Scratchings-and-Sniffings

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Tyrone's Brush with Temporal Myositis Posted: 22 Jun 2009 04:22 PM PDT Some of you will remember Tyrone, the little Bishon /Poodle cross that belongs to our friends, Steve and Alexandra. We've written a couple of posts on this little guy. He's a great little dog and a fantastic addition to the neighborhood. He's also a distemper survivor and now he has a rarely encountered problem; one that I hope is not related to his history with distemper. Over the last few days he developed a painful condition affecting the temporal and masseter muscles of the head. The condition is variously referred to as Temporal or Masticatory Myositis. Myositis is the term for inflammation of the muscles. Tyrone would spontaneously cry out in pain when someone touched his head and working the jaw muscles would cause the same reaction.   It's not a very common condition and most often it happens to bigger dogs like German Shepherds or Rottweilers. The cause is unknown, too, and some think it is a autoimmune disorder due to the cell types found in muscle biopsies. There is an acute and chronic phase. Hopefully this is the first episode for Tyrone because the acute phase is treatable and has a better long term prognosis than the latter. If the condition is not treated appropriately in the acute phase it can progress to the chronic phase where the muscle tissue is replaced by scar tissue. As you can imagine that would have a significant impact on a dog's ability to chew, among other things.   The treatment involves immunosuppressive (high) doses of corticosteroids gradually tapering off over about a week. With complete recovery, which happens most of the time in acute cases, that's all one needs to do. Some times a low maintenance dose of corticosteroid is required to control the problem. It can recur too, so Steve and Alexandra will have to be vigilant.   That really should not be a problem as Tyrone is a big part of their life and they dote on him like a little baby. He returns the favor, of course.   I worry a little bit about this being a sequelae from his bout with distemper as a puppy. He's already lucky times two to have recovered from a disease with a high fatality rate and then be adopted by two fantastic parents. It's possible, but unlikely, that this current problem could be a delayed neurological manifestation of the distemper. That would not be good. I don't think that's the case nor does Tyrone's current veterinarian.   I'm staying in touch with Tyrone's people while we head north for a little camping trip next week. If anything happens, good or bad, I'll let you know.

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