Early June 2012 – Lilly Neurology Update

Simply put, everything makes me worry. When Lilly seems neurologically stronger, she often acts out-of-her-mind fussy from the daily steroids aimed at shutting down her most recent relapse of vaccine-induced meningoencephalomyelitis / meningoencephalitis. BUT, when Lilly stops pacing and crying all the time and curls up to sleep, it looks to me like a new relapse. What’s a girl to do?

After our attempts to wean Lilly off the steroids (while keeping her on a strong immune mediator drug) failed, our veterinary neurologist put Lilly back on daily steroids through the end of June … when we will see him again.

It seems to be working. Depending upon the day, Lilly is 75-85% of her normal self. As a reference point, the best Lilly has been since her ill-fated reaction to a 3-year rabies vaccine given January 23, 2012, is about 85% of “normal.”

My goal would be to have her at this level or BETTER, but without all the medications … the steroids in particular.

Both the steroid (dexamethasone) and the immune mediator (cyclosporine) have side-effects from long-term use, but they are the only things keeping Lilly’s brain from becoming increasingly inflammatory, so there you go.

Since we returned to daily dex, we’ve seen Lilly:

  • Walking better
  • Showing practically no head wobbling
  • With better coordination overall

She does sometimes still fall, however, often because she has poor control of her left, front leg / foot.

We continue to walk 3 miles a day, when she feels up to it, and we’re playing more fetch and agility to see if her brain can rewire certain movements. It doesn’t seem to bother her when she falls or stumbles, but it sure makes me sad.

All in all, Lilly seems happy, and that’s perhaps the best thing or the most important thing.

The daily care-taking does take a toll on me. Clearly, my sense of Lilly is warped when even seeing her sleep makes me worry, but I’m glad she can rest — despite being amped up on meds — any time she can.

Paranoid?

I may be a little paranoid, though. The last time we had Lilly’s dex refilled, the pharmacy did not have the dosage the veterinary neurologist ordered. They gave me smaller pills. So, instead of cutting pills into fourths (1/4), I cut these in half (1/2). I used up all the old pills, and last week moved her to the new pills … and that’s when the sleeping more started.

So, I worry and watch to see if there is a trend … since lethargy is the first sign of a relapse.

I know medically speaking that the dosage and drug should be the same, but it does make me wonder.