Necrotizing encephalitis of yorkshire Terriers
 

First off , I want to thank this web-site for the opportunity to reach out to other people with pet needs. It may have saved our little Nikki.

Just as short as I can I want to share what we have been through and what we have learned. Hopefully no one out there will need this information.

Our Nikki is a four year old female. Two years ago she started with just week hips. Doc said maybe from an injury. We had to treat her approx. 6 times over the past two year with a steroid injection. She alway improved never 100%.

Two months ago we took her to get her yearly vaccine. I noticed that night something was wrong. For the next two weeks and several vet visits she had gotten to the point of not walking ( left leg lame ) , her eyesight was getting bad , she was also shaking on and off.

After being treated with steroids for about 4-5 day's we noticed lameness appearing in her left front paw.Our vet suggested an MRI. We live in Louisiana, after trying for a week to find someone to do an MRI , we were desperate. After stumbling onto this site I met a wonderful lady who was experiencing some what of the same problems with her girl. The doctors here suspected GME. No one in Louisiana it seemed, knew very much about this.

Well let me tell you THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA know the most about it in the world.We drove to Georgia had an MRI , and a spinal tap. She has been diagnosed with Necrotizing Encephalitis.

They started her on Predisone and setup treatment with the medication Cytosar . Its a chemotherapy drug. Although it doesn't have the same side affects on animals as it does humans.

THANK GOD , THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA AND MOST OF ALL CRISSEY'S MOM DEB,AND DAD HERB. If anyone has any question feel free to e-mail me kjb353@aol.com

this is a very nice post I hope your Nikkie is doing better thanks for sharing

I am so happy you were finally able to find out what the problem was and start treating her. I hope she gets well soon.

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Thak you for posting your experince, I know it will help others in the future.. wishing your Yorkie all the best.

it it so nice to know that a YTer was able to help you.

I am always thrilled with how knowledgeable & helpfully people are on YT

My little girl Brooke also has GME, but the localized form. She has been in remission since January. There is a really great support and information group on Yahoo Groups called NewGMEDogs, NewGMEDogs : NewGMEDogs, you might want to join it. I wish you and Nikki nothing but the best, this is a tough disease but there is hope.

Thankyou so much for posting your experience. Please be sure to update us. I hope your baby does well with treatment and comes through this. Two of my good friends have lost yorkies to this disease (they were littermates), and it's aweful. I know we're always looking for new information and prevention, treatment, etc. I hope your baby gets better

Update on Nikki
 

Nikki went in for another cytazar treatment today. She doesn't have any side affects from the treatment. Her walking is still good , although not much improvement in her eye's . She requires a lot of attention. Day and night.So we continue to spoil her rotten. Her appetite is atrocious. We have to find something that will satisfy her, other than science diet. She is hungry every two hours. She is also on 1/2 dose of predizone, which is causing the hunger. We are just grateful to have her.

thankyou for the update. I'm glad she's doing okay and hope she keeps improveing. You are lucky to have her

I am so glad to hear that Nikki is doing better. Sending thoughts and prayers for continued progress.

I am going through the same thing with my little Brownee Bear. He first started limping and the vet thought it could be treated with Metacam. After a few days he wasn't getting better, even worse. So I rushed him back to the vet. She suggested to go to the neurologist and get a CT scan or MRI. Luckily, a neurologist had just moved to our state so it was only 45 minutes away. My vet did the bile acid and full blood testing. She suggested we wait a few days for the lab results to get in. But my gut told me to get to the neurologist right away. The next day he had a CT scan and the radiologist said: "may be a necrotizing encephalitis." We started on pred. today. We have also contacted Dr. Sisson for his advice regarding the situation. It is such a heartbreaking situation. Please keep me updated on your lil baby!

Thanks for the information
 

I am sitting in the Vet Hospital as we speak and my little one has just had her CT Scan. They say it is Encephalitis and now will determine off of the spinal tap which kind it is. It is possible that it is Necrotizing encephalitis so it is very comforting to know there is support out there and that yorkies who have it have a chance for recovery.

We just went through this. Well still going thru it. Its tough , but everyday with the light of my life, its worth it.My girl is on Pred. and chemo treatments every 3 weeks.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I know exactly what you are going through. My baby just had his first round of chemo last week. What sort of symptoms is your dog having? Have you checked out the support group on yahoo? There is a doctor in Boston that has had great sucess with dogs going into remission. You may want to have your vet review his latest protocol. Try to stay positive. If you have any questions at all feel free to pm me!

Mine has lost her vision I think in both eye's. She gets around so good, its hard to tell. Week rear legs and folding of her left paw. She is doing better with the chemo treatment. She gets a round of shots tomorrow. What kind treatment are ya'll going thru?

Thank you so very much for your post and for sharing your experiences with GME. Crissy's mom, Deb, is a wonderful person, we have communitated by email and phone about her Crissy and my LacieBug who also had some form of encephalitis.

