll know a lot more and be able to talk more about surgical options and whether I need to seek the second opinion.y the way, Oradell is an hour north of me so it is very difficult to run up there since I work and Red Bank is 90 minutes south of me. Neither myself or my husband have the ability to frequently leave work during the day so this has been very stressful. It's depressing because a lot of people are starting to question why we are putting so much time, effort and money into "a dog". They just don't understand...

So Barkus was happily discharged from Oradell yesterday afternoon. They weaned him off the IV meds and on to oral meds without any resurgence in pain. They did change/up his meds though. Now he is on Prednisone (5 mg) - 1 and 1/2 tablets 2x/day for one week, then 1 tablet 1x/day thereafter, Gabapentin (600 mg) - 1/2 tablet 3x/day, and the Tramadol stayed the same (50 mg) - 1 tablet 2-3x/day (we are doing 3x/day right now). And this made me pleased, #4 on the list of medications on his discharge papers was also Pepcid AC (10mg) - 1/2 tablet 1x/day.

The neurologist is convinced his neuro symtoms were all disc-related since everything got much better (even eventually the leg sliding) once his pain was successfully managed. They opted not to do an MRI either at this time. We discussed surgery again and the neuro believes that conservative treatment is the way to go at this point. Though she had said in the past that he was not a surgical candidate, she said she would not rule it out if that was the last resort. Her reluctance was that, in her experience, surgery for herniated discs in the C7-T1 area did not have a high success rate for pain relief and the location is still difficult to get at due to proximity to the chest and where the herniation is. We were advised to continue with strict crate rest for next 4 weeks, check up appointment in 3 weeks.

He's doing well and happy to be home. He's completely different than he was last weekend. Our faith is restored that we will get him through this. We had to wake up twice last night to take him out- I guess due to the steroids- so that's just something we'll have to deal with going forward. We are definitely taking your advice Paula and tuning out the negative opinions we hear. As you said, we now feel sorry for them that they don't get it! It's hard because some of the opinions come from family members whom I can't avoid haha but now when they start to talk about their opinion of the costs I just decline to discuss our private finances and immediately change the subject. So far so good!

Hi everyone, so Barkus' crate rest continues. This Wednesday will be 8 weeks total but he still has another 2-3 to go beyond that due to his last set back. He has lost some weight since the beginning of this but what I've really noticed is that his back legs are beginning to atrophy. He used to have a thoroughbred-type look to his hind end, very muscular thighs. Now they are a lot thinner. He is still very wobbly in his hind end and I'm wondering if the muscle weakening is contributing to that. Could crate rest alone cause this?

On a side note, we have to travel this weekend and had no choice but to board him. We used our local vet and were very specific with them when we booked the stay and when I dropped him off that he was recoverning from ivdd was on crate rest, everything. I requested he be carried out to go bathroom and they said well we don't have steps here but I say not good enough so they agreed. Honestly, I think they found the situation very annoying. When I picked him up they said everything went fine however since he's been back he's crying a little. I don't see signs of pain but after seeing improvement in his neuro symptoms, his back paws are very slow to turn over again. He also started his prednisone taper last Thursday (all other meds remain the same dosage) so I haven't been able to observe him too much since then. His next appointment at Oradell is next week so I will keep a close eye on him over the next week.

But any thoughts on the muscle atrophy? Thanks as always.

Don't worry too much about the muscle wasting, as PollysMom said it comes back quickly after crate rest is over and they become a bit more active.  I know this is true because it was for me too. I was in a bad fall and was off my feet for 6 months.. In a wheel chair, the whole bit.. I lost muscle too..but it came back when I was able to walk again.

Hi everyone, just wanted to check in and give an update on Barkus. As I type this he is standing next to me, tail up, eyes bright with no signs of pain. He is still on crate rest but last week we started "physical therapy" per our neurologist's recommendation of letting him outside the crate for three 15-20 minute sessions of walking around the living room freely in a fenced off area. He has escaped a few times and lept up the one step out of our sunken living room and, each time, though our hearts were in our throats, he was fine and wanted to play like old times. He is still very thin but his stability seems to be coming back and we've been feeling him pediasure as a supplement.

To be honest, when I wrote about his prednisone taper last time on 4/22 and that he seemed to be uncomfortable, that was all my fault. I wrote down the instructions wrong and instead of going from 1.5 tablets 2x/day to 1 tablet 2x/day, I went to 1 tablet 1x/day. My neuro corrected me over the phone and then he was much better. I must've said I was sorry to him a million times. He had a follow up last week and they tapered him down to 1 tablet in the morning and 1/2 at night. The neuro also prescribed 1/2 tablet of Methocarbamol 2x/day to help him with the taper. I don't know if its just him getting better in general or the addition of the Methacarbamol but he is so much better. He lies down with a lot more ease and his head shakes seem to be a less restricted. He is clearly a happy pup and wants to play more. He comes out of his crate without any coaxing.

To summarize his meds, he is now on:
Prednisone (5mg) - 1 tablet in morning, 1/2 tablet at night
Gabapentin (600mg) - 1/2 tablet 2-3x/day (typically do 2x/day now)
Tramadol (50mg) - 1 tablet 2-3x/day (typically do 2x/day now)
Methocarbamol (500mg) - 1/2 tablet 2-3x/day (typically do 2x/day)
Pepcid AC

It is 11 weeks in the crate as of today I believe. And I thought being told initially 4-6 weeks seemed like forever. It might have taken essentially double the time (we're supposed to continue for at least another week and then reevaluate) for him to show clear signs of improvement but I'll take it. I'm just beside myself with happiness that he's almost back to "normal." Of course our neuro warned us that this might be the best it gets, that he might always be a little stiff and things will be different since we have to keep him from jumping on things or getting too excited but that's ok. As long as he's happy and pain-free, I'll take anything I can get

Thank you for all the support and I can't wait to share when he's "graduated" from his crate. And to everyone else out there with dogs with neck issues, hang in there. As everyone here has said, necks may take even longer to rehab but don't give up!