Buddy's Neurology Appointment

[rascalsmom]

Buddy's neurology appointment went pretty well. The doctor gave him a very thorough evaluation and took a detailed history. We expressed our concerns about his weight loss, as well as his back end weakness and overall poor condition.

 

Bottom line is that the doc is pretty sure he has "lumbosacral disease/cauda equina syndrome". He claims that without an MRI you can't definitively diagnose it, but he's pretty sure that is what it is, based on the exam. I asked him about the injection, and he said he's never done that, and doesn't know many vets who do.

 

He did do x-rays of Buddy's lungs, to rule out tumors that could be causing him to lose weight; he is mystified about the weight loss, too. The x-rays were good, just expected "old dog" changes.

 

What he wants us to do is continue with the simplicef (finish the course, as he does have a slightly swollen lymph node in his neck); the tramadol, and the rimadyl; he also added neurontin to the mix, for nerve pain. Then, in a week or two, if he's doing better, we may decrease and then discontinue the tramadol. He also wants to have us recheck his bloodwork in two weeks (liver enzymes and kidney values) and get a urinalysis. He suggested doing the urinalysis today, but I pointed out that they had asked me to withhold his water today, so the concentrations might be off because of that, and he agreed....

 

Here's the problem. He doesn't want to eat. I offered him rice and ground beef when we got home, and he walked away from it. He did eat about 2/3 of a can of tuna, and DH gave him a couple of triscuits with peanut butter on, and a fig newton. But that's it. And we are having a hellacious time getting pills into him; I hate to force them down, most especially on an empty stomach. So what to do??

 

How do I get him to eat??

And how do I get pills into him when he won't eat, and is suspicious of EVERYTHING we try and give him? I did get a pill gun, but the freaking pills stick to the end of it!! And because of his bad teeth in the front I hate to force his mouth open.....

[Guest Che_mar_Cody]

Poor guy! Continued prayers for your family and Buddy.

[Guest alf7199]

I have no advice to other only prayers. I am glad to hear his appointment went well and you have a (possibly) diagnosis. I know for me that made it better with my pug to understand what was going on. It sounds like the specialist is listening to you and he has you and your hound's best interest.

 

I don't know if it is possible with the medicine Buddy is on, but when I have had a hard giving pills, I sometimes crush them up and mix them into something (really good smelling for a dog) and they usually eat it. The only time that hasn't worked is when there has been mouth pain (a really bad abcess that was effecting his whole face), could Buddy have something going on in his mouth that is causing him pain to eat. Just a thought.

 

[IndyandHollyluv]

Poor Buddy. FYI - took my Indy, 11, to see a neurologist last year. I gave in and said "okay" to a very expensive MRI (which I am still paying for , which did reveal some mild to moderate LS and suspected disc protrusion. It basically confirmed what I suspected; but ruled out tumors, etc.

 

Are the meds making Buddy not want to eat?? I have opted not to load Indy up with meds for his back as I was concerned about all the ill effects, so thankfully, he still has a hearty appetite. But I cannot sneak meds into his food bowl, so I wrap pills in a gob of canned dog food - which he will inhale. He will also inhale it if I roll the pill in canned food and wrap a little piece of bread or bun around it - like a sandwich! Indy falls for it every time. But if Buddy just won't eat, that makes it tough.

 

Will he eat cooked oatmeal? Sprinkled with a little cinnamon?

 

[Guest Redpack]

This may be a stupid question, but have you tried hand-feeding him the regular food? Diplomat would eat from my hand, but not from his bowl when he was hurting.

[CaliforniaGreys]

Consider trying the Nutritional Yeast, it's been such a big help getting them to eat.

As for his pills, if they can be taken with dairy, what about trying them in cream cheese or ice cream, that's always done the trick here.

Buddy is always in our prayers

[Jiffer]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before...

 

Has your vet given you anything to help his appetite?

 

I noticed you mention his bad teeth.. that is more often than not the source of a greyhound not eating. Their teeth and gums are so painful that they just can't eat.

 

Appetite stimulators in our house are boiled chicken with a bit of garlic on it, fluffy scrambled eggs, and canned fish.

 

Prayers that you can find something Buddy would enjoy.

[Guest SkinnyLegDogLover]

What works for me in pill giving is I make a tiny little peanut butter sandwich, like maybe only an inch square, with the pill in the middle, of course. Cheap, squishy white bread works best. It's really hard for the dog to get the 2 sides apart. Might work, unless the pill is too big.

I hope Buddy feels better soon, I'll be praying for him.

[rascalsmom]

This may be a stupid question, but have you tried hand-feeding him the regular food? Diplomat would eat from my hand, but not from his bowl when he was hurting.

