? Civvie question

Just looking for opinions from anyone who may have dealt with something similar before. Regan, Rosa's civvie twin, has some major dental issues. However, she also has heart arrythmia and is depressed following Rosa's passing and our vet is not comfortable with the idea of putting her under anesthesia at the moment.

The options we have been offered are Gabapentin (which she has already started), Clavamox as pulse therapy - we've done one week of Clavamox so far and are hoping to be able to do just one week every 2-3 months. For longer term options, we're looking at either prednisolone or cyclosporin. Obviously the pred carries a risk of diabetes, but for Regan the complicating factor with giving her an immune-suppressant such as cyclosporin is that she has Bowen's disease which causes multiple scc lesions. I am wary of giving her anything that might allow these to develop faster or in greater number. Our vet is happy to prescribe either depending on my preference. My initial reaction is that I would prefer to go with the pred - diabetes I can handle, but if she develops an oral scc then treatment options are limited - but I'd really like to hear other people's opinions on what they would choose before I make a final decision.

 

I know little to nothing of the illnesses your talking about, but I do know pred. As I have used it my self other than weight gain and more of a moon face (round). I found it made me very short tempered and quick to irrational rages. But considering the choices I would also go with the pred with the clause of it being a min dosage and shot term. That is my small humble opnion

 

Thank you Julia. The weight gain I am not overly worried about for Regan - she's tending towards being a little underweight since Rosa passed so if the pred also makes her eat more (it did for my Mom too when she had to take it) then that is definitely a side effect I can live with for now. We are hoping that eventually she will be able to go under anesthesia - the main concern at the moment is her apparent depression and lack of a will to live since she lost her twin...it feels as though anesthesia might seem like an 'easy way out for her' right now with the heart arrhythmia in play as well - that's thought to be mostly non life-threatening in her case, but we still need to proceed with extreme caution for any sort of sedation or anesthesia. I thought that was maybe paranoia on my part, but our vet actually agreed with me that it wouldn't be a good thing to try at the moment for her. I would definitely be using a minimal dose too - the Clavamox definitely worked for her so it's a case of finding the smallest effective dose that can extend the time between Clavamox pulses so that she isn't on that constantly either! It's a real 'rock and a hard place' situation - either of the 2 meds could cause her more issues so I'm left trying to choose the lesser of two evils for her!