# Lola hurt her back



## Nancy (Feb 4, 2009)

Just going up her dog steps to the couch...She went to fast and then she yelped....this was last night at 7 pm..I knew instantly it was her back...I called the er vet and he suggested I waited til the am to bring her in because he had no help and would most likely need xrays...He said no to giving her any pain meds I had metacam here ...but the said he wanted to check her out and metacam would hide where she is hurt...So it was a long night...she didn't really move much but didn't sleep well because of the pain...
At 9 am we were at the vets....The vet said she hurt her back in the most common places that dogs hurt their backs...she said nothing was broken and to give her metacam and not let her use the steps or jump for a few days...She hasn't moved much today....she seems still very sore but she is eating and finally used her pee pad after 24 hrs of not ....She cries out in pain every so often and it breaks my heart..
The vet said she should improve in about 4 to 5 days..if not then she said we would have to be more aggressive with her treatment...
I hate when they are in pain....any suggestions on how to help her with that ?

Nancy


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

Aw, I hope she has a quick and speedy recovery! Did the vet say if he thought heat would help?


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## carrieandcricket (Dec 6, 2011)

Maybe a heating pad or blanket? I hope she feels better soon.


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## svdreamer (Feb 20, 2010)

Poor thing. I hope she feels better soon. I think just keeping her quiet would help. The Metacam should help, too.


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## bayoumah (Nov 30, 2010)

hi little lola get back to feeling happy and playing


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## Nancy (Feb 4, 2009)

Thanks for the responses....Once metacam took effect she was good...Alittle to good ...I kept her in a play pen on a heating blanket ( where she spends most of her winters anyways on a heating blanket) But I felt bad for her she looked like she was so sad in the evening.. so I brought her out to sit on the couch...But of course someone came into my house and she flew off the couch as per normal...Its hard to keep her quite unless she is in the play pen but she won't eat or drink or use the pee pad in there...
But anyways she had a good new years eve sleep...in the bed under the covers as normal...Was an ok morning but clearly by 1 pm the metacam wore off...She is only to get the 2 kg( I think that ends up being 2 drops ) dose every 24 hrs ...The vets were suppose to call to check up and I was going to ask them about giving her more but no one called and when I had called they were closed...Only opened from 10 to 12 today...
So I went ahead and gave her 1 drop of metacam and it stopped her crying...and now again she is in the play pen sleeping on the heating blanket.
Does anyone have any other suggestions about the metacam ? I can't see how 2 drops is suppose to keep her pain away for 24 hrs ?

Nancy and sore little Miss Lola


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## JadensMimi (Oct 23, 2011)

Oh poor baby, I hope she heals quickly. I assume that the vet did x-rays? It really sounds callous, but sometimes pain meds given at the dose to take all the pain away really is detrimental to them as you have experienced. I would do what you did, lower the dose to one drop. I don't know the half-life of the drug but I suspect it's long if the prescribed dosage is supposted last 24 hours. If 1 drop is enough to take the edge off, as soon as the vet opens call and explain what happened and ask if you can give 1 drop every 12 hours instead. As you know I'm sure, it's crucial for recovery for her to stay as quiet as possible and no jumping----easier said than done I know. Good luck!


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## Nancy (Feb 4, 2009)

I checked out online the correct doseage she should be getting....When they explained to me( at the vets ) she was to get only to the first line of the syringe..well when I went to add it to her food only one drop came out...I could see some still in there but it wasn't coming out ...So I just assumed there was one more drop in there...so added one drop from the bottle to the rest of her food...so she got 2 drops...BUT I see on the web site it even says something about if the dog is under 5 pounds to get the correct dose do not use the syringe...its 1 drop per pound so she should get 5 drops ???? I guess the vets aren't used to dealing with such a small dog ?? I really don't know...
So I guess she was undermedicated last night with the 2 drops hence why she was back to crying today ...
I won't give her the 5 drops but I will give her 2 again...that would be 3 for 24 hrs....And I will call the vets in the am and find out what the heck she should be getting...
Oh btw....on the site the 1 drop per pound is just the first dose then its goes down to.... 0.1 mg per kg...and that works out to how many drops if she weighs almost 5 pounds ? OK I am making myself all confused with the metric and standard measurements...
On the bottle from the vets she is to get the 2 kg dose..so I think thats 4 drops....
I will get it straighened around in the am I hope...And also I need to tell them that the metacam site even says you can't get the correct doseage from the syringe if the doseage is small...


Oh and also no she didn't have an xray...I went there thinking thats what was going to be done but...I asked the vet why no xray and she said she didn't feel it was needed..she did a through exam and was pretty sure where she hurt her back...and the fact she could still feel her toes and knew where they were when she walked..(something like that )

Nancy


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## carrieandcricket (Dec 6, 2011)

I'm so sorry your having to go through all that with the vet. Is this vet normally like that? Where she acts like she doesn't know what she is doing? I don't mean to talk down about your vet or anything, and I'm pretty sure the vet would have if she had severely injured her spine. The medicine dosage though I'm pretty sure the vet should have know that.


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## Nancy (Feb 4, 2009)

I don't know this vet....I go to a teaching hospital with about 8 plus vets ....4 or so are reg vets there...they have state of the art equipment ...its a bit pricey too..but my town has 2 vet offices and I had a bad experience at the other one years back and haven't been back to them since...I questioned the xray and she said she didn't think it was needed...She seemed like a really nice vet tho....Lola freaks out big time at the vets....she was really good with her...I would suspect if she thought it was really bad she would have xrayed her ..
The front desk staff is another story...They are all really young girls with not alot of experience either...I just know if they something I never take it as 100% correct...
And unless I speak to a vet about the meds and the doseage not being correct with syringe...they won't get the msg from the front desk staff..So when I call tomorrow I will ask for to speak to a vet...

