We took both boys to the vet yesterday. Thorin had a recheck on his lipase and it is back to normal, so happy for that!
Nanook, on the other hand, not so good. Poor little guy has been so, so bloated and developed a sore on his lip, one on his chin and a few on his belly. The vet we saw wasn't our regular vet (she's on vacation). As soon as he looked at Nanook he said "That's not good". I said what's not good? I thought he was talking about the bloat. He said "here, look.... you see how the bones in his head stick out?" I said yes, we've noticed that for months and even brought it up to previous vets but they never thought it was an issue, and we thought it was getting worse because of the malnutrition. He said no, that Nanook has masticatory myositis and opened his mouth, looked in it and said his eyes were sinking in and he was developing apathy behind them
He then said that since Nanook was having seizures he may have myasthenia gravis as that affects the nervous system. Needless to say we were, again, devastated. The thought of our poor lil boy having to go through the horrid things the vet was telling us would happen, along with everything else he has been through, just broke my heart. He said the bloat is due to him being on such high doses of pred for so long and his body is just saying enough. He said the sores are due to his immune system being so suppressed and said he isn't going to treat the sores with antibiotics because his bloating and tummy upset. He told us to just stop the pred for 36 hours then start again on a lower dose. I told him we had been told not to do that as it could be very dangerous. He said in people it is, but not so much in dogs. DH and I weren't comfortable with that at all.
I called our specialist but she was on holidays too until the 12th but they had another specialist review his file and talk to me. As soon as I told her what the vet said she laughed.
I was thinking "why are you laughing?! This isn't funny..."
She then said "let me guess, he thinks that because of Nanooks head, right?" I said yes. She then went on to explain that dogs who are on prednisone long term and high doses (he was on 60mg daily for 3 weeks, then 50mg for 2 weeks, then 40mg for 2 weeks, then 30mg for 2 weeks, then 20mg and we're now at the end of the 2 weeks and ready to drop to 10mg) have a deterioration of the muscle in the head, and it's known as "pred-head". She said alot of vets don't have experience with dogs on long term high dose prednisone so they often misdiagnose. I don't know what to think or who to believe. I really want to believe that she's right (in fact, I pray she is
). She said if it's pre-head the muscle will come back, but it takes a very long time. So... we're just so confused and anxious again
Nanook doesn't seem to know there's anything wrong with him (except when he's really bloated). He plays, but tires easily. However, when it comes time to eat he barks, howls and does little twists in the air. It's so cute. So I guess as long as he still enjoys himself, I will try not to worry and just take things as they come. I'm just tired of getting different responses/diagnoses from every vet we see.
It makes it so hard to trust that any of them know what they are doing.