A Visit to the Vet
Our poor puppy, Agatha, has had quite a tough life. She spent many weeks of her early life at the vet with a flu and now she’s back at the vet with possibly an autoimmune disease. She’s the sweetest dog ever, but that’s strange and worrisome in and of itself as bloodhounds tend to be little knuckleheads that slowly grow out of it into big knuckleheads. I say that fondly of course.
The vet suspects Aggie has masticatory muscle myosotis. This is where the immune system sees the chewing muscles as foreign and begins to attack and destroy them. It becomes difficult and painful to chew and the dog doesn’t want to eat or can’t even open their jaw to eat. This explains why Agatha has gone from a fat little roly poly bloodhound to just absolute skin and bones.
We should find out the test results today so I will post them as soon as we do. On the bright side, our veterinarian is in Laguna Beach area so I got to get out of the desert and saw some beautiful scenery.
Update
I just picked Agatha up from the veterinarian’s office. I was so happy when Aggie walked out on her own wagging her tail. The vet said he was amazed at how fast she responded to the medication. He also said if we ever want to give her up, he would take her as a pet because she is such a sweet dog! I don’t think that is going to happen.
Now Agatha will be on immunosuppressive medications for the next six months and hopefully it will calm her immune system down enough that she will not need any more medications after that. She will always have the scars of the disease though as the muscle on top of her head will never come back. So now we can call her a bonehead and it will be accurate!
As a thank you for all hours of driving and all of the money spent, Agatha immediately peed on the seats of the car. Ah well, you can’t put a price on love.
Another Update
Agatha is doing sooooooo well. She is eating like crazy and running around the house making a mess. Her bones don’t seem to stick out quite so much so I think she’s already putting on weight. Considering how much she’s eating now I’d be surprised if she hadn’t already gained five pounds in just the few days she’s been treated for this disease.
She is a new dog.
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So relieved! Poor baby girl! I’m glad she’s making such a great recovery.
Hi my pup seems to have a similar thing but my vet doesn’t seem to have a clue do you know whether this disease is common in bloodhounds could you please let me know if you can
It is common enough in bloodhounds that my vet took one look at her and knew what it was. It’s called masticatory myositis and the only thing you can do to treat it is give her prednisone to keep the immune system under control. I’m sorry your pup has it, but it can be kept under control!