Sometimes hand-feeding will help. That's how we got him to eat on Saturday. Today it's not working, though.

 

What works for me in pill giving is I make a tiny little peanut butter sandwich, like maybe only an inch square, with the pill in the middle, of course. Cheap, squishy white bread works best. It's really hard for the dog to get the 2 sides apart. Might work, unless the pill is too big.

I hope Buddy feels better soon, I'll be praying for him.

The itty bitty peanut butter sandwich used to work. Not anymore.

 

I think once he's feeling a little better, the pills won't be such a huge issue; but I hate to give him a boatload of pills on an empty stomach.

 

I talked to a dear friend about Buddy, and she suggested an Ensure-type drink; she used to give it to her SharPei when he was sick, to stimulate his appetite.

Also, the neurologist mentioned that his parents had a greyhound with colitis, and they fed him chicken and Cheerios!

 

So, I combined those two ideas, went to the store, and just fed Buddy a bowl of Cheerios with vanilla nutritional supplement on them! He ate a cereal bowl full of cheerios, and about 1/2 can of the drink (vanilla, of course).

 

It's a start. Now to get some pills in.

[Batmom]

Something that worked for Batman when he didn't want to eat was "bite for me, bite for you." The only crunchy thing he could have was graham crackers, and those worked pretty well. The sound effects of a person chewing were inspiring, I guess. It also worked with cinnamon bread.

 

If the meds don't taste too bad all crushed up, you could try crushing them in a tablespoon of molasses -- it's strong enough to hide the scent of most things, and dog will often just lap it up.

 

They don't need to eat a huge lot to be able to have the meds. Slice of peanutbutter toast or a couple of squares of graham cracker is enough.

 

Is he on pepcid or something for his tummy? If not, might discuss that with vet to see if it would help.

 

Sounds like you had a good visit with the specialist. If the rest of Buddy stabilizes and seems healthy and you want to explore Depo-Medrol injections further, Dr. Stack might be able to help you find somebody or talk your vet through it. I have her email addy around somewhere, can find it if you need it.

 

Hugs.

[rascalsmom]

I will try offering him some graham crackers. He does like those.

The pills he is on are tramadol, rimadyl, simplicef, and gabapentin (Neurontin). I have no clue how much taste/smell they have....I was thinking if only I could get them all into one glob, and pill him ONCE, instead of SIX times (two tramadols and 1 1/2 simplicef, so a total of SIX things)....maybe the molasses is an idea. SHould I try giving him some plain first? Or would that make him suspicious?

 

Thanks for the ideas!

 

Edited to add, I did get the Neurontin into him, using the pill gun. Tried it a second time with rimadyl, and he REFUSED to have his mouth pried open, and ran from me.

Edited February 5, 2009 by rascalsmom

[Batmom]

Could try the molasses by itself first and see if he likes it. The Simplicef is probably bitter, not sure about the others. Pretty sure that Rimadyl comes in chewables -- flavored -- so you might ask vet about those.

 

Pepcid or similar would be another pill, but they are teeny tiny and might help him feel like eating more.

 

Forgot to add, another good pill wrapper if you can get it is braunschweiger -- liver sausage -- comes in fat sausagelike rolls at the grocery store.

[Trudy]

Don't crush up tramadol. I have it on pretty good authority that those things taste absolutely NASTY!

Ryan will take pills in his kibble. He would NOT TOUCH THE KIBBLE when I tossed the tramadol in there.

So we gave him his tramadol in a hot dog piece.

 

Try the ensure stuff over some kibble and see if that will make the kibble enticing enough. It will be trial and error to see what you can get into them.

[Guest ss556]

It's messy but Alan gets all of his meds in ricotta cheese. He licks it of my hands, I just roll the pills w/ the cheese and make a mush of a "ball". It has worked for the past 2 1/2 yrs, knock on wood.

[rascalsmom]

Could try the molasses by itself first and see if he likes it. The Simplicef is probably bitter, not sure about the others. Pretty sure that Rimadyl comes in chewables -- flavored -- so you might ask vet about those.

 

Pepcid or similar would be another pill, but they are teeny tiny and might help him feel like eating more.

 

Forgot to add, another good pill wrapper if you can get it is braunschweiger -- liver sausage -- comes in fat sausagelike rolls at the grocery store.

Yeah, good old braunschweiger. Buddy doesn't even like that WITHOUT pills. This could be because I used it once for that purpose. That's a sure way to turn Buddy against a food....

 

Don't crush up tramadol. I have it on pretty good authority that those things taste absolutely NASTY!

