Hi there,
I have an unusual problem with my normally sweet tempered pup. He has just turned one year old this month and loved chewing on anything! This got him in to trouble when, one day, we touched his mouth and he yelped. We found, what we assume, is a piece of jagged cow hoof (we share 5 acres with a neighbour who gave that to his dog) lodged between his cheek and his back molar.
That week we put him on antibiotics and thought he wasn't opening his mouth because it was sore. Our dog, Fidel, started perking up, but still wouldn't open his mouth. We took him back to the vet where she tried to do an X-Ray while he was awake, but couldn't get a good one, so she gave us another dose of antibiotics and scheduled to have him put under general to take a proper X-Ray the next week.
The next week, the X-Ray was done and was inconclusive. As well, the vet could not open Fidel's mouth while he was under. (I'm assuming it's more of a joint issue now than a muscle issue) Our vet referred us to Vancouver vets, so me and my partner went online to see if we could find anything similar and the only thing we came up with was owners who had tried prednisone (a corticosteroid) and used this long term as symptoms would return when the medication was stopped.
So, we have Fidel on prednisone right now (100 mg/day) and the anti-inflammatory properties of the steroid seem to help somewhat. He is now able to open his jaw approx. an inch (before it was only a centimeter), but with this he has terrible side effects:
- has gained weight back - but is now hungry more often than not,
drinks water like there's no tomorrow - and now has to get up to pee as often as I do (as I'm 7 months pregnant),
he no longer wants to play with other dogs he used to enjoy playing with - his personality seems to have changed now that he's on prednisone,
the fat surrounding his skull has not come back and looks sunken in
With the last symptom, I am now wondering if it was some kind of nasty, rare virus or parasite?
If anyone has heard of this or anything like this, please, let me know if there are other options for us. We don't want to keep spending all this money to do more tests that come up with inconclusive results as we're soon going to be on half my income for a year and spending a lot more on the new little one on the way.
Thanks in advance,
Karli