Eosinophilic Myositis

[ErikaS.]

Eosinophilic myositis, hopefully spelled right, is an auto-immune disease in large breed dogs and King Cavalier spaniels in which the dog's body attacks its own jaw or mandibular muscles. We have been fighting this disease with my St. Bernard for 10 months and I am just not seeing any end in sight. The treatment is cortisone to calm the inflammation.

It started with what I thought was a fungal infection in her ear. Took her to the vet. Treated her for ear infection. Then her cheek and progressively the side of her face swelled up. Thought it was an infection from one of my other dogs biting her- got her face drained. Then the other ear started oozing and the other side of her face swelled. This time she had noticable pain when opening her mouth- a tell-tale sign of the disease- and she was diagnosed and treated and treated and treated. We're at the chronic stage now and my beautiful fat Saint isn't the same and never will be. Her face is skeletal and oozes from where the swelling erupted. I try to keep her bandaged or in a cone so she doesn't scratch her face raw ...again. Her ears ooze. She lost a lot of muscle mass throughout her whole body. Fortunately, she can still open her mouth about an inch, so she can still eat and drink...and she does.....And she stinks.

My husband and I don't know how much longer to keep going with this. The vet says it will stop when there is no more jaw muscle to destroy.

Sorry this is really unpleasant. What would you do if she was your dog?

** I wanted to thank everyone who replied. We have talked with our vet at length and decided putting our Saint down would probably be the best option. We haven't set the date yet as my husband and I are not ready. It will be soon as she is still not any better. She has had a good life, been a good dog and we have done all we could for her, so I am okay with it. Just not fair that bad things happen to good dogs. Thanks again, Erika****

 

[sfmini]

I always use quality of life for the dog in making my decision. If my dog is suffering and has a poor quality of life, no brainer. Sadly, I have put down many dogs over the years. It is always hard, but I am so glad I am allowed to do this for my dogs, unlike humans where we just have to watch them suffer to the end.

I feel so strongly about this that I specifically left all of my animals to a friend in my will. I know she will know when the time is right and will take care of it. My brother doesn't do that and it drives me nuts. His poor old dog is in bad shape but according to my brother the dog is doing fine and it isn't time. Well, he is right about that, because it is past time.

Good luck in making your decision, only you know your dog and the situation, someone else can't make it for you.

 

[Minimor]

Our Sheba had something similar; it wasn't specifically diagnosed as myositis but the symptoms were similar--vet said it didn't exactly match myositis, but thought it was a deterioration of the cranial nerve--that can happen & have similar symptoms she said. Regardless--the muscles over the top of her skull atrophied, and she couldn't open her mouth--at the last she could still open it about an inch, but she'd barely eat and she couldn't bark. Broke our hearts the night a fox screamed and she tried to bark and couldn't. she hung her head & crawled into the dog house--she was so crushed that she couldn't bark a warning like she always had before. sometimes when she'd try to open her mouth she would yipe with pain.

We tried anti-inflammatories but they didn't help. As far as we were concerned, she no longer had quality of life, and we had her put to sleep. It was the kindest thing to do for her.

 

[Pepipony]

Erika, I am so sorry you and your gal have to deal with this. How does she feel? If she is happy go lucky, then I would give it more time, maybe seek a specialist if that is a possibility. If she isnt happy, then its probably time to make that decision. Set her down and maybe have a heart to heart. Dogs know what we are saying and she will in turn speak to you. Hugs hon.