Ms. Katie…and other stuff

I’ve been worried about Ms. Katie the last week or so and on Sunday I finally realized what was going on. So hard to tell she wasn’t well because she is so active and the discovered issue wasn’t slowing her down.

She couldn't open her mouth very wide (maybe 1/4 inch). She could eat her kibble (which is pretty small) and is drinking lots of water but she cannot open her mouth to grab anything. No toys, no bumpers, no biting back Ms. “Pain in the butt” Maggie. She was running around in the yard like she normally does but wasn’t panting.

I didn’t sleep well Sunday night because it was on my mind so much. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that pets aren’t a part of your family because they certainly are… she may be Mr. Sandra’s hunting retriever but she is my little girl.

So Mr. Sandra took her to the vet on Monday at 2:00. I found it hard to even work because all I wanted was to be there with them both. My mind just wasn’t on the job.

The prognosis wasn’t good. She has Masticatory muscle myositis.

What is Masticatory muscle myositis?

Masticatory muscle myositis, commonly abbreviated MMM, is an inflammatory disease the affects the jaws of the dog. The jaw of the dog swells up and it can be difficult for the dog to open its mouth. The condition is painful. Chronic MMM can cause scar formation that makes it impossible for the dog to open its mouth. Masticatory muscle myositis is known under several different names, including atrophic myositis and eosinophilic myositis.

The term masticatory tells us that this disease involves the part of the dog’s body involved in mastification, i.e. chewing. When the dog chews, it uses the large muscles located on the top and sides of the head. These muscles distinguish themselves from other muscles by having a unique muscle protein composition. In a dog suffering from masticatory muscle myositis, the dog’s own immune system attacks a special muscle protein that is only found in these masticatory muscles. If we take a closer look inside the jaw of a dog, we will find so called 2M fibres in the masticatory muscles. These 2M fibres are quite similar to proteins present on the surface of bacteria, and this is probably why the dog’s immune system goes berserk and tries to destroy the dog’s own muscles. When the immune system attacks the muscles, the result is an inflammation.

Masticatory muscle myositis is the most commonly occurring inflammatory myopathy in dogs. (A myopathy is a neuromuscular disease where the muscles fibres do not function as they should, and masticatory muscle myositis is one of many different forms of myopathy.)

Dogs at risk

Masticatory muscle myositis is chiefly a problem for large dog breeds, especially German Shepherds. Other examples of breeds commonly affected by MMM are the Springer Spaniel and the English Pointer.

So she is on a steroid now for the next 6 months to help battle this. The steroid shuts down her immune system so that it stops attacking her muscle in the jaw. I stayed home yesterday as a flex day and by noon, after having two doses of the steroid she could open her mouth about ¾ of an inch. I got to see her tongue again. I called the vet to get some questions I had answered and she said that she felt we caught it early enough and therefore there isn’t any visual signs of atrophy in her jaw. And that if the steroids work as they should, and she is on them long enough to battle her immune system, we could have this beat and a re-occurrence will hopefully be unlikely.

Totally sucks to find out your perfectly healthy happy dog has a disease that comes out of no-where. The vet says it is a mystery disease and they don’t know what triggers it. This is the same for any disease whether you are human or animal. It sucks…

To look at her though, for the most part,  you would never know she was in so much pain – she’s a trooper.

So what did this do to me? I had 2 beers. Yup I did. I succumbed to the stress and relaxed in the afternoon with Mr. Sandra and had a Valentines beer with him. Am I disappointed in myself – No, I went 45 days which is the longest I have gone in years and I am proud of myself. Did I discover something – Yes. It wasn’t all that great. AND for the first time in 45 days (other than Sunday night with worrying about Kate), I did not sleep well last night at all and I KNOW it was from the beer. And today I feel fuzzy. I truly don’t like how it made me feel.

So what’s my plan from this day forward? I’m calling it a lapse in sanity and going to continue the next 21 days like it never happened. Nothing has changed other than I’ve learned quite a bit.

I had written in my journal the following a couple of weeks ago:

I wanted to have something I can review in the future if I ever start feeling like crap again.

1. Sleep is much deeper (except when you have a headache). You are getting up more rested for a change and have a bit more energy.

2. No nighttime heart burn. Not sure if this is alcohol related or weight loss related but it stopped as soon as you stopped drinking.

3. You have more energy now and get more things done. Remember how drinking made you feel lethargic – you never wanted to do much of anything after a drink. You were to relaxed and lazy at that point.

4. It isn’t the answer to boredom. You have found keeping busy works much better.

5. You lost weight without really trying – empty calories……

So there you have it. I didn’t deal well with the stress and need to move on from that and figure out something else to use to work through it.

I hope you are all having a FANTASTIC DAY!

ttyl

Sandra