[Island Girl]

Hello. It's been quite a long time since I last logged into my account, but your post prompted me to respond. I am so sorry to hear your furbaby was diagnosed with GME!! I know you probably have a lot of questions, so I will be happy to help you in any way that I can. Though I am hardly an expert, I am willing to share my experiences with you.


My Sachi was diagnosed with GME at 4.5 years old. Initially, we started noticing it seemed like her vision was declining. Though she acted normal, there were times it seemed like couldn't see everything clearly. We made an appointment with our vet, but a few nights before we were to go for a checkup, she had a grand mal seizure. After rushing her to the emergency room, they initially thought she had epilepsy. However, a few days later, she still had really bad weakness on her right side (could stand and walk, but very unsteady). Her vision was markedly worse as well, but she could still navigate. She was also very "down". We took her back and they did further testing along with an mri and that's how they found out it was actually GME.



Like you, we never heard of this before and it came as quite a shock. She immediately went on a high dosage of prednisolone. To our amazement she was like a new dog! She had slight weakness on her right side and vision impairment but she was back to our happy dog. We had vet visits every week at the start but as she stabilized, those visits decreased in frequency. We also started to slowly ween her off preds but added the cyclosporine into her schedule. Although she did continue to have some weakness in her right side and loss of some vision, for the most part, she was happy and more spoiled than ever. She could pretty much do what she did before, with exception of having us to be more careful not to expose her to other dogs because of her diminished immune system on the medications.


She was in good shape for 1.5 years, but unfortunately, when she took a downturn, it went really fast. We noticed her vision was getting worse and her weakness as well. Increased the preds again but it really didn't help. She started Chemo (cytarabine), but we didn't see any results. About a month after we noticed her declining, she had another seizure. She was in and out of the hospital for 2 weeks, but she couldn't see and couldn't stand at all now. After 2 weeks, we had to make the decision none of us want to make and send her to the rainbow bridge. She had yet another seizure that last night and even on all her medication (including anticonvulsants) they could not not stop the seizures. We could not let her suffer anymore.


What breaks my heart is, she had such a fighting spirit, but the disease took her body away from her. She was full of love and she was so young, just 2 days shy of her 6th birthday. I am grateful that we had a year and half with her, but I am also greedy that I wanted more. My advice to you is cherish all the moments you have. I've read good and sad stories and I pray your baby can live a long life with medication.



This post came out much longer than I anticipated but I wanted to share my story with you. Please feel free to message me and I will be happy to let you know what we experienced. Although we didn't have our Sachi for a long time, we were blessed to have such a special girl in our lives. It will be a month since we lost her on Dec 29, so your post hit home for me. I'm sending you hugs, well wishes, and support!!