# Possible Bacterial Meningitis



## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

So as the other thread I just brought back to life indicates our 22 month Mal is potentially suffering from bacterial meningitis.

On Friday at about midnight my wife noticed something was off in him. Saturday I was out all day, she said he was really off. I get home he has the following signs:

- depression
- extreme lethargy
- not wanting to move
- not interested in food
- temp 40.6c

We go to emerg vet, get blood and tick tests done. WBC is high, and the tick snap test is negative (they tested for the 4 major ones). He gets a shot of medi-can or medi-cam and gets put on Amox. They think possible Lepto.

As a side note, he's only had 2 sets of puppy shots (he's 22 months) and rabies. Titres done on parvo and distemper are good. Never had a Lepto sshot.

Have to go back on Sunday night as well... he gets blood redone. WBC still high, now kidney and pancreas levels are elevated.

Refer to normal vet on Monday, they do some tests. A lovely vet who was familiar w/ working Mals from Mexico says she suspects neuro issues. They did a "knuckling" test on all of his paws. Dog should recover immediately, he held the knuckled state for 5-10 seconds. Did a couple other tests, she thinks definitely neuro issue... possibly Encephalitis.

We get immediately referred to the neurology dept. at the Ontario Vet College. As he now looks like he's in a ton of pain. They repeat tests and do scans, come back with three possible issues: steriod responsive meningitis, discospondylitis, or immune mediated polyarthrisis. They highly doubt it is Lepto.

Gets his neck and joints tapped. They prescribe a couple new pain meds. 

Yesterday we get the results of the taps, they rule out number 2 and 3. They did find a very rare bacteria in his spinal fluid, obviously there should be nothing there. So now possible bacterial meningitis.

He now gets scripts for prednisone, doxycycline, clindomisin, gabbapentin, tramadol, and Omeprazole.

By the time we went to bed last night, he's about 75% better... but with a really horrible shave job on his neck.

Not out of the woods yet, and we still don't know what he has or had, or what caused it, or if it will come back.

They are culturing the spinal fluid to check and they sent his blood to California to get a full spectrum of blood related illnesses and tick illnesses in the event that the snap test was not accurate.

Only thing different from Mako as opposed to our female Mal, Indi, is that Mako had a tick in July and we started feeding raw pork to Mako about a month ago to bulk him up a bit. Vet could not rule out either of those as the cause.

Just wanted to thank everybody here who is on my facebook for the well wishes. I posted here, just to share the information and signs symptoms. 

Will update when I get more info.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

susan tuck said:


> Oh man, that's rough. Keeping positive thoughts for Mako. Please keep us posted on what they find out and how he does.






Connie Sutherland said:


> When will you receive the spinal tap results?
> 
> http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions...ingoencephalitis_meningomyelitis#.UL-X3hxa4zA
> 
> ...


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

I hope you will update too.

I'm so sorry about this. You must be terribly worried.


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## Lisa Brazeau (May 6, 2010)

I hope he is much better today!


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

Yeah, it's been an emotional (and expensive) few days.

We should know the results at some point next week for the spinal tap. His blood is going to take a few weeks because of the level of testing required.


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## Julie Blanding (Mar 12, 2008)

Sorry to hear you are going through this. Very upsetting 

We have had a rough couple of years with 'unknown' illnesses.

Hope everything gets resolved soon.


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

Although we are still waiting to hear back what the results were of his spinal cultures, he appears to be continually getting better. Pretty much have our old dog back at this point.

Fingers crossed it keeps going.


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## Daniel Lybbert (Nov 23, 2010)

So you paid out your ass for the vet to tell you to wait and see? Sounds like a vet to me.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Ryan Venables said:


> Although we are still waiting to hear back what the results were of his spinal cultures, he appears to be continually getting better. Pretty much have our old dog back at this point.
> 
> Fingers crossed it keeps going.



Fingers crossed here, too.

I understand that the vet is waiting for the lab to return the spinal tap results. Same with the blood work. I know it's frustrating, but it's "wait and see" for the vet too, as he waits for the lab work.


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## Doug Zaga (Mar 28, 2010)

Sorry to hear that Ryan. Hope he will be ok.

Please keep us updated.


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

Wait and see is part of the game considering how well my dogs can talk with me. I'm confident that he was seen by the best in the country and that we are doing everything we can to either eliminate or narrow down what may have triggered his symptoms.

Although expensive, it's something we are fortunate enough not to have to consider when it comes to our dogs. We will do everything that is required to help them as long as we feel they're not suffering needlessly. 

Either way, he's doing much better and we hope it continues to be that way.

When I have something more concrete, I'll post it.


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Ryan Venables said:


> Although we are still waiting to hear back what the results were of his spinal cultures, he appears to be continually getting better. Pretty much have our old dog back at this point.
> 
> Fingers crossed it keeps going.


I'm relieved to have read this.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Mako too. Please continue to update us on his condition.


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

Glad to hear that Ryan. I wish you guys a successful outcome.


