Jack has Syringomyelia (SM)
This is bad news. Really bad news. So bad, it almost couldn’t be worse. Basically, this is a disease where the skull is too small for the brain, and so the brain starts squeezing out the hole in the skull near the brain stem. That’s where the cerebellum is located. The cerebellum is responsible for basic motor skills. As you can imagine, it affects the central nervous system and causes a lot of pain. You can read about it here: http://www.cavalierhealth.org/syringomyelia.htm
He’s exhibited symptoms of the disease ever since we got him. He’s always randomly started yelping, but that was rare and occasional. Now it’s frequent when he walks around. When he’s on a lead, he’ll start “air scratching” at himself. He obsessively licks and nips at himself, which we thought was an allergy. He yawns a lot. Turns out that’s because it relieves some of the pressure. He likes to sleep with his head elevated. Same thing.
He became markedly worse on Sunday when were up at Mary Ann’s parents’ house in Marin. Instead of running around the yard like normally loves to do, he would run a few feet and then start yelping like you stepped on him. Weird. Then he was fine for a while. Then he did it again. MA brought him to the vet on Monday, who thought it was a sprained back. It’s a pretty rare disease, and it turns out that this is the normal diagnosis. He’s only 5 months old, so that didn’t add up to MA, so she started doing research. That’s when she found out about SM. Jack exhibits every sign in the book. We went to the neurologist on Tue morning, and he sent us to the pet MRI today (Wed). The MRI confirmed what we knew. He has this, and it’s a really bad case. Normally, signs show up in dogs (60-70% of all cases are Cavaliers) 2+ years old. Jack is 5 months today. Ouch.
What’s the next step? Well, we’re starting with meds. He’s got about 4 different drugs that he’s supposed to take, but the bottom line is that it’s not good. Adult dogs can have surgery that gives them ~2 years more. Jack’s a puppy and still growing. Surgery isn’t really an option at this point. Hopefully we can control his pain, that remains to be seen. We’re going to spend the next few days assessing what he needs really are, but I think the likely case is that he goes back to the breeder in Vacaville since she has other dogs and is around all day and can give him the care and attention that he needs. With both of us having full time jobs, and Jack needing a lot of special attention, I am concerned about our ability to care for him.
This has been really hard on us. Even as I write this, it’s hard not to cry. Mary Ann is really a mess, as she’s been the driver of this since the start. When we started getting serious about our relationship, I made it clear that she had to be willing to get in the plane and fly around with me driving it. She made it clear to me that I’d better be willing to get a dog. Ever since, she’s been looking at different breeds, thinking of names, etc. We finally settled on the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel when we went to the dog show with MA’s father in January. She researched who the top breeders were, and started calling them and getting to know them. She eliminated a lot of the “crazy” dog people, and settled on two breeders, one in Camarillo and one in Vacaville. When we moved to a place that allows dogs in July, and it turned out that the Vacaville breeder had a puppy available, she jumped on it and we picked up Jack Sprat literally the day after we moved in. She has given him nothing but love and attention, frequently at my expense, ever since. So, this is particularly hard on her. Anyone who is Facebook friends with me knows that I have become equally enamored with Jack, constantly posting photos of him and talking about all the fun and funny things he does. Jack has even brought us closer to many of our friends as they come over to see him and play with “the cutest puppy ever!”.
I’m not sure how to end this other than to say thanks to everyone who has expressed concern for him. We’re taking the best care of him that we possibly can.
He’s exhibited symptoms of the disease ever since we got him. He’s always randomly started yelping, but that was rare and occasional. Now it’s frequent when he walks around. When he’s on a lead, he’ll start “air scratching” at himself. He obsessively licks and nips at himself, which we thought was an allergy. He yawns a lot. Turns out that’s because it relieves some of the pressure. He likes to sleep with his head elevated. Same thing.
He became markedly worse on Sunday when were up at Mary Ann’s parents’ house in Marin. Instead of running around the yard like normally loves to do, he would run a few feet and then start yelping like you stepped on him. Weird. Then he was fine for a while. Then he did it again. MA brought him to the vet on Monday, who thought it was a sprained back. It’s a pretty rare disease, and it turns out that this is the normal diagnosis. He’s only 5 months old, so that didn’t add up to MA, so she started doing research. That’s when she found out about SM. Jack exhibits every sign in the book. We went to the neurologist on Tue morning, and he sent us to the pet MRI today (Wed). The MRI confirmed what we knew. He has this, and it’s a really bad case. Normally, signs show up in dogs (60-70% of all cases are Cavaliers) 2+ years old. Jack is 5 months today. Ouch.
What’s the next step? Well, we’re starting with meds. He’s got about 4 different drugs that he’s supposed to take, but the bottom line is that it’s not good. Adult dogs can have surgery that gives them ~2 years more. Jack’s a puppy and still growing. Surgery isn’t really an option at this point. Hopefully we can control his pain, that remains to be seen. We’re going to spend the next few days assessing what he needs really are, but I think the likely case is that he goes back to the breeder in Vacaville since she has other dogs and is around all day and can give him the care and attention that he needs. With both of us having full time jobs, and Jack needing a lot of special attention, I am concerned about our ability to care for him.
This has been really hard on us. Even as I write this, it’s hard not to cry. Mary Ann is really a mess, as she’s been the driver of this since the start. When we started getting serious about our relationship, I made it clear that she had to be willing to get in the plane and fly around with me driving it. She made it clear to me that I’d better be willing to get a dog. Ever since, she’s been looking at different breeds, thinking of names, etc. We finally settled on the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel when we went to the dog show with MA’s father in January. She researched who the top breeders were, and started calling them and getting to know them. She eliminated a lot of the “crazy” dog people, and settled on two breeders, one in Camarillo and one in Vacaville. When we moved to a place that allows dogs in July, and it turned out that the Vacaville breeder had a puppy available, she jumped on it and we picked up Jack Sprat literally the day after we moved in. She has given him nothing but love and attention, frequently at my expense, ever since. So, this is particularly hard on her. Anyone who is Facebook friends with me knows that I have become equally enamored with Jack, constantly posting photos of him and talking about all the fun and funny things he does. Jack has even brought us closer to many of our friends as they come over to see him and play with “the cutest puppy ever!”.
I’m not sure how to end this other than to say thanks to everyone who has expressed concern for him. We’re taking the best care of him that we possibly can.
Labels: jack
posted by Chris at 9:05 PM
1 Comments:
I feel your pain. My dear Abbey was diagnosed 2 months ago at 5 years old--vet missed the boat for a very long time. She just had decompression surgery and is still recooperating.
http://abbeygeorgelinda.blogspot.com/
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