4yr old - unknown recent illness

[Franksmom47]

Hi Everyone. Joined this site moments ago for advice. My 4 year old female French came down with a cough, gagging, and regurgitation beginning around 9/12. This occurs no less than 15-20 times a day especially after eating, drinking, and first waking up. She has been to primary vet twice. First time they said upper respiratory and we did a round of antibiotics and cerenia for vomiting. Nothing changed. Now we are awaiting test results for what they think is myasthenia gravis (autoimmune). She has been a perfectly healthy dog until this point. The only recent change that was made prior to this illness beginning was trying the farmers dog food from Royal Canin kibble. We have gone back to original kibble for the time being. I am attaching some videos of the gagging to show, apologize if this is too graphic for some but hoping to find some answers through others experiences and/or knowledge while we continue to try and identify this through medical care. Thanks in advance.

 

[Cbrugs]

Poor baby! Has she been checked for an elongated soft palate?

 

[2bullymama]

I couldn't get the video
s to play --- but I would think the same as Citty -- elongated palate. Do you have a vet that is knowledgeable of bulldogs?

 

[Franksmom47]

Poor baby! Has she been checked for an elongated soft palate?

Poor baby is right I have started her on propolis spray and have Respir-gold coming for the time being. The 3 responses I received all indicate elongated soft palette so I have a call into my vet for this. Thank you very much for the feedback!

 

[Franksmom47]

Poor baby is right I have started her on propolis spray and have Respir-gold coming for the time being. The 3 responses I received all indicate elongated soft palette so I have a call into my vet for this. Thank you very much for the feedback!

Poor baby is right I have started her on propolis spray and have Respir-gold coming for the time being. The 3 responses I received all indicate elongated soft palette so I have a call into my vet for this. Thank you very much for the feedback!

Is this condition something that can start at any point in their life?

 

[Franksmom47]

I couldn't get the video
s to play --- but I would think the same as Citty -- elongated palate. Do you have a vet that is knowledgeable of bulldogs?

Thank you for the feedback! I have a call into my vet to get her in to see if this is the issue. I don’t think my vet is technically specific to French bulldogs unfortunately. I can look in my area for that.
Thanks.

 

[Franksmom47]

Good Morning. Wanted to follow up on this. My French has mostly stopped throwing up but is still making the gag noises I posted in video but less often. She has been to the specialist and we have ruled out elongated soft palette as she is now experiencing muscles loss on the right side of her face (see pictures) Also have noticed she is not yawning. The specialist still has not been able to provide a root cause or an exact fix. Right now she is on prednisone and that seems to be helping but I know these steroids are not a good long term solution. Doesn’t seem to be showing signs of pain though. My husband and I based on internet reading thought this may be masticatory muscle mystosis - disorder in which the dog’s immune system identifies the dog’sown muscle tissue as foreign and attacks it. We are going to have them test for this but they are thinking she would be showing signs of pain. She seems to be losing weight as well but that may be from the initial throwing up. Any additional advice is appreciated as we continue to work with the specialist. Thank you.

 

[2bullymama]

Good to hear she has stopped vomitting. I have no experience with any of these issues. but, I have a bulldog going through lymphoma and he was on striods fo almost a year, long term use of steriods does cause muscle to deteriorate, just something to keep in mind. I doubt the time you have your girl on would be a factor, but wanted to mention it.

Has she been tested for lyme ? Not sure why, but that popped in my head.. might be worth the ask

 

[Franksmom47]

Good Morning. Wanted to follow up on this. My French has mostly stopped throwing up but is still making the gag noises I posted in video but less often. She has been to the specialist and we have ruled out elongated soft palette as she is now experiencing muscles loss on the right side of her face (see pictures) Also have noticed she is not yawning. The specialist still has not been able to provide a root cause or an exact fix. Right now she is on prednisone and that seems to be helping but I know these steroids are not a good long term solution. Doesn’t seem to be showing signs of pain though. My husband and I based on internet reading thought this may be masticatory muscle mystosis - disorder in which the dog’s immune system identifies the dog’sown muscle tissue as foreign and attacks it. We are going to have them test for this but they are thinking she would be showing signs of pain. She seems to be losing weight as well but that may be from the initial throwing up. Any additional advice is appreciated as we continue to work with the specialist. Thank you.

 

[Franksmom47]

Good to hear she has stopped vomitting. I have no experience with any of these issues. but, I have a bulldog going through lymphoma and he was on striods fo almost a year, long term use of steriods does cause muscle to deteriorate, just something to keep in mind. I doubt the time you have your girl on would be a factor, but wanted to mention it.

Has she been tested for lyme ? Not sure why, but that popped in my head.. might be worth the ask

She has not been tested for Lyme disease I will look into it. She has only been on prednisone for less than a week and the muscle deterioration started prior and medicine was prescribed for it this issue along with the GI issue. Thank you!

 

[Cbrugs]

If it's not one thing, it's another! It sounds like it could be maybe some sort of autoimmune disease? I have no experience and couldn't even tell you some possibilities and what to test for but it sounds like she could benefit from seeing a specialist.

 

[CutieFrenchie]

By any chance, could there have been a piece of bone in the farmers food and it's stuck somewhere in her throat? Any xrays done?

