 Infectious encephalitis
Apparently, it is difficult to cross what they call the "blood-brain barrier", so the infectious type is rare. But it can be caused by bacteria, a virus, or a some sort of fungus. They suggested that Crissey might possibly have contracted it when she was being used as a kennel breed dog. She is a rescue, so I don't know anything about the conditions of her kennel.
It isn't common and my regular vet said that he has never seen a case before. The neurologists at UGA really thought that hers was the auto-immune disorder type, but are now beginning to lean toward infectious. They said there is no way to know how she might have gotten it and that it could have been either dormant, or slow-growing.
Scary stuff....thank goodness it isn't very common. But I have met quite a lot of dog owners - Yorkies, Malteses, Pugs, Jack Russells, and Dachshunds, that have had it. Yahoo.com has a rather large group called GME, which is a type of encephalitis. |