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Thursday 09th of September 2010 |
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Masticatory Muscle Myositis - dog health experiences
Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Gail Location: Collinsville, Ok My 7 yr old Australian Shepherd has MMM. We first noticed her right side of her skull sinking in and she is now on high doses (80 mg daily)of Prednisone. It seems to have stopped the progression of MMM to the other side. She can still drink and eat but is also on doses of Doxycycline (400mg daily), Azathioprine, Famotidine and Sucralfate. The latter two are for the ulcer that the Prednisone has created. She has had bleeding from her nose and has vomited up blood due to the high levels of Prednisone. She is also on iron supplement for her anemia. The meds make her feel horrible and she just lays around all day. She does not seem to be in pain. She has also gotten weak from the prednisone and can no longer jump on to the bed at night. It seems like her muscles are getting weaker. I hope we are not forced to make a decision about her and what is best for her quality of life. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Scott Location: Madison WI, USA 10 mo English Springer Spaniel presented with an apparent eye infection. She was treated symptomatically with Rimadyl and amoxicillin, with a slow response. One day after treatment was initiated it became difficult to pill her. Treatment was changed to cephalsporin, ketoconozole, and Riamdyl with little change. About 1 week after starting amoxicillin, general anesthesia was performed to open the jaws, to no avail. A diagnosis was made of masticatory myositis and prednisone wast started, 30 mg, twice a day. Immediate improvement was noted, lymph nodes went down in 12 hours, and the jaws started opening after 48 hours. Steady improvement has been noted since then. I was informed that the 2M titer was positive at 1:4000! -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Rachel Location: Minnesota My chihuahua was diagnosed with MMM about three months ago. She responded very well to Prednisone. She was on 10 mg per day for one month, 5 mg per day for month two, and then for the past month she has been on 5 mg every other day. None of the symptoms have returned. Yesterday was her last day of Prednisone. I am hoping that all goes well! -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Audrey Location: New Smryna Beach, FL We have a 1 year old bullmastiff that recently began displaying symptoms of MMM. However, diagnosing him has been difficult. One side of his head has sunk in drastically and he is in extreme pain. We sent his bloodwork to the specialist in CA, but it cam back in the "gray" area. X-rays didn't reveal anything either, so we are now scheduled for a muscle biopsy. He is not responding well to prednisone, but before my Vet tries any other medications she wants the results from the biopsy. We may try Dex if the biopsy comes back positive. He is still able to eat, but has lost mobility in his jaw. Prednisone seems to be the drug of choice to treat this disease, but I wonder what the survival rate is for dogs who do not respond to it. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Carys Location: Fargo/ND/USA My Golden Retriever Blaze got diagnosed with MMM in about 2 months ago. She is 10 months old and it started in what appeared to be like a lock jaw. But she showed no signs of pain. When the vet had ruled out all other options we tested her and began the prednisone. She is on a high dose but is doing much better. I just hope that she will be able to continue with all the stuff she likes to do. Like chewing bones and playing with her best friend my 3 year old White Shepherd. I felt so bad for her and she is so young My big worry is that we cannot fix and she will relapse. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Karen Ann Location: Upstate NY My now 8 y/o Piebald Dachshund Razzie was diagnosed with MMM just over a year ago. He was treated with prednisone on and off but his condition is so advanced that the steroids are having no effect at this point. He has severe muscle wasting on the left side of his face around his eye socket, temple and jaw area. He has his good days and his bad days. Most of the time he's not able to chew normal kibble so he gets canned turkey and rice formula food. Although much of the time he seems happy, playful and loving, when he is in pain he becomes very aggressive toward the other doxies, and has even snapped at me. Poor little guy is such a sweet boy, it breaks my heart knowing he's in pain at times. I give him a baby aspirin a day, and that usually does help. On days when he is very aggitated I give him benadryl. I do believe it's getting close to a the time I'll have to make a very difficult discision for Razzie, and my heart just aches thinking about letting him go. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Sandy Location: Egg Harbor Township/New Jersey/US My Pembrooke Welsh Corgi was 2 when he was diagnosed with MMM. We noticed after we went away for a long weekend and he stayed with family that his head shrunk. We thought that he stressed the whole time we were gone. Several weeks later we noticed that he was drinking a bowl of water and not getting anywhere, the water just kept falling out of his mouth. We took him to the vet and we were told that he had MMM and that he was in severe pain. I honestly have to say that my dog never showed any signs of being in pain. He is around 4 small children everyday who play and play with him. He never once snapped, growled or did anything to say he did not want to be bothered or he was in pain. He is now on Prednisone 5 mg every other day and is responding well. Our vet also has him on milk thistle to help protect his liver from the steriod. We have our titer tests done each year so that we can make sure he is protected. We do not want to give him shots which will boost his immune system which is already raging. We wanted to breed our corgi because he has such a wonderful disposition but we are leary. I thank God for my corgi all the time, he is such a wonderful animal and loves his family as much as we love him. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Jan Location: Kent, Ohio, United States My 14-year-old male hound-shepherd mix was recently diagnosed with Masticatory Muscle Myositis. The symptom that got him to the vet was that the top left side of his head seemed to be caving in. He had had slight trouble chewing, but only on a few occasions. Otherwise, he has not had the jaw problems or the pain. That side of his head is now very sunken in, both above and below the eye, and when he yawns or has his head at certain angles, it looks like his eye has disappeared inside his head. Because of his age and the fact that he is also on medication for severe arthritis which would need to be stopped while using the steroids, the vet and I decided not to treat it unless he begins having pain. I keep my fingers crossed every day that he will not have the problem of not being able to open his mouth. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Carly Location: Cincinnati/Ohio/USA My Weimaraner was diagnosed with MMM earlier this year. Her eyes became swollen and her jaw would not open. She was losing weight rapidly and had very bad pain in her face. After many vet visits we figured out this is what she had. She is still on low doses of prednisone (10 mg every other day) and that seems to be working. It's been about 7 months since she was first diagnosed. My vet said this is the only case he's ever seen in his years of practicing. To find out if your dog really has it or not, you can have blood drawn and shipped overnight to a doctor in California. It is the only test for this disease that is available right now. At least that is what my vet told me. It was really scary at first, but Bailey's been doing really well with the steroids and back to being her old self. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: Genie Location: Wilson/NC/US My 5 year old Italian Greyhound woke up one morning not being able to open her mouth. The vet tested for Masticatory Muscle Myositis and the results came back negative. I was told it often came back a false negative. She was treated with a high dose of prednisone and her symptoms (severe pain in opening jaw) were alleviated. She's not had a recurrence in the past 3 years. I'm not sure she was diagnosed correctly. During the same period she had a rear tooth removed that had abscessed. I believe her pain was associated with the tooth but unless the Myositis recurs, we won't know. Hopefully, it won't return. My point is, the correct diagnosis is difficult. Don't panic. -------- Masticatory Muscle Myositis dog experience Dog Owner: paige Location: Missouri My family owns a small dachshund and she is around 3 or 4 momnths old. She got sick and we thought at first it was pink eye, so we treated her for pink eye. After a week of treatment, her eyes still looked the same, so we took her to the vet and they diagnosed her to have Masticatory Muscle Myositis. She had medicine and her lynph nodes started getting smaller because they had gotten swollen, but her eyes still looked the same and her mouth had become adnormally dry. The dryness of her nose and mouth area got to her and she began licking herself profusely, causing her mouth area to start bleeding. Right now she is slowly getting better and we hope and pray that she is okay and will be okay. -------- If you have personal pet experience with Masticatory Muscle Myositis share your information here - Click Here If you would like to share information on a different disease or condition - Click Here
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