Hi all,
I am new to the forum and came upon this forum as my 1 year old Bleu was just diagnosed with what they think is a mild form of GME with unknown etiology. He was a happy, active, life-loving Frenchie until this disease struck him suddenly a couple of weeks ago. He did not show any previous symptoms - he was boarded for a weekend and then we went to Breckenridge for vacation. The 3rd day we started to notice the symptoms - uncoordinated gate, lethargy, loss of hunger and thirst.
We initially thought it was related to altitude sickness or dehydration so we took him to the emergency vet up there and they got him on IV's and antibiotics. They tested his blood and only found a elevated ALT count on his liver but did not think it was altitude sickness form his pulseoxide meter. We thought he got better after the IV's. When we got home to Texas, we noticed the uncoordinated gate again and knew something worse was wrong so we took him to the ER vet that was open. They thought it was motion sickness or an ear infection (his ears looked fine) wanted to keep him a couple days to watch him at $800. The vet didn't seem that intelligent and I got a bad feeling of the place so I took him home that night and to his regular vet the next day (thank god!). His regular vet hooked him up to IV's and monitored him for the morning. They ruled out an ear infection or the ridiculous claim of motion sickness and thought it was neurological and recommended a neurologist. After ruling out liver issues, he eventually got an MRI and spinal tap. Noting no tick borne infections, the poor guy was finally diagnosed with meningitis of unkown etiology and they most likely think it is a mild form of Granulomatous Meningoencephalitis (GME).
He seems to initially be responding well to his meds - prednisone and cyclosporine - so we are hopeful he will continue to get better and we can taper these harsh meds off eventually. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with their baby and what your treatment regime was, how they lived with the disease over time, alternative therapies, etc. The causes/triggers of this disease are not known and there are theories in research papers indicating possibly vaccines, diet, environment, or other immune reactions. Any thoughts on causes or triggers? The only thing we did before we noticed his symptoms is give him his monthly dose of Trifexis, then 2 days later he developed this disease.
This experience has also made us reevaluated everything about our dogs' diets and overall healthcare. We are currently transitioning over to a holistic homemade diet and stopping the annual (seems like almost monthly) booster vaccines they vet requests. Many articles connect excessive vaccination to potentially neurological issues and our Frenchie had a rabies or parvo vaccine about 2-3 months prior. Our neurologist said that she does not even vaccine her dogs past the initial puppy vaccines as she feels the vaccines are like polio, measles, etc in humans where one vaccine builds enough antibodies for their lives and that the annual boosters the veterinary industry has moved to is excessive and motivated by profit. She mentioned you can just test your dog for the antibodies to specific diseases periodically (distemper, parvo, rabies) to see if their antibodies are low and then decide to boost at that time. There are many articles out there on the potential devastating effects of vaccines in dogs which may have slightly less strong immune systems or just have an adverse immune reaction (as vaccines are not natural).
We really appreciate any thoughts, experiences, comments, etc. and hope our little guy pulls through this to live a long, happy life!
I am new to the forum and came upon this forum as my 1 year old Bleu was just diagnosed with what they think is a mild form of GME with unknown etiology. He was a happy, active, life-loving Frenchie until this disease struck him suddenly a couple of weeks ago. He did not show any previous symptoms - he was boarded for a weekend and then we went to Breckenridge for vacation. The 3rd day we started to notice the symptoms - uncoordinated gate, lethargy, loss of hunger and thirst.
We initially thought it was related to altitude sickness or dehydration so we took him to the emergency vet up there and they got him on IV's and antibiotics. They tested his blood and only found a elevated ALT count on his liver but did not think it was altitude sickness form his pulseoxide meter. We thought he got better after the IV's. When we got home to Texas, we noticed the uncoordinated gate again and knew something worse was wrong so we took him to the ER vet that was open. They thought it was motion sickness or an ear infection (his ears looked fine) wanted to keep him a couple days to watch him at $800. The vet didn't seem that intelligent and I got a bad feeling of the place so I took him home that night and to his regular vet the next day (thank god!). His regular vet hooked him up to IV's and monitored him for the morning. They ruled out an ear infection or the ridiculous claim of motion sickness and thought it was neurological and recommended a neurologist. After ruling out liver issues, he eventually got an MRI and spinal tap. Noting no tick borne infections, the poor guy was finally diagnosed with meningitis of unkown etiology and they most likely think it is a mild form of Granulomatous Meningoencephalitis (GME).
He seems to initially be responding well to his meds - prednisone and cyclosporine - so we are hopeful he will continue to get better and we can taper these harsh meds off eventually. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with their baby and what your treatment regime was, how they lived with the disease over time, alternative therapies, etc. The causes/triggers of this disease are not known and there are theories in research papers indicating possibly vaccines, diet, environment, or other immune reactions. Any thoughts on causes or triggers? The only thing we did before we noticed his symptoms is give him his monthly dose of Trifexis, then 2 days later he developed this disease.
This experience has also made us reevaluated everything about our dogs' diets and overall healthcare. We are currently transitioning over to a holistic homemade diet and stopping the annual (seems like almost monthly) booster vaccines they vet requests. Many articles connect excessive vaccination to potentially neurological issues and our Frenchie had a rabies or parvo vaccine about 2-3 months prior. Our neurologist said that she does not even vaccine her dogs past the initial puppy vaccines as she feels the vaccines are like polio, measles, etc in humans where one vaccine builds enough antibodies for their lives and that the annual boosters the veterinary industry has moved to is excessive and motivated by profit. She mentioned you can just test your dog for the antibodies to specific diseases periodically (distemper, parvo, rabies) to see if their antibodies are low and then decide to boost at that time. There are many articles out there on the potential devastating effects of vaccines in dogs which may have slightly less strong immune systems or just have an adverse immune reaction (as vaccines are not natural).
We really appreciate any thoughts, experiences, comments, etc. and hope our little guy pulls through this to live a long, happy life!
