Phantom Pain =My Air Is Painful And It's Very Real

 Hi, Although I do not have a dog that's an amputee. I am an above knee amputee and do have phantom pain . I often wondered if animals experienced phantom pain . There is so much I know about this from the thousands of hours of research to help myself. I was dragged on I-75 at 13 and hit by a car 2 years later. Have endured 68 surgeries, 0ver 1400 days in the hospital, 23 broken bones,4 months in the U of MI burn unit due to a severe degloving injury of my entire right leg and heel. Had my legs pinned together for cross flaps surgery 3 times. This all began in the early 1980's and then in 1996 my leg had to be amputated. I would do just about anything to take back the decreppedleg I did have. I had no clue the nightmare phantom pain would be. The numerous medications and side effects. I don't want to scare you but I read that gabapentin-anticonvulsant type med could be used for a few weeks. Well it should be used indefinitely because once you have phantom pain , you normally always will although it can get better and easier to tolerate. I know that people with congenital deformities don't have phantom pain and if amputation occurs usually prior to age 8, they have minimal chance of this. It all has to do with the brain and spinal cord. What reason did the vet say Casey couldn't have phantom pain ? How do they know this? I would think it couldn't hurt for the vet to medicate Casey.A small dose of an anti-convulsant and anti-depressant, not for depression but what it does to the neurotransmitters. Certain classes work much better. You may even want to call a pain clinic,physiatrist, anesthesiologist, neurologist to see what evidence they have for animals and phantom pain . I know how mind draining and lfe altering phantom pain is and I don't want to put any fear in you. It's quite possible that the plasticity of a canines brain is significantly different than that of a human. the pain has alot to do with the memory of the preexisting injury pain and how the spinal cord fires abnormal signals it receives to the brain as being painful. I am a lay person but for the benefit of Casey's future try to find out if she is really having this. I will look into this. My dad has an awesome vet for his race horses and I will ask some of my doctors when I see them. Take care

snowgoer