 

[Franksmom47]

By any chance, could there have been a piece of bone in the farmers food and it's stuck somewhere in her throat? Any xrays done?

Yes X-rays were already done of throat and nothing was found, thank you.

 

[Franksmom47]

If it's not one thing, it's another! It sounds like it could be maybe some sort of autoimmune disease? I have no experience and couldn't even tell you some possibilities and what to test for but it sounds like she could benefit from seeing a specialist.

Hello all,

Yes she was sedated and the soft palette was checked. The internal medicine specialist indicated because she is a French bulldog that she does show a slight elongated palette but is not the cause/sudden onset of the current symptoms. Especially with right side facial atrophy.
We only have tried the steroids for about a week now to see if it would help and we have seen some improvement as she is no longer vomiting but still doing some dry gagging. I will look into CBD oil as natural alternative to the steroid, thank you. I know prednisone destroys muscle and do not plan to use this as a long term solution.
Yes she is currently taking standard process canine enteric support for digestive support.

Latest update:
The internal medicine specialist called this evening with results. We asked them to test for muscular myositis. She does not have it. We have noticed she is unable to yawn and with the loss of muscle in the face we are now wondering if it could be trigeminal neuropathy. Not sure if anyone has any insight or information on this. Thank you all for your responses and suggestions this far.

 

[Franksmom47]

Hello all,

Yes she was sedated and the soft palette was checked. The internal medicine specialist indicated because she is a French bulldog that she does show a slight elongated palette but is not the cause/sudden onset of the current symptoms. Especially with right side facial atrophy.
We only have tried the steroids for about a week now to see if it would help and we have seen some improvement as she is no longer vomiting but still doing some dry gagging. I will look into CBD oil as natural alternative to the steroid, thank you. I know prednisone destroys muscle and do not plan to use this as a long term solution.
Yes she is currently taking standard process canine enteric support for digestive support.

Latest update:
The internal medicine specialist called this evening with results. We asked them to test for muscular myositis. She does not have it. We have noticed she is unable to yawn and with the loss of muscle in the face we are now wondering if it could be trigeminal neuropathy. Not sure if anyone has any insight or information on this. Thank you all for your responses and suggestions this far.

To clarify, the reason why we (my husband and I) are still speculating on what it could be is because no official prognosis has been provided by current vet and internal medicine specialist.

 

[2bullymama]

I have no insight to share but I will keep you and your little girl in my prayers. please keep us posted.

 

[Cbrugs]

Any update?

 

[Franksmom47]

I have no insight to share but I will keep you and your little girl in my prayers. please keep us posted.

Thank you for the prayers

 

[Franksmom47]

Any update?

Hi all, I do have an update and my heart is shattered. We were referred from internal medicine to neurology and we did an MRI Monday. The MRI shows she has a large mass/tumor that appears to be originating from the right temporal bone of the skull (specifically, involving the tympanic bulla and temporal portion of the TMJ (temporomandibular joint. This explains why she had all the unique symptoms. I am being told by the neurology team that based on the tumor's size and location, it is inoperable, and debulking the tumor would be of little to no benefit. They did a needle aspiration on the tumor but they were only able to retrieve red blood cells and provide no information on the type of tumor. We are meeting with Oncology on Tuesday to discuss a potential biopsy to determine the type of tumor and see if chemo or radiation would be an option to shrink it and prolong her life. Would only pursue this option if she were to react well to the treatments and if it would benefit her and prolong her life in a healthy way as I would never want her to suffer. I plan to get a second opinion and do everything I can for my girl. We have started several homeopathic remedies in the meantime as well. I can’t imagine losing my best friend and this is one of the hardest things I have ever had to deal with.
Thank you all for your help, feedback, care, prayers, and support along the way. We will keep praying and working for a miracle.

 

[Cbrugs]

Hi all, I do have an update and my heart is shattered. We were referred from internal medicine to neurology and we did an MRI Monday. The MRI shows she has a large mass/tumor that appears to be originating from the right temporal bone of the skull (specifically, involving the tympanic bulla and temporal portion of the TMJ (temporomandibular joint. This explains why she had all the unique symptoms. I am being told by the neurology team that based on the tumor's size and location, it is inoperable, and debulking the tumor would be of little to no benefit. They did a needle aspiration on the tumor but they were only able to retrieve red blood cells and provide no information on the type of tumor. We are meeting with Oncology on Tuesday to discuss a potential biopsy to determine the type of tumor and see if chemo or radiation would be an option to shrink it and prolong her life. Would only pursue this option if she were to react well to the treatments and if it would benefit her and prolong her life in a healthy way as I would never want her to suffer. I plan to get a second opinion and do everything I can for my girl. We have started several homeopathic remedies in the meantime as well. I can’t imagine losing my best friend and this is one of the hardest things I have ever had to deal with.
Thank you all for your help, feedback, care, prayers, and support along the way. We will keep praying and working for a miracle.

Oh this makes me so sad for you…I’m so sorry. I was looking into some new probiotics for my girls and I know people that like Adored Beast. They also have a turkey tail product that might be beneficial to your girl and might be worth looking into Turkey Tail Mushrooms | Liquid Triple Extract

@2bullymama might have tried the turkey tail on her boy.