Quote Originally Posted by Glacier View Post
Sorry about the diagnosis. My Pirate has advanced DM, among a host of other health problems. We treat the DM with Metacam, a dose slightly higher than her weight actually calls for, every day. Plus Gabapentin 100mg once a day every day. Gabapentin is actually a human anti-seizure medication, but for some reason it works on neurological issues too. It's also prescribed for chronic pain. My husband has taken it for back problems. It's much more effective for Pirate than it was for him!

Pirate has been on the Gabapentin for about four months now. Before she was falling over, dragging her back leg, unable to lift her back feet high enough to get around even tiny obstacles. A piece of gravel in the yard was enough to make her fall over. She's much steadier on her feet now; can usually get up on her own; she's never going to convince anyone she's 4 again, but she's doing alright for 15!

Might be worth asking your vet about-it's cheap, easy to administer(I throw the capsule in her dinner bowl) and it certainly won't make things any worse.

Thank you so much for this information! I'm going to speak with my vet about it. May I ask when Pirate was diagnosed with DM? I'm guessing it was 4 months ago because she started the Gabapentin then but I wasn't sure. And I'm also wondering if Pirate had ever had any incontinence issues related with DM?
The wet food seems to trigger an overnight bowel movement, even if we feed it to him early in the day so sadly we've had to cut that out of his diet. He loves to eat (what dog doesn't?!? lol) and he really likes the wetfood mixed in with his crumbles. He reacts the same way to high quality holistic wet food as he does to the cheaper grocery store brands so we've just stopped giving it to him altogether. And this morning, no poop to clean up. Yay!!
Aside from the lazy back foot, it does seem that his other feet sometimes seem to take an exaggerated amount of time to 'right' themselves when he's walking. Not always, just sometimes. And there are times when Finnigan comes bounding along and wants to play with Mud and kind of knocks him over. He doesn't fall completely over or anything but he ends up falling back into the sitting position and he looks a bit miffed at Finn for making it happen.
It sounds like the Gabapentin has really helped Pirate and I'm very excited that there is something out there that could help Muddy. My vet must not know of this. The other thing that is confusing is that she said Metacam does nothing for DM because DM doesn't cause pain. She said Metacam would be useful for the arthritis he might be suffering with but because of his kidney issue she wanted to hold off on the Metacam. Do you think DM is causing Pirate pain and/or do you think the anti-inflammatory properties of Metacam help Pirate with the DM? Sorry for all the questions but I'm so relieved that someone here is familiar with this disease as I've never heard of it before yesterday. Thank you again for your post.