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Lakeland Terrier - neurological issue

3.4K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Sled dog hotel  
#1 ·
Hey everyone
We have a 6 month old Lakeland Terrier who is just the best pet ever. She has always been fiesty and spirited but this week we had some upsetting news. She began circling and was quite distressed, we took her to the vet and they took blood. The results came back with a white count in line with a meningitis type infection which we have strong antibiotics to try and clear. The vet also mentioned the possibility of a brain tumour which is devastating. Our puppy has steroids to try and help the symptoms. Are neurological issues common in this breed or have we just been unlucky? Our local vet will guide us but I just want to ensure we do the best for our wee Maggie cx
 
#2 ·
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I'm sorry to hear this, U must be very upset & worried. :( Praps it is an infection, & will clear - we can only hope.
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As for heritable neuro issues in Lakelands, i have not heard of that as a breed tendency - that doesn't mean it's not there, just that i'm not aware of that as a topic of concern.
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From the AVAR list of heritable problems in purebred dogs, here are the known issues in Lakelands -
Lakeland terrier: 42, 70, 88, 166, 186, 245, 319, 320, 330

Find them listed numerically HERE:
http://www.hsvma.org/assets/pdfs/guide-to-congenital-and-heritable-disorders.pdf
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I hope Maggie recovers well, & U have many-more happy years together. :) Please keep us posted? - warm pats to Mags.
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#5 ·
So sorry you are having worrying health issues with your pup. The most common meningitis in younger dogs is usually something called steroid responsive meningitis. The treatment for that is usually high immunosuppressant doses of usually steroids that are given over a considerable period of time and then reduced and tapered off very gradually. They do often also give antibiotics if there is any suggestion that bacterial meningitis or bacterial infection can be involved also. With the correct regime of medication the prognosis is usually very good. A neurologist I saw a few years ago has a special interest in inflammatory brain disease including steroid responsive meningitis and he has written a very good paper on the subject, you can find the link to it and the information below.

http://www.vizslahealth.net/SRMA.pdf

You also asked about neurological issues in Lakelands. Steroid responsive meningitis does seem to have a prevalence in certain breeds ie they are more prone to it, but it can affect any dog usually more often young ones. There is however also a condition called spikes disease, originally named after and sometimes still reffered to as spikes disease after a border terrier spike who first suffered from it and it became recognised, now more recently called Canine Epiletoid cramping syndrome.
I knew that some other terrier type breeds have also been found to suffer from it or similar other then Borders and looking up Lakelands it does seem that they do suffer with it too. It does seem that not all vets are aware of the condition, and maybe not so much with Lakelands as at first it seemed to be a Border terrier issue.
The link below is about Spikes/Canine Epiletoid Cramping syndrome in general and also give more specific info about the condition in Lakelands as its a Lakeland specific website.

https://lakelandterriertopics.wordpress.com/health-issues/spikes-disease/

In addition to this, the same Lakeland specific information website also gives information about epilepsy in the breed too.
https://lakelandterriertopics.wordpress.com/health-issues/epilepsy/

The only other suggestion I could make would be perhaps to ask your vet to do you a referral to a canine neurology specialist. Hope this information may be of some use, and also hope there is improvement in your puppy quickly.