# Epidural Therapy ?



## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Has anyone any experience/info on epidural therapy for treating lumbosacral stenosis. Is it something practiced much in the States.... seems to be a newish thing here (UK).


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## Anne Jones (Mar 27, 2006)

I'm asuming that you are talking about the use of this pain treatment in dogs?

If so, maybe if Maren checks in here, she will have some info on this


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Anne Jones said:


> I'm asuming that you are talking about the use of this pain treatment in dogs?
> 
> If so, maybe if Maren checks in here, she will have some info on this


Yes, it's for pain management.

My consultant has raised the idea, he was saying there's been a fairly new paper published which is sounding very encouraging apparently. I don't have an awful lot of options with the dog so I'm kind of interested too.


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## Julie Ann Alvarez (Aug 4, 2007)

From a human stand point I can speak from experience. Nothing long lasting unless it is a new injury. EPI's are used to locate injury that may not be clear on MRI, pain relief for limited time, and are quite costly. They inject steroids and a numbing agent very near the spinal canal where the suspected injury is- the steroids theoretically shrink a soft herniation or inflamation but will not remove bone spurs or rehydrate a disc. The numbing agent (sometimes called a nerve block) may give you the idea that your all better but once it wears off the pain comes back. Humans are only allowed 3 x a year since the steroids are very hard on the body and can cause more issues.

I would be interested in learning what they are doing for dogs. 

For humans I really believe that they are a waste of money and used to milk your insurance by greedy pain managers.

Julie


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Julie Ann Alvarez said:


> From a human stand point I can speak from experience. Nothing long lasting unless it is a new injury. EPI's are used to locate injury that may not be clear on MRI, pain relief for limited time, and are quite costly. They inject steroids and a numbing agent very near the spinal canal where the suspected injury is- the steroids theoretically shrink a soft herniation or inflamation but will not remove bone spurs or rehydrate a disc. The numbing agent (sometimes called a nerve block) may give you the idea that your all better but once it wears off the pain comes back. Humans are only allowed 3 x a year since the steroids are very hard on the body and can cause more issues.
> 
> I would be interested in learning what they are doing for dogs.
> 
> ...


Thanks for that info. My limited knowledge at this point leads me to believe that what you have described is much the same on what may well be on offer here. I believe also we would be looking at approx 3 injections also, probably because steroids are hard on animals too, I do not like them.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Maggie, sorry I missed the earlier thread, just started a new externship. Please keep in mind that I have not had my neurology rotation yet and neurology is not my strong suit (not that many find it their strong suit as it's really difficult stuff!). If I recall correctly, steroids work best on an acute neurologic case to reduce inflammation that causes the neurons to degenerate and die. So like if your dog all the goes down suddenly, they may try it. I have only seen an epidural steroid injection in one single dog (a 13 year old greyhound with lumbrosacral disease/cauda equina) as a very very last ditch effort and it didn't seem to do anything. She was euthanized a day later. So that's my n=1 experience with it. Sorry I couldn't be more help. :-( Any luck contacting that vet who is certified in rehab?


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Many thanks for your input Maren, I haven't been able to find out too much about this therapy at this end and the link you posted was for a vet down south in England.... too far from here. He's still on the plt at the moment which seems to help him more than the rimadyl did, I'm considering slightly epidural therapy if it does not subject my dog to too much misery, but continuing for the moment with his plt meds.

I'm due to speak with the doc shortly again, so will have to make up my mind quite sharpish, it might be worth a shot for us. He's also suggested trying him on gababentin ? drugs they prescribe for epilepsy ? if these options don't effect much of a result then apparently there's nowhere else to go really.

I don't want to add to the dog's misery, he can seem quite sore at times but he also seems fairly happy at others.... the trouble is I've experienced him having extreme pain, it's more than a little distressing and can happen again obviously. 

Anyway, we'll see what tomorrow brings, thanks again for the input.


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