Atrophy of face & head muscles

[Kathy Moore]

I have a 9 month old male Chesapeake Bay Retriever with atrophy of the
head and face muscles. He cannot open his mouth very wide, but
fortunately he can open it wide enough to eat.

My vet has him on prednisone and antibiotics right now in case it is an
infection. Her other diagnosis would be Eosenophilic Myopathy (face
muscles inflamed or infiltered) if the antibiotics and anti-inflamitory
medication does not work. But again, there are tests that will need to
be run (muscle biopsy, etc).

Has anyone had this type of a problem in a Retriever, or any other breed
for that matter? And if so, what did you do? I would appreciate any
suggestions, etc. that you might have.

Please email me at k...@dancris.com

Thanks.

[Cris Waller]

My Golden once developed a similar condition (could not open mouth, jaw
very tender). When it first appeared, the vet thought it might be
eosinophilic myopathy. He told me that this disorder was rare, and
usually confined to one side of the face, but was occasionally
bilateral. Apparently the condition is very similar to muscular
dystrophy in humans, and there is a researcher here in San Diego (I
think her name is Ursula Bellugi) who is studying the condition for
this reason.
In my dog's case, several tests were run (x-ray, blood panel)but no
cause for the inflammation could be found. She was put on antibiotics
and cortisone (with advice to have a muscle biopsy if the problem
continued), and the condition cleared spontaneously in a day or two.
The vet's best guess as to what happened was that there may have been
some shock to the root of one of her teeth without actual tissue injury
(since none was found upon examination). He said he sees one or two
cases a year with similar symptoms and has never found a cause.
Does your dog actually have visible or palpable atrophy of the facial
muscles? My vet said that one of the reasons my dog probably did not
have a myopathy was that her facial musculature did appear and feel
normal-with the myopathy there would have been degeneration.
Good luck and keep us updated.

Cris Waller
Cr...@ix.netcom.com

[Kathy Moore]

Cris--

Thanks for your info. I understand this is a very frustrating condition
as it is hard to pin down a cause. It sounds like your dog responded
pretty quickly to the medication.

Yes, my dog does have visible loss of muscles in his face. His head
looks like a skeleton with fur :-( He has had this condition for at
least a month, and it does not appear to be improving with the
medication. I am keeping him on the medication for another week, and
then he's to go back in to my vet to see what (if any) progress there
is.

I'll keep you posted.

Kathy
k...@dancris.com

[ultra...@gmail.com]

Hi Kathy,

My 12 year old kelpie x has suddenly developed muscular facial atrophy on his left side as well :(

This happened within a week or a few days - we have seen both normal and holistic vets. At first they thought Masticatory Muscle Myositis, but because he has no problem eating and moving his jaw they are not sure so will probably need a blood test/biopsy/MRI.

Meanwhile he did get a steroid shot and is also now on TCM herbs.

I was just wondering if you wouldn't sharing what happened with your dog in the end?

Thank you.

Darren

[jesyl...@gmail.com]

Outstanding kids friendly male and female pug pups out for adoption.they will come along side with their feeding manual and some toys for them to play with.contact me at jesyl...@gmail.com.thanks

[kendra...@gmail.com]

I have a dog with similar symptoms. Can anyone post what their outcomes were?

[buglady]

On 1/4/2016 11:33 PM, kendra...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have a dog with similar symptoms. Can anyone post what their outcomes were?
>

I had a dog whose eyes sunk and head got skinny. She was diagnosed with
Addison's disease. Besides MM there's diabetes as a cause. I'd get
full blood panel run to start.

buglady
take out the dog before replying