Re: Neurology advice please

Rachael Winder — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:20:48 GMT

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply. As it was, I arranged to recheck him before I read your post as I was more worried about GME the more I thought about him! 36hrs after my first exam, he had progressed to having mild hindlimb paresis and periods of depressed mentation, as well as the unilateral menace deficit. I had discussed referral with my nurse previously so we shifted him off for MRI asap. I've been off work and so haven't had the full report back but she's texted me to say referral centre have said they think it is a form of meningitis which should be responsive to steroids, so looks like probably is GME.

Thank you again for your help- hopefully he'll do well

Re: Neurology advice please

Mark Lowrie — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:09:30 GMT

Hi Rachael,

The unilateral menace deficit with normal PLR would usually indicate a forebrain disorder (i.e. central blindness). The clumsiness may be related to the lack of vision but may also be related to ataxia from forebrain disease.

Given she is a young dog and if the owner is happy to consider referral then I would suggest doing this sooner rather than later (i.e. get the dog booked in today). Young dogs with forebrain disease don’t tend to resolve spontaneously and so it would seem sensible to investigate quickly so that any potential treatment can be given sooner rather than later.

Progressive forebrain disease in young dogs would usually include inflammatory (e.g. GME), congenital (e.g. hydrocephalus), metabolic, neoplastic and degenerative diseases. No specific Whippet diseases but GME would be top of my list and hence my suggestion of referral sooner rather than later. Dogs with GME can do very well but only when caught early. Another week may allow you to identify the problem better but I would then be concerned the disease would be further advanced and prognosis would be guarded.

Things you could do now would include haematology and biochemistry (plus bile acids) as metabolic disease could cause this although unusual to cause an asymmetry of signs (not impossible though).

Hope this helps. Let us know how things go.