Long story short, my 6 Y.O. Rottie has just been falling apart with a bad coat, joint stiffness, muscle atrophy most noticable on the top of the head. In fact, it almost looks like the right side of his head is falling in. The right corner of his mouth is VERY sensitive, even to external palpation.
The vet put the dog on Prednisone and the symptoms have been getting better. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with this and knows of any other treatment options?
Always looking for training avenues close to home. Any suggestions?
They actually thought a dog on an adjoining team had this disorder -- all the symptoms and it would up being an abscess behind the eye and not the disorder. I would make sure the vet rules out all other sources of infection including tick borne diseases.
My understanding was the diagnosis meant the dog would be retired and have a life on steroids.
Have they done the blood test for your dog. I sure hope it is soemthing else that can be cured as opposed to managed.
The vet sedated the dog and found a broken tooth in the right corner of the mouth. He extracted the tooth and we thought that would be the end of it, but the symptoms only continued to worsen.
You're correct about the dog being retired and managed with steroids, but I was hoping for other options.
Always looking for training avenues close to home. Any suggestions?
You know, I had a dog endure a painful dental abscess for months because the (former) vet had all kinds of exotic reasons for it. It was so bad at one point it broke through the skin on his face right under his eye.
Another vet, looking at him for perianal fistulas, took one look (I asked him to look at the abscess too), found and pulled the tooth and pumped him full of antibiotics. Problem solved.
Did your vet give a big slug of antibiotics and make provisions for that abscess to drain? Did he do the diagnistic blood test for the disease? If there is an infection prednisone may mask the inflammation but impairs the immune system.
I know the disease is very real and most likely that is what it is but I know what my friend went through before she got the word it was not that.
If it was only MMM would the dog be having the body condition deterioration?
I agree with Connie that it sounds like there may be infection from the tooth, which could certainly cause a general decline in condition.
Good points. I'm certainly no expert, but with the way things got progressively worse even before the tooth was pulled and continued to decline even after the extraction, along with the atrophy of the muscles in the head, I really am thinking the vet is on the right track with the diagnosis.
When the tooth was pulled the dog was on antibiotics for a couple of weeks afterwards to ward off infection. No guarantee, but a prevenitive measure none the less.
From what I have read and been told, MMM cannot be diagnosed by a blood test but rather a muscle biopsy would need to be done. Many of the texts I have read state that if prednisone relieves the symptoms that is often proof enough that MMM is the culprit. Not sure I agree, due to the fact, as has been stated, prednisone can mask many symptoms.
I take it no one knows of any other treatments for MMM other than prednisone?
Always looking for training avenues close to home. Any suggestions?
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