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Old September 17th, 2011, 12:26 PM
Lacey Marie Lacey Marie is offline
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Neurological Disorder in dogs

My 3 year old toy poodle has been tentatively diagnosed with GME. A type of encephalitis that has no known cause. The only way to diagnose is to have very costly neurological exams ($2500) such as spinal tap etc. Her symptoms; disorientation, fearful of touch, has some difficulty picking up solid food, does well lapping liquids. I now make all her food, vitamins, etc. in a blender. I take her for her walk & she seems disoriented & doesn't want to walk. Before this she was lovable, went to basic obedience school, loved riding in the car, loved her walks & was just a wonderful loving companion. Can anyone share with me any similar challenges or other types of neurological conditions their pet may have encountered. I'm still not sure this tentative diagnosis is what we're dealing with. She is taking prednisone to reduce inflammation. Thanks for any input.
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Old September 18th, 2011, 06:09 AM
quincys quincys is offline
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Hi Lacey

To do everything you do, you must love your dog very much. May i suggest one more thing. Try swimming - dog hydrotherapy.

See if there is a pool near you and ask them what they think. Swimming is a weightless form of exercise and once you have done a couple of sessions with the hydrotherapy centre, maybe look at ebay and buy a 'dog life jacket'. To help you save costs and the fact your dog is a small dog - you can easily swim your dog yourself, simply by filling up your bath at home and swimming her in there.

Its infact very simple. You place a a little step on one side of the bath. Place your dog in the life jacket. They will always come with a handle at the top. Place her into the water and teach her to swim towards the step. Very quickly she will build up muscle. S

tart by 3 sets of 1 minute a day with 5 minute rest breaks in between. Do this for 2 days, then nothing on the third day. Then do another 2 days and give her the other two days off. The days off are very important. Slowly increase the swims times over a period of 4 weeks to build up to 10 minutes a day.

I have treated a lot of dogs (swimming) with neurological problems and this really does help.

There is something else that may help - this helps all sizes of dogs that are unsteady on their feet. The harness helps dogs from all sort of things; Hip dysplasia, cruciate ligament injuries, chronic degenerative radiculomyelopathy (CDRM), Spinal, etc - basically it helps with any problems to do with walking.

These pictures show a very big dog, however, like i said, it works on all types of dogs. I thought you may like it as it help you walk you walk. Its made in the UK but shipping is anywhere in the world.

Name:  Henry 1 & 3.jpg
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Good luck - and i really hope this has helped - please do try the swimming and let us all know how she is getting on 4 to 5 weeks time.

Last edited by hazelrunpack; September 18th, 2011 at 09:15 AM. Reason: No self-promotion, pls
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Old September 18th, 2011, 01:32 PM
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Rgeurts Rgeurts is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacey Marie View Post
My 3 year old toy poodle has been tentatively diagnosed with GME. A type of encephalitis that has no known cause. The only way to diagnose is to have very costly neurological exams ($2500) such as spinal tap etc. Her symptoms; disorientation, fearful of touch, has some difficulty picking up solid food, does well lapping liquids. I now make all her food, vitamins, etc. in a blender. I take her for her walk & she seems disoriented & doesn't want to walk. Before this she was lovable, went to basic obedience school, loved riding in the car, loved her walks & was just a wonderful loving companion. Can anyone share with me any similar challenges or other types of neurological conditions their pet may have encountered. I'm still not sure this tentative diagnosis is what we're dealing with. She is taking prednisone to reduce inflammation. Thanks for any input.
Hi Lacey,

Welcome to the board. I'm so sorry you are going through this. My hubby and I got a puppy last year and he has had SO many issues. I won't get into all of it... I could probably write a novel (and one of our specialists keeps saying she's going to ) with all of the issues he has. His are mostly neurological as well. I still, to this day, don't know if I believe all of the diagnoses he received. I don't think there is any "conclusive" evidence either way.... it's a lot of guessing and narrowing things down from what I have learned. He had his first grand mal seizure at around 8.5 weeks old was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis (ME) at about 3 months old. He then started having many, many other issues and has since been diagnosed with Idiopathic(meaning unknown origin) Eosiniphilic Syndrome(an immune disorder similar to Lupus, neurological and gastro related in his case), EPI, Epilepsy(neurological), Hyperesthesia (neurological), Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (Dry Eye), Immune-mediated Hypothyroidism and I'm sure something else here that I am forgetting. They want $2800 just for the MRI here. If I take him down to Washington State University, to the teaching hospital (they saved me $6,000 on surgery to remove a cancerous lung tumor from my other boy, over going to a vet here in Canada) it will be so much more affordable. The teaching hospital want's $1800 for an MRI, CSF tap (spinal tap), full blood and chemistry panels and a full day evaluation with a neurologist. See if there is a teaching hospital in your area. They, along with our regular and holistic vets and chemo therapy,gave us a few more months with our old boy

One thing, did your girl have any recent vaccinations prior to displaying the symptoms? They are quite sure now that some of Nanooks (19 month old Malamute) issues were brought on by vaccinations (not caused by as he probably had bad genes to begin with). The disorientation you mention, we still see that with ours, mainly in the mornings. A good example is yesterday morning. I took him our for a pee and he just seemed a little lost and confused, then he bumped into the back of my car and on the way in to the house, he bumped in to the door jam. He does things like that quite often. Again, it's mainly in the mornings for him (and once in awhile at bedtime). Traditional western veterinary medicine almost killed him (he got internal bleeding from all the drugs, along with joint and muscle damage). We decided to see a holistic vet, who has saved his life, at least for now

I know how difficult and stressful it is when you don't know what's going on, or what to expect. I hope you can find some answers, or at least treatment that will help, if not cure.

Take care, Robyn

P.S. Oh, one more thing... Our babys ME was diagnosed through CSF tap, not MRI.
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"Obey my dog!" - Mugatu

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!" ~ Theophile Gautier


"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" - Ok... whoever said this has never had a sick or special needs baby. They ARE our whole life!

R.I.P. my sweet, handsome Thorin. You are missed dearly Dec. 25, 1999 - Mar. 4, 2012

Last edited by Rgeurts; September 18th, 2011 at 03:32 PM. Reason: Oh, one more thing... Our babys ME was diagnosed through CSF tap, not MRI.
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Old September 18th, 2011, 01:45 PM
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Rgeurts Rgeurts is offline
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If you want to compare notes or ask questions, please feel free to PM me. If you can't PM me for some reason, let me know and I'll ask a mod to set it up for you. I looked all over the internet for anyone who was going through something similar, but with no luck at all. It was scary, and very frustrating. I don't know if any of the info I have will help, but I'm more than willing to share in hopes you may get something out of it to take to your vet (most vets are just not able to do much as these disorders are so rare).
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"Obey my dog!" - Mugatu

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!" ~ Theophile Gautier


"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" - Ok... whoever said this has never had a sick or special needs baby. They ARE our whole life!

R.I.P. my sweet, handsome Thorin. You are missed dearly Dec. 25, 1999 - Mar. 4, 2012
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