Encephalitis
 

My 7-year-old, 3-pound rescue Yorkie had 2 seizures on Thurs night (6/27/08). This was completely unexpected; she had just gone on a short walk around the neighborhood and behaved normally. We took her to an after-hours emergency clinic and they recommended she see a neurologist. We are about 65 miles from UGA vet clinic and took her there.

They did an MRI, spinal tap, and blood profile. The MRI showed inflammation in her brain. At this time, they do not know if the cause is viral, bacterial, or sterile inflammation. They seem to be leaning toward Yorkshire Necrotizing Encephalitis, but started her on antibiotics last night in case it is bacterial.

Nothing I read gives me any hope for a positive prognosis, and the vets are reluctant to either.

Does anyone have knowledge that could help us? I am so scared, she is so little...

We have had her for 5 years and she has made such wonderful progress. She was being used as a kennel breed dog and is much too little to breed. We have just let her be a lap dog when she wants and princess all the time. She is the boss of our 5-year-old 11-pound Maltese who can't figure out where she is.

I am terrified that we are going to lose her to this condition....If anybody knows anything that could help, please let me know.

I am so sorry that your baby is going through this...Hopefully someone on here will have information for you.

Deborah, I am so very sorry that you precious little Chrissy has yet another hurdle to conquer. I appreciate you calling me. I hope in some small way I might have been able to help. Perhaps the UGA Vet Staff is able to locate her records, and perhaps help in the treatmetn of Chrissy.

Your family is in my thoughts and prayers....

I am so sorry! I've PM'd you with a lady's email that has gone through this and has done wonders with her Yorkie.
Back in '04 I had purchased a Show male from a breeder. I Showed him myself and he was only 1 Major away from his AKC Championship, and I decided to breed him during a break in Shows. No puppies.. So I had him tested and he was completely STERILE :eek: Although devastated, I knew there was no sense finishing his Championship and I placed him with a very loving family. I got several emails and updates and all went well for a few years. She then called me to let me know that he had Encephalitis. Thank God, he was sterile, and had produced no offspring because it was confirmed hereditary Encephalitis. He had terrible symptoms, and they all went through hell. She emailed updates as things progressed, and just yesterday sent pics of how well he was doing. She will be of great help to you, I am sure.
Good luck and God Bless!

I sent you a PM, please call me!! My Brooke has GME and is now in remission!! There is hope but you must get her on the right medicine protocol! There has been a lot of changes in the treatment of this disease & the prognosis is much better than before, provided you start her on an aggressive protocol. Please read my pm and call me when you can, I can help.

Update on Crissey's Encephalitis
 

Hello All,

Sorry I haven't updated until today. I have been spending as much time with her as possible and since it is about 3 hours roundtrip, I am exhausted from the emotion and the trip.

But the news as of now, is good. She has a mild case with very little damage. We caught it early and she is responding to treatment.

For any of you who are facing this disease, this is a critical issue:

The doctors have told me that there are 2 basic types of canine encephalitis. It can be either INFECTIOUS, or STERILE. The infectious type can be viral, bacterial or fungal. The sterile type is like an auto-immune disorder where the body starts attacking itself. This type has no KNOWN cause, but there are several theories including genetics and triggers associated with vaccines. Within the sterile type include GME, and breed-specific types like Pug Dog Disease and Yorkie Necrotizing Encephalitis.

They say that about 70% of the dogs with encephalitis have the sterile kind. And about 30% have the infectious kind. Because Crissey is a Yorkie, the chances are greater that she has Yorkie Encephalitis.

But there is still about a 30% chance that even a Yorkie can have the infectious kind rather than the sterile kind.

And this is where it gets really scary. If they start treating her with the drug protocol for the sterile kind which includes high doses of steroids, the desired effect is to suppress the immune system so that it stops attacking itself. And that is great, as long as the underlying cause of the disease is truly sterile in nature.

But if we start giving her high doses of steroids, and it is actually infectious in nature, then we will probably kill her because we will have suppressed her immune system to the point that it cannot fight off the infection.

However, if we start treating her with antibiotics and it turns out to be the sterile kind, then we have a better chance of being able to reverse the course, change the treatment protocol, and still her.

So the decision is really a sort of "lesser of two evils" choice. Many times they can diagnosis the infectious kind from a spinal tap, but Crissey's was inconclusive. And they didn't feel that her case warranted another spinal tap.

So the bottom line for us is that she is much improved and she came home yesterday on antibiotics. They are still not sure if her improvement is due to the antibiotics, or due to the residual effects of the low-dose steroids they gave her in the beginning to reduce the inflammation. So she could get worse over the next couple of weeks and then we would deduce that she actually has the sterile variety rather than the infectious.

At that point we would have to switch her to the high dose steroids combined with another drug, cytosine (also called cytozar), that acts as a sort of chemotherapy.

So please keep us in your prayers over the next couple of weeks. We are at a very critical phase with this disease and can use all the support and prayers that we can get.

Thank you all for your concern and support and I will keep you posted on her progress. I am SO HAPPY to have her HOME!

