Well, it's official - Ilsa has acute masticatory muscle myositis (MMM).
In laymen's terms, it's an inflammatory disease that affects the "chewing" muscles. These muscles are special in that they are the only muscles in the body that has 2M muscle fibers. Basically, MMM is caused by the dog's immune system attacking these specific muscle fibers. Sadly, no one really knows why the immune system does this, nor is it known if it's hereditary.
She's on prednisone now. She'll be on it for as little as 4-6 months... or she might have to be on prednisone for life. We think we caught it soon enough though, so hopefully she won't need to be on it lifelong.
We've also been instructed to get her toys and chewies to encourage use of her jaw muscles as a form of physical therapy. So, the lucky girl is getting an early Christmas present of bully sticks and other yummies today!
Poor girl, she can't seem to catch a break. I'm just hoping she doesn't have to be on pred for life.
In laymen's terms, it's an inflammatory disease that affects the "chewing" muscles. These muscles are special in that they are the only muscles in the body that has 2M muscle fibers. Basically, MMM is caused by the dog's immune system attacking these specific muscle fibers. Sadly, no one really knows why the immune system does this, nor is it known if it's hereditary.
She's on prednisone now. She'll be on it for as little as 4-6 months... or she might have to be on prednisone for life. We think we caught it soon enough though, so hopefully she won't need to be on it lifelong.
We've also been instructed to get her toys and chewies to encourage use of her jaw muscles as a form of physical therapy. So, the lucky girl is getting an early Christmas present of bully sticks and other yummies today!
Poor girl, she can't seem to catch a break. I'm just hoping she doesn't have to be on pred for life.