CASE # 4


"B" was just under 14 months when her big episode hit.  She maybe had a very minor one when she was about 6 months old but at that time the vet thought she had pulled a muscle in her lower back area and the pain meds (rimadyl) given at that time seemed to help, it lasted just under a week I think, but it was nothing compared to the May episode.
 
Her very serious symptoms started May 28th (almost 14 months old) with very little appetite, stiff neck (couldn't look up or either side), hunchback (looked like a pig), inability to jump up onto the couch, yelped when trying to move around, hard time lieing down, some trembling.  It progressed quickly and we took her into the vet, they kept her overnight on an IV.  She had an elevated temperature, and elevated white blood cell count, maybe something else but I can't remember exactly.  Our vet did x-rays and sent blood for examinations, but everything turned out normal other than what I said above.
 
  Our main vet, then came across Beagle Pain Syndrome and discussed it with us.  We decided to go ahead with the pred treatment starting June 10th with 2 pills (I can't remember if it was 5mg or 10mg pills) a day for 5 days, then 1 pill a day for 5 days, then 1/2 pill a day for 5 days.  She almost immediately seemed better although energy level way down, didn't want to play with our other dog, drank a lot of water and went potty a lot (side effects of pred we were told).  She soon returned to her normal self after the pred treatment stopped, however, about 3 weeks later she developed the same symptoms.  We called our vet and he set us up with more pred - this time 2 pills (10mg each) per day for 7 days, 1 pill per day for 7 days, then 1 pill every other day for a span of 5 days.  She responded very quickly again with the first pill.  Her last pill was taken on a Friday and by Monday morning she had developed the symptoms again.   We had a stash of pred on hand in case her symptoms returned, so we were prepared, but alarmed at how quickly the symptoms returned. 
 
"B" is currently on 10mg pills twice a day for 7 days (we have just finished day 2 Tuesday evening), then set for 1 pill a day for 7 days, and finishing up with 1 pill every other day until gone or until further instructed by the vets.
 
Thank you so much again for all your help!!!