Ryan will take pills in his kibble. He would NOT TOUCH THE KIBBLE when I tossed the tramadol in there.

So we gave him his tramadol in a hot dog piece.

 

Try the ensure stuff over some kibble and see if that will make the kibble enticing enough. It will be trial and error to see what you can get into them.

Thanks for that info, Trudy....I did try getting the tramadol down his throat last night, and he would NOT swallow it. I am going to thaw out a couple of hot dogs....

 

 

[nyGreys]

Poor buddy. I remember Beanie wouldn't take his pills. He could smell them in anything.

I tried putting them in everything, after a while it made him suspicious of everything I gave him.

I hope Buddy starts feeling better soon.

Edited February 5, 2009 by nyGreys

[queenwinniesmom]

Wish I had some good advice for you!

We're off to DC tomorrow, but Buddy will be in our prayers, and I'll check back Sunday night.

[Guest 4baddogs]

I'm glad you have somewhat of a diagnosis.

 

Zoe is IMPOSSIBLE to pill with food; she's the pickiest dog on the planet - hates peanut butter, cheese, most meats, anything you can think of to hide it in. The only way to get a pill into her is my shoving it down her throat and it kills me when I have to do it, which is every day. She bites the crap out of me, too. Fortunately for her, she's only on one pill a day for now.

 

Does Buddy like ice cream? Maybe you can put a pill in a glob of ice cream? When Zoe was younger we were able to hide a pill in ice cream because she'll do ANYTHING for ice cream!

 

Keeping him in my thoughts and prayers!

[patricia]

Sending prayers for sweet Buddy. When our Angel Queenie was in renal failure it got to the point where all she would eat was Arby's beef and cheese...McDonalds french fries...and bologna. A good renal diet? NO...but she decided she was not eating her renal diet any longer and we at this point let her have what she wanted so that she had food in her tummy for all her meds. I also crushed her pills to a very fine powder and put them in ice cream and whipped cream...that worked for awhile too!

[Guest LovesDoggies]

Bruce's neurologist suggested pill pockets if Bruce ever rejected his meds. After about 6 months of receiving meds in cream cheese, Bruce did start to reject, and I've been using pill pockets successfully ever since.

 

I hope Buddy feels better soon.

[rascalsmom]

This morning we got all the various pills into him: 2 tramadol, 1/2 rimadyl, 1/4 gabapentin (neurontin), and 1 1/2 simplicef. SIX total. The thing that worked the best was to put two pills into a cream cheese gob, which I rolled in parmesan cheese so I could handle it; DH sat on the ottoman, Buddy beside it, and opened his mouth; I put the gob back as far as possible, and he swallowed it. We may be on to something....I think the positioning was helpful, too....DH had more control of Buddy sitting next to him like that, so I was able to shove the gob back further. The cream cheese delayed the melting of the pill in his throat, and I would much rather force something down his throat two or three times, than SIX times.

 

He ate a good breakfast afterward: chicken, cheerios, a little kibble, and a little Ensure. Yum yum!!

 

Rascal and Ruby are jealous. Although they did get a couple of bites of chicken, too.

 

He will no longer take a "goodie" from us. He is too suspicious for his own good. And if I put it in his food he won't eat. So down the throat it goes. He HAS to eat, to gain back some weight!!

[Guest BlackandBrindle]

I'm glad you got the pills in him!!!!

 

Hopefully this is the start to easier days.

 

 

Feel better soon Buddy!

[IndyandHollyluv]

Forgot to mention yesterday, I also find wrapping a pill in a gob of cooked, cold (as in leftovers in the fridge) sweet pototo works like a charm. It's firm and contours nicely around a pill!

 

My hounds :heartlove sweet potatoes!

[Guest 4baddogs]

Melissa ~ Will he eat satin balls?

 

Zoe hates everything under the sun but she'll eat satin balls like it's her job! When she was sick in November and lost a ton of weight (she dropped down to 37 pounds ), we fed her only satin balls when she came home from the hospital and she gained 5 pounds in a week. She LOVES this stuff, but only my recipe. Let me know if you want it.

[rascalsmom]

I did make some satin balls...I used Judy's (jillysfullhouse) recipe. I was using it to hide the pills, and just said to DH at noon that maybe he'd eat a few of them plain (NO PILLS) for a snack. He did have his bowl of cheerios and ensure at lunchtime, DH also gave him a ritz cracker and a fig newton. You know, all part of a bland diet.... But WHATEVER WORKS is my new motto.

 

Oh, and 37 POUNDS???? Wow, you must've been scared out of your mind!!

Edited February 6, 2009 by rascalsmom