I am so glad that you two found each other and that you found the University of Georgia. What a fantastic hospital. When I took LacieBug back in the early 90's they were a fantastic group of medical professionals that were very compassionate and loved their patients.

I am sure that your post will help others with this and similar type conditions. I will keep you and your little Nikki in my thoughts and prayers.

We are still awaiting the pathology results to determine which type of encephalitis. They started her on predizone (sp?) and she is walking much better, her eyesight doesn't seem to have improved much, though we feel that there are times when she can see us out of one eye. She has started to sneeze a lot and ever so often shakes her head like she is shaking out the cobwebs. The neurologist who is treating her is Brian Cellio and he is the only board certified neurologist in the Kansas City Metro area and we are told possibly even in the midwest. We were very lucky to get to see him. Dr. Cellio is hopeful since we have seen improvment in her walking within 24 hours of taking the predizone. She is only on 1mg every 12 hours. We find out more on Monday when the pathology report gets in. We are just trying to keep her comfortable until then. Last night she actually barked for the first time since this all happened so we are cautiously optimistic. I hope that everyone's dogs who have this stay strong and live a long life. I never knew about this disease and it makes me sad and frustrated that these sweet babies have to go through this. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and support!

Did your pup by any chance receive any of their yearly shots in the last 30-45 days? a lot of people are noticing out breaks after the shots.

I am glad to hear your baby is doing better. That seems like a really low dose of prednisone. My yorkie who is only 4 lbs was on 15 MG for for 4 days and then it was taken down to 7.5 MG for 11 days and now it is down to 5 MG. If the dog is responding to the pred. then it most likely isn't the infectious type which is treated by antibiotics. I'm not a vet by any means, I'm just telling you the information that I have found from others that have gone through this. If you would like to give me your e-mail address I can e-mail you a paper that a specialist in Boston has written about his latest protocol for the disease. You may want to get show that to the vet treating your dog. He has had a 90% success rate.

Can you send me the information about the doctor in Boston who has had a lot of success? Thanks, Lee Ann my email address is gidget.ann@hotmail.com.

Diagnosed - Please pray for Gidget
 

Gidget was diagnosed this morning with necrotizing encephalitis and we have started her today on a higher dose of predizone. She will be on 5 mg daily for two weeks and then we have a follow up visit. My dog weighs 4lbs like ashmack's yorkie, so was wondering why the dosage may be different? Did your yorkie have any seizures? To date, Gidget has not had any seizures although she is blind and has trouble walking.

Thanks!
 

Almost forgot a special thanks to jerry and karyn, Nikki's parents as I phoned them right after Gidget was diagnosed and jerry was wonderful giving me some hope :) it was comforting to know that there is hope. I am so glad i found this site.

I am so very sorry to hear that your baby was diagnosed with this horrible disease. Brownee has never has any seizures. He just had problems walking and seeing out of his left eye. He then started walking in circles to the right. I am not sure about the difference with the prednisone dosing. I think that most vets are cautious about giving such a high dose to little dogs. But I am sure that every case is different.

Update on Gidget
 

Gidget had her first chemo treatment yesterday. So far no side effects. She continues to be on 7.5 mg of pred daily and will have another chemo treatment in 4 weeks. Although she still can't walk perfect, and she can barely see out of only one eye, she has started barking again and we are so excited. Tonight we even went for a short walk and her tail wagged the whole time. I want to thank everyone again on this forum for all your advice. How is everyone else's babies doing? I hope they are responding well to their treatment.

that's great news! Success stories this yours give me hope that others can be treated and cured

That"s great news. We are still trying to get Nikki straight on her Pred. She was doing good until the vet reduced her dosage,but its something they have to try.

The North Carolina State Vet School is studying GME. A family who lost their little Maltese to GME has set up a fund to provide financial help to people dealing with this terrible disease.

You can read about the CREATE fund and Stormy's brave battle with GME on the Yorkie Angel Patrol website. I urge everyone to make a donation to this fund.

gme

My thoughts are with all of you and your babies. It sounds like a horrible disease, but there is hope, and they have wonderful families caring for them!:thumbup:

Another Update on Gidget
 

We are so excited, Gidget had a CBC today to check her white cell count since she had her first round of chemo last week. Her count was 2520 and our neurologist wanted it between 1000 and 3000 so that is wonderful news. Gidget continues to improve, she remains on 7.5mg of pred a day (2.5 in the morning, 2.5 in the afternoon, and 2.5 in the evening). She hardly wobbles anymore at all, her eyesight hasn't improved much but her personality has come back, she is starting to take charge again, but most of all she is walking around with her tail up and wagging all the time and she is licking everyone. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers and we hope that everyone's else's dog with this horrible disease is seeing improvement as well. We know we still have a long road ahead of this but there is definintely hope :)

Well thats great news. So glad to here it. We continue to fight the dosage of the pred. Frustrating . But I think I may take charge of the treatment, No disrespect to the Docs. , but I think we almost know as much as them about this disease.