About Inflammatory Meningitis for Pets

In this talk, Dr Mackay discusses the causes for this disease, how these cases commonly present, diagnosis and common treatment options.
If you have any questions about inflammatory meningitis, please don't hesitate to call one of the Internal Medicine team at Veterinary Specialist Services.

[@kateortiz3813]

My Olde English Bulldog was just diagnosed with S.R.M.A last week we caught it in 4 days of first seeing symptoms. We were prescribed Prednisone and she got better after the first 24 hours we are currently on day three of steroids. We have a vet appointment this Thursday. If you happen to see this before than or even after what can I expect from her quality and length of life.

[@YourPriceYourParadise]

Hello sir. My 11 year old pomeranian, Babygirl is showing signs of possible meningitis but we are extremely reluctant to put her under anesthesia for the risk of never coming out of it. Is it possible to treat her as though she has meningitis even if we don't have a confirmed diagnosis? Wondering what the risks would be for that. Would be greatly helpful. Thank you.
Symptoms:
Lethargy
Loss of regular appetite, only eats at night now
Wobbling while standing still/stumbling while walking
Neurologist says she shows signs of neck pain
She isn't on any medication and has history of ear infections

[@Paulscole3]

I've been breeding teacup-sized Shih Tzus (3-5 lbs) for 10+ years, and until now I've never had a case of meningitis, puppies with seizures, or anything of the sort. I only mention that because many people instantly want to blame it on breeding Shih Tzus too small when they don't have a clue about how long I've been doing this or that my original Shih Tzus came from teacup-sized litters. My Neurologist started my little girl on 0.05ml of steroids, but now that she's 10 months old and 2.4 lbs they're giving her 0.2 and 0.1 alternating days. When I talk with other pet owners whose dog is on steroid treatment or whose dog was cured of meningitis, they ask why she is on such a low dose because their dog was on 40ml at first and even what they've weened down to 5ml a day is still way more than what I'm giving my little girl. I get that size plays a big part in that, but I asked my neurologist the other day what she thought, and her response was to keep Mira (my girl) on as little prednisone as possible in hopes that one day she won't need it at all. Do you think I should get a second opinion or if you think she's on the right track with treatment?

[@Apeiron2043]

hope your dog is doing ok. My Corgi has SRMA but has not gone through the gambit of testing. His ER doc recognized the symptoms and after steroids he recovered quickly. He is now 3 months in. I tried to take him off this week but symptoms started to reoccur so he is back on. I read it takes 6 - 9 months on steroids to be cured. He started on 20 mg (he is about 20 lbs), and reduced to 10 mg daily. Typically they kick start them on a higher dose based on weight and then lower it. I would say that if your dog is responding well to a low dose then that's good because long term steroid use can cause health issues. If you ever want to talk about this more let me know and we can figure this out together. I have a question for you now. what's the ball park cost of a neurologist diagonsitic?

[@Paulscole3]

@@Apeiron2043 Thank you for your concern. I've been waiting for someone on the medical staff to reply but I haven't seen anything yet. Thankfully, there's nothing that needs to be done because she's now off all medicine as of Christmas Eve. I was running out and had the vet call more in but they were closed due to a large snow we had, and they were closed two days after Christmas too. She's not been able to go 2 days without getting so weak I think she's going to die, but it was a Christmas miracle (which her name is a Mira Cole) because she's only gotten stronger since I ran out and that's over 2 weeks and she's acting like a normal dog for the first time in a year since she was born. She's a perfectly healthy 2.5 lb full blooded Shih Tzu and a bundle of joy. Don't give up hope because I figured she'd be on Prednisone her whole life, which would also shorten her life, but she's totally healed, so it does work!

[@Paulscole3]

@@Apeiron2043 Sorry, forgot to answer your question. The ballpark figure is $150 a visit, but they also had a treatment package that was $900+, but I didn't go that way.