Welcome! What's your dog's name?
Sid, the reason your dog is in pain today is because the test taper of prednisone to find out if there is pain started today, June 11.
Alert your vet right away via phone about the the pain. Pain signals another course of Prednsone at 5mgs 2x/day. A three day course is very short and likely not to have resolved all spinal cord swelling. Most vets will give a 7-day course or maybe a 14-day course and then try the prednisone taper test.
Prednisone, like all steroids, is an unusual med in that it may not be abruptly stopped. Pred is a synthetic hormone which has the body thinking it no longer needs to make its own cortisol hormone which regulates life-giving body functions. The taper is to signal the body to again make cortisol. That taper just happens to be a perfect test for painful swelling for IVDD dogs! Here is how that "test for pain" taper works:
--- The vet takes a guess usually at the 7 or 14 day point that all the painful swelling might be gone.
--- The vet calls for all the pain-masking pain meds to be either backed off of stopped.
--- The vet also calls for the prednisone to begin a taper to a lower mg dose/ fewer times/day
--- Your job at home is to watch for any hint of pain and report to the vet at once.
-- With the report of pain, prednisone would go back up on the anti-inflammatory dose level for a bit longer to try and get all painful swelling down. All pain meds would be on board as well as Pepcid AC.
--- Getting all the swelling down can possible take from 7-30 days excluding any days that pred is at the tapering lower dose/frequency.
-- Always have a plan "B" in place with the vet during a taper on what you should do should pain surface. A plan "B" might be an Rx you could fill or having enough meds on hand should that happen over a weekend or evening when the Vet is closed, to save an expensive ER visit.
--- For a more complete education than the above quickie outline, you will want to read these two pages:
How pain meds work:
www.dodgerslist.com/literature/healingpain.htmHow anti-inflammatories:
www.dodgerslist.com/literature/healingsweling.htmThere is really no better education on each part of conservative treatment including the 4 phases of healing than this page. You will find a quick overall summary + links to give you the in-depth knowledge that an IVDD pet savvy parent demands.
www.dodgerslist.com/literature/healingpage.htmQUESTIONS
How many mgs of gabapentin are contained in one mL of liquid? The info should be on the gabapentin bottle.
Are you in a medically related field?REPLYINGI recommend you reply to a post by going down to bottom to the "Quick reply" typing area and NOT clicking the "Reply" or "quote" buttons
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YOUR OBSERVATIONS?—Methocarbamol works on the pain of muscle spasms.
—Ask your vet about adding to the pain med combo: Tramadol is the general pain reliever.
— Gabapentin works on nerve pain.
There should be no sign of pain from one dose of meds to the next. Have no patience with pain as it does hinder healing. Look for your dog to be acting their normal, perky self when pain is fully under control round the clock.
Which are you observing?
◻︎ shivering-trembling ◻︎ yelping when picked up or moved
◻︎ slow to move ◻︎ tight tense tummy
◻︎ arched back, ears pinned back ◻︎ head held high or nose to the ground.
◻︎ restless, can't find a comfortable position
◻︎ slow or reluctant to move much in crate such as shift positions
◻︎ looks up with just eyes and does not move head and neck easily.
◻︎ not eating due to painful chewing or in too much overall pain
◻︎ holds front or back leg flamingo style not wanting to bear weight
◻︎ not their normal perky selves
