[liz99]

Hello,

I am new to this site, so hope I am posting correctly. I have a 19month old female whippet x and she is the love of our life.

At easter of this year she was admitted to the vets for lethargy, high temperature, and sensitivity in her lower back, she was given antibiotics and anti inflammatory which seemed to help and she came home. Two weeks ago she was admitted to the vets with the same symptoms, but was far more poorly. The vets were unable to diagnose her so she was sent to a veterinary specialist. Upon examination she was sensitive in her whole back, reluctant to move her head left or right, high temp, lethargy, so following a spinal tap she was diagnosed with steroid responsive meningitis. She is currently on prednisolone 5mg (steroids) and has 3 1/2 tablets twice a day. She seems slightly better, as in when she is up she is a bit brighter and has a waggy tail, but she wants to sleep alot and seems depressed. I have reviewed all the side effects, one being muscle wastage, but she has only been on the steroids one week and already her spine and the top of her head is really bony, she has gone from having a dry nose to having a nose that now drips. We are back at the vets on Tuesday for her first examination.

Has anyone had any experience of steroid responsive meningitis and if so, what effects did the steroids have on your dog, and prognosis.

Many thanks, sorry it is a bit of an essay but wanted to give you all the information, I look forward to hearing from any of you.

Thanks
Liz

 

[Freyja]

Someone on here has a whippet who suffers from it I'l contact her and tell her to come on. I do know that because it took a long time to diagnose it her whippet does suffer from relapses ever so often.

I have a whippet who was diagnosed as a possible brain tumour he was on steriods for 6 months with no ill effects.

 

[Freyja]

Just heard from her she is a bit busy at the moment wioth a chihuahua she has just rescued but will get in touch ASAP.

 

[Pointermum]

There is someone on here who has a beagle with it, http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-chat/242157-well-bellas-off-steroids-again.html

 

[Cockerpoo lover]

I have two stories from owners you can read from my website, that you may find helpful

Health Issues

 

[liz99]

Many thanks for your help, I have read the articles and found them very useful

 

[Bella Beagle Mum]

Hello,

I am new to this site, so hope I am posting correctly. I have a 19month old female whippet x and she is the love of our life.

At easter of this year she was admitted to the vets for lethargy, high temperature, and sensitivity in her lower back, she was given antibiotics and anti inflammatory which seemed to help and she came home. Two weeks ago she was admitted to the vets with the same symptoms, but was far more poorly. The vets were unable to diagnose her so she was sent to a veterinary specialist. Upon examination she was sensitive in her whole back, reluctant to move her head left or right, high temp, lethargy, so following a spinal tap she was diagnosed with steroid responsive meningitis. She is currently on prednisolone 5mg (steroids) and has 3 1/2 tablets twice a day. She seems slightly better, as in when she is up she is a bit brighter and has a waggy tail, but she wants to sleep alot and seems depressed. I have reviewed all the side effects, one being muscle wastage, but she has only been on the steroids one week and already her spine and the top of her head is really bony, she has gone from having a dry nose to having a nose that now drips. We are back at the vets on Tuesday for her first examination.

Has anyone had any experience of steroid responsive meningitis and if so, what effects did the steroids have on your dog, and prognosis.

Many thanks, sorry it is a bit of an essay but wanted to give you all the information, I look forward to hearing from any of you.

Thanks
Liz

Hi Liz

Sorry to read about your "Bella" being poorly It's awful when they are so bad.

In our experience we only have positive things to say about the use of steroids when dealing with meningitis. Without them our "Bella" would almost certainly be dead!

Unfortunately it can be a long, long haul though.

I am no expert on canine meningitis......I can only say what our experience was like.

To give you an idea of what Bella was like here is a thread I wrote a while ago about the whole thing http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-chat/226727-bellas-had-all-clear-lon-post-warning.html

Inicially Bella lost weight as she was so poorly for quite a while. But in the long run Bella put on weight....and a lot of it
She is also quite laethargic and cuddly when on the steroids - they seem to turn her into a couch potatoe (appart form when food is around!)
She also wee'd alot!
I cannot help about the "drippy nose"

Unfortunately, although it is nearly a year ago since she had her first BAD case of meningitis, it does keep coming back. On average she has had a case of it every 3 months (though never as bad as the first time).........................advice says that this is quite common until they are around 2........as she is only 18 months now only time will tell. A 3-4 week dose of steroids and anti-biotics gets her on the mend again!

I am not sure if any of this is any help to you, I do hope you get some good results soon for your "Bella".
If you want to ask anything else please feel free to PM - I'm sure I won't have many answers, but am happy to see if I can help!

xx

 

[rwantland]

I am new to this site, too. I have a beautiful rescue Beagle named Sadie who was very recently diagnosed with Steroid Responsive Meningitis. She was so sick before her diagnosis, but all of her lab tests came back normal. I was having to feed her scrambled eggs from my hand because she was too weak to get up or even lift her head. In fact, I was beginning to think she may not make it if we didn't find out what was causing her lethargy, pain and high fever.
Within 24 hours after being given Prednisone (2 -20mg tablets), she was like a new dog That has been just five days ago now. We'll just have to see how she does after being weaned from this round.

By the way, my vet did NOT know about this condition. I accidentally discovered some good information during a Google search. I wonder how may small animal veterinarians have never heard of this?

 

[Cockerpoo lover]

My website has changed recently so have a new link for the one provided above on the 7/10/12
Meningitis - Cockapoo Owners Club UK