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## Timothy Stacy (Jan 29, 2009)

Good luck Ryan. Never fun to go through a situation like this


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## Tracy Davis-Sullivan (May 10, 2010)

This summer my 5 year old terrier mix just seemed off and tired. People told us that he was, "finally growing up" but we knew something wasn't right.

We did a full blood panel and like you just had just a slightly elevated WBC. Full x-rays (and dammit, turns out he's not an alien after all). The next guess was thyroid so we did a full panel and had the famous Dr. Dodd read it. Nothing.

We started him on metacam just in case he was in pain. Then the next day, my partner came home and while he could walk, he couldn't/wouldn't use his back legs to spin.

Got into the neurologist the next day. She noticed that his gait was funky and did a physical. She got into his lower back and he nearly nailed her. She just said "yep, there's swelling and pain there."

Next day we went for an MRI which showed swelling in his lower back but no slipped disks and no tumor. We did a spinal tap to rule out an infection. 

The final diagnosis was idiopathic meningitis. We put him on 5mg of Pred 2x day about mid-August and he's now down to .75mg 1x day. (He weighs 14 pounds). Pete's totally back to his usual insane self - chasing our lurcher in the fields and doing agility 2-3x a week. 

So there is hope that your guy'll bounce back from this! Sending you well wishes for a full recovery.


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Ryan, sorry to hear about your dog and thanks for the post. Its definately one to mentally file away.

T


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## James Kotary (Nov 14, 2012)

Glad he is getting better! Hope it turns out to be nothing and he continues to getting back to his old self.


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

Got the results for the tap and it's not bacterial meningitis... but the neuro vet still believes it is a form of meningitis. We're now waiting for his blood results to come back.

She was exceptionally surprised when we told him he had essentially bounced back to normal before taking the prednisone. Normally they make that kind of a recovery 72 hours after taking the drug.

So we're still in a waiting pattern. I'll advise when I have more information. He's been given the clearance for training, which is great... but we'll be going easy on him for a little bit

I'll keep you all informed!


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Ryan Venables said:


> Got the results for the tap and it's not bacterial meningitis... but the neuro vet still believes it is a form of meningitis.


Well, I believe that viral is the most common.

I think bacteria is second, and then way far behind those two are funguses, bad reaction to a med, a tumor, head trauma, etc.


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## James Kotary (Nov 14, 2012)

Ryan Venables said:


> Got the results for the tap and it's not bacterial meningitis... but the neuro vet still believes it is a form of meningitis. We're now waiting for his blood results to come back.
> 
> She was exceptionally surprised when we told him he had essentially bounced back to normal before taking the prednisone. Normally they make that kind of a recovery 72 hours after taking the drug.
> 
> ...


 Thank you for the update, I pray he continues to get better!:-D


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

We have received all of the blood work back, and it was all negative. Looks like the final determination is that he had/has a viral meningitis. Fortunately for us, it's the most treatable form. We were really hoping it wasn't a fungal meningitis as that is apparently difficult to treat in dogs.

So he'll be on meds for the next six months of so and we'll go from there.

Still don't have any answers on how he picked it up. But we're told he'll make a full recovery. Here's hoping it doesn't show up again in the future.

Now back to training!

Thx for the support all.


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

glad he's turned the corner; hope it stays that way !

btw, what meds for six months Ryan ?

when you mentioned you had the best vet working on him, does that mean they were a diplomate level or just a highly recommended regular vet with a long established clientele ?
(i've often wondered if that "diplomate" cert meant they were a class above or just more "academic")


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

He'll be on prednisone and a couple others. Not sure off hand, my wife is dealing w/ the meds.

The local vet who saw Mako used to work/studied/specialized in cardiology and internal medicine at OVC after coming up from Mexico.

I didn't ask for a CV but he was under the care of one of the neurologists there. She had travelled up from San Diego to work at OVC. OVC, from my understanding, is the place to be when something complicated happens to your dog.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

I'd be very interested in what the meds are, if you get a chance.


And I'm so glad he's better!


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## Maureen A Osborn (Feb 12, 2010)

If you are going to have to have him on steriods for that long, you need to get him on something to protect his liver. Steriods have a tendency to cause liver problems, so you might want to ask your vet about denosyl http://nutramaxlabs.com/index.php/dog/dog-liver-health/denosyl-for-dogs or just put him on over the counter SAM-e and/or milk thistle. I had a dog with ITP/AIHA that had to be on steriods for a while and they enlarged his liver(hepatomegaly) and sent his liver enzymes(LFT's) through the roof.


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

My wife has said he'll be on Prednisone, doxycycline, clindomisine for about 6 months.

The others that he was taking were for pain and for stomach protection. But he hasn't had a need for those for a few days now.


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## Maureen A Osborn (Feb 12, 2010)

should also get him on acidophilus and probiotics also since he'll be on antibiotics that long


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

I'll look into the first, he gets probiotics as we give them Yogurt a few times a week.


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## James Kotary (Nov 14, 2012)

That is great news Ryan, thank you for the update.


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