Nancy


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## svdreamer (Feb 20, 2010)

Sounds more like a sprain as she can walk. I'm sure the vet did the bending back of the foot to see if she would right it immediately which means no neurological damage. An xray would only point to a broken bone, it is not able to show anything else. There would be a lot more pain and symptoms if she had broken something. I use the syringe when I use the Metacam, they figure in the amount given in amount you are to give and that which stays in the neck of the syringe. So, you should ignore that portion in the neck. It is calculated in. The drop out of the syringe will be bigger than the drop out of the bottle which is why they look different. There is a difference in size between the two objects.


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## Bean's Mum (Dec 11, 2011)

Poor girl, hope Lola has a speedy recovery.


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## guccigrande (Apr 17, 2011)

Gucci has hurt his back twice so far, and each time I couldn't bear to see him in pain, it was awful!
1st time we were given Meloxicam (metacam) too, 2nd time we got some Tepoxalin
Thank goodness he hasn't had the pain anymore since
Hope Lola is feeling much better and is back to prancing around


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

Hmmmm. I had to medicate our miniature schnauzer with metacam for arthritis for a long time, and I remember the syringe being quite large. 

A friend of mine had to medicate her rat with metacam, and he wasn't even close to a pound so there is a way to precisely measure the amount. I had to medicate our rat with children's liquid advil, and the syringe it came with was tiny but it still wasn't precise enough to measure the correct amount. My friend gave me one of her 1.0 mg/ml syringes, and that worked perfectly. Is there an emergency or after hours vet from that clinic you could get a hold of? Did the vet tell you to medicate by drop?


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## Nancy (Feb 4, 2009)

Nope she told me to go to the first line on the syringe...but only one drop came out..the rest sayed in the syringe in the neck as well as in the syringe...I can't imagine that one drop from syringe equals 4 drops from the actually bottle ? Although I really have no way of telling the difference size of drops...
I gave her 2 drops from the bottle itself this evening....but I will be sure to ask the vets tomorrow about her getting the right amount thru the syringe..

Nancy


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## AC/DC Fan (Sep 15, 2010)

I hope she's doing better.
Bizkit is back on 0.4 ccs of Metacam, 1x daily, for his LP. A couple of times yesterday he couldn't stand. I hadn't been giving it to him b/c it was to be used "as needed" and he didn't seem any the worse for wear until yesterday. I talked to his vet and she said to put him back on the 0.4 ccs for the weekend and call her on Tuesday. After the first dose, he was majorly improved.  I will tell you that when he was given that Rx of Metacam when his LP was diagnosed in Feb. 2010, the box says to start at 0.4 ccs for X amount of days, then 0.3, then down to 0.2 for maintenance. But the goal was for him to not have it every day. I think it's time to start giving it to him once or twice per week though. Before yesterday, I've never seen him not be able to stand. It seems typical of arthritis. Both incidences occured after he'd been still for quite a while (when he woke up in the morning and again later in the morning after a nap). After a few minutes, he does get up and walk.
Also, dosing is probably based on weight in addition to illness/injury. Bizkit is about 3 1/2 lbs. FWIW.
Hope your girl is all recovered!


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## AC/DC Fan (Sep 15, 2010)

KrystalLeigh said:


> Hmmmm. I had to medicate our miniature schnauzer with metacam for arthritis for a long time, and I remember the syringe being quite large.
> 
> A friend of mine had to medicate her rat with metacam, and he wasn't even close to a pound so there is a way to precisely measure the amount. I had to medicate our rat with children's liquid advil, and the syringe it came with was tiny but it still wasn't precise enough to measure the correct amount. My friend gave me one of her 1.0 mg/ml syringes, and that worked perfectly. Is there an emergency or after hours vet from that clinic you could get a hold of? Did the vet tell you to medicate by drop?


Agree. The syringe that comes with a bottle of Metacam is huge! The vets office puts Bizkit's Metacam in a different bottle that I can put a little syringe into and get the amount he needs.


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

KrystalLeigh said:


> Hmmmm. I had to medicate our miniature schnauzer with metacam for arthritis for a long time, and I remember the syringe being quite large.
> 
> A friend of mine had to medicate her rat with metacam, and he wasn't even close to a pound so there is a way to precisely measure the amount. I had to medicate our rat with children's liquid advil, and the syringe it came with was tiny but it still wasn't precise enough to measure the correct amount. My friend gave me one of her 1.0 mg/ml syringes, and that worked perfectly. Is there an emergency or after hours vet from that clinic you could get a hold of? Did the vet tell you to medicate by drop?


I medicate rats constantly- all too often with metcam. Kinda the story of my life really. What I have learned is only vets who also treat avian/exotics vets carry the kind of bottles that can be easily measured with a 1ml syringe. It is a special bottle that the tiny syringe fits in the top of, because if you can't make a seal and tip the bottle upside down then measuring with that kind of syringe is tricky (if that makes any sense). Your vet might be able to re-package it in that kind of bottle for you, but a lot of vets don't carry them.

I actually get my syringes at a regular human pharmacy, for free (rats on long term heart meds learn to chew the syringe after a while so I go through them quick). They usually have both 5ml needle-less and 1mil with a needle I take off.

Probably not very helpful at all for you though, good luck.


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## Nancy (Feb 4, 2009)

I called the vets this morning and they said to give her 4 drops from the bottle ...once a day ..I said for how many days ...she said it should be on the label...and its not...So she said for 7 days..
Poor girl...I kinda knew it was more than 2 drops but I don't like to move forward like that without some vet approval...so she has been under medicated for 2 days now...I guess thats why by early afternoon she seems sore again..
She seems to be improving ..I haven't heard her cry out since early yesterday...

Nancy


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