Deborah

Evaluation Tomorrow - Crissey
 

Wish us luck and please continue your prayers. Crissey goes back to UGA for a check up tomorrow. She is almost through her course of antibiotics and is symptom free at this point. We are hopeful that it turns out to be infectious and that we can cure it. The docs are still concerned that it may be sterile and her symptoms will return and perhaps worsen.

She is doing well for now and for that, we are very grateful. We are praying for a full recovery.

Thanks to you all and I will keep you posted! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow!

Prayers going up that Chrissie continues to get better and goes into remission. I'm so sorry that she and your family are experiencing this. It breaks my heart when these babies are so ill.

Prayers for your baby...

I pray sweet Chrissie will respond to treatment. It sounds like she is getting the best possible care.

Chrissy will be in our thoughts!

Hope you get some answers soon! Hang in there!

We are also going thru this with our 4 year old female. No one knows what this is. Or really how to treat it. Would love to talk more to you.

I'm praying that your baby will beat this aweful disease! Two of my good friends have lost babies to this (they were littermates)...we lost Taffy just this past Saturday to encephalitis. :( Their cases seemed unique though in that they went downhill so quickly (within 24-48 hours). I hope your baby will be okay.

special thanks
 

That's to Crissey"s Mom . We got the ball rolling. we need prayers from all. Thanks again

Sending thoughts and prayers your way that Crissey beats this awful disease.

I lost my baby Kosmo in March 2007 to this disease, his health just spiraled downhill so fast, and just recently, this past Saturday, his littermate Taffy was taken by this disease, in less than 48 hours. Kosmo was only 18 months old, Taffy would've been 3 this September.

Latest News on Crissey
 

We met with the docs at UGA vet school again on Friday (July 18). Crissey has been off of all steroids for 3 weeks now and has been taking antibiotics (Clindamycin and Trimeth/Sulfam) during that time.

She is now symptom-free except that her right eye is a little slow to dilate. They are very encouraged with her progress and are beginning to lean toward a diagnosis of infectious encephalitis. They are still not completely convinced that it is not sterile, but they are beginning to believe that her progress may be due more to the antibiotics than the initial steroid treatments she received for the inflammation.

They want to keep her on the antibiotics for another 10 days and recheck her then. It appears that she may just fall into that 30% that have the other kind of encephalitis - either bacterial, viral, or fungal. We still don't know with her, but are hopeful that we may actually be able to cure this.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! They are helping all of us!

Deborah

That is GREAT news! Are they doing a culture to find out what caused the infection? I hope she continues to do well!

This is such wonderful news!! I will continue to send thoughts and prayers your way for Crissey.

You have my prayers, so sorry this happened to your little one...sounds promising though and it sounds like she is getting wonderful care. Hugs to you as well!!!

I've never heard of this before with a Yorkie...I'm just wondering how they can't catch the INFECTIOUS type??? Do you know anything about how they can get it??? Is is something like Parvo??? This is something good to learn about. Thanks for all the info on it. :) Lee

there are several organisms that can cause encephalitis...couldn't give you a complete list off the top of my head but a few are rabies virus, distemper virus, west nile virus, ticks, and some bacteria and parasites.

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.

Hoping and praying your baby improves...how is she doing?

Crissey
 

She is still holding her own. We go back for another evaluation at UGA on Tuesday, so I will post their findings. But they were leaning last week toward infectious encephalitis and believe that the antibiotics may be responsible for her progress. We hope so and we are hopeful that we can beat this disease! You are all so sweet to check on her and to care! All those prayers are working - keep them going, please!

I'm glad she is doing so well! Hope to hear she's been cured soon

I am happy that your sweet little one is resopnding so well to treatment. Crissey is a fighter and I am praying for her full recovery. Sounds like she is in very good hands and has experts looking after her care and progress. :aimeeyork I will definately follow this thread. :aimeeyork

I am so happy to hear that Crissey is doing well. Still sending thoughts and prayers your way.

Sending prayers that Crissey will continue to recover. I love that name!:)
She has a wonderful mommie, too.;)

Crissey update 7/29/08
 

We went back for a check-up at UGA today. She is doing great and they decided to keep her on the antibiotics for another 3 weeks to a month. We are to bring her back in 3 weeks and they will evaluate her again and make another decision at that time.

We are still watching her constantly; yesterday she sat on my lap while I had my teeth cleaned! She goes to church with us and we sit on the back row and take turns going up for communion. She also went with us to get our hair cut. A neighbor's daughter had a violin recital and guess who sat on my lap throughout the whole thing? That's right - Crissey Marie!

So pretty much, if she can't go, then we don't go. We are wary of leaving her alone yet since she had her first seizure while we were not at home.

Thank you all again for your prayers, your emails, and your concern. We are hopeful for a cure, but they won't release us with an "all-clear" just yet. Will keep you posted, but she is back to her little "yorkie" self and that is heaven to us!

sounds like she is doing so much better! Hopefully she'll be all clear at her next visit