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PatricksMom

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  1.  

    Thanks, PatricksMom. I hadn't known this could be an issue. Were they haven't having trouble actually drawing the blood from Henry?

    No, the blood draws went fine, but it was clotting in the needle (I think), or maybe starting to clot there and becoming unusable for testing.

  2. I'm not sure I would give Trazodone and Tramadol together--could cause a serotonin syndrome. Muscle spasms and tremors are clinical signs.

    Yes, it's not a common pairing to produce it, but it's possible and can be deadly if the medications are continued and it progresses.

  3. I'm glad he's going to be okay.

     

    Now that you know he doesn't react well, you know to bring a muzzle with you, to keep Jake and the vet staff safe. It doesn't make Jake a bad dog--I have to muzzle Leo for any kind of foot injury or he would bite me even though he's a total sweetheart. Thankfully he's a much better boy when I'm not the one checking him out, but I still bring a muzzle in case they feel like they need one and let the vet make the call.

  4. A couple other ideas:

    -assuming normal blood work, try adding fish oil, it also helps with inflammation. Start with a small amount to avoid upsetting his stomach.

    -if you don't want to use Meloxicam all the time, with Patrick I had good luck with Tramadol all the time and adding Meloxicam for a week at a time, either at the first sign of a flareup or ideally before events that could cause a flareup. Eventually, he had to go on Meloxicam daily as the arthritis progressed, and had no trouble with it. Do get his blood work done regularly.

  5.  

    Thank you - added to my list.

     

    Does a positive response to NSAIDs negate the need for an x-ray or should arthritis also be diagnosed through x-ray? i.e. would a reasonable thing to do to try NSAIDs for a week or so and if no improvement then book in for an x-ray after that?

     

    I noticed today that when Daisy does her stretches (the down-dog yoga one) there is an audible click which sounds like it's coming from one of her shoulders.

     

    Only a couple of hours before our appt. Not much luck filming her limping so far, have got a little bit on camera phone I think - since I've started obsessing about Daisy limping it has become hard to tell when she's limping and when she's not.

    You can't always see arthritic damage on an x-ray, even when it's obvious from observation/exam/treatment response that's what's going on. I prefer to do the x-rays right away, just to rule out anything scary so I can stop obsessing, but I don't know that it's necessarily a bad idea to go with the wait and see approach.

  6. Let me suggest that you take someone with you if that's at all possible ... someone who can listen to everything and HEAR it or take notes.

    Yes, and if you can't do that, try typing up your questions and leave spaces between them to write the answers--for some reason that helps me focus and not skip stuff. Also leave yourself space to write down tests being run, what you've decided on doing, and what your next planned steps will be (assuming you don't have a definite solution when you leave).

  7. No cancer! We got a nice clean x-ray of the shoulder down through the foot. No sign of anything in the healed cut, but it's possible that wouldn't show on an xray, particularly if it were a hair or a piece of grass. Watching the limp, she thinks it's more likely he's strained a muscle in his shoulder, so Meloxacam for a week. We can add an antibiotic if we want to, but I decided to hold off until we see if the meloxicam helps or not.

  8. Once you've done a vet check to rule out UTI's, etc. and you've cleaned everything that could possibly smell with Nature's Miracle, if more frequent trips outside and praise don't work, you might try attaching his leash to your pants so he stays with you all the time, and that way if you see him about to pee you can get him right outside, eventually breaking the in the house = peeing mental association.

     

    Yelling is really tempting when they've peed (I was thrilled that Henry waited a week and then peed on the Christmas tree this year), but they really don't connect that to what they've done earlier and you may well be making him anxious, which can lead to more peeing.

  9. Third the suggestion to try not crating him--some dogs do well crated, others really do not. If you end up sticking with medications, in Leo's case, Prozac caused some temporary appetite suppression that passed quickly. We use Valium only for thunder storms, which he can't really handle them when we're home even, but it is a pretty sedating and I wouldn't like to use it frequently.

     

    Xanax doesn't stay in the system that long, I wouldn't think it's a great choice for SA, unless you're only gone for very short stretches of time.

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