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Tid Bit
the baby of the family
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Our little girl became very sick with Type I immune-mediated polyarthritis . Below are the notes to the veterinarians and the procedures that would make her well again.
To the Neurologist/Veterinarian, please see below.
Description of the problem: Movie clip of her symptoms
TidBit started her heat on January 2,2006 and at or around the same time we noticed her trembling and slow movements, like her joints were hurting her....(she's only 2 years old) These symptoms continued and seemed to be getting worse so we took her to our local vet on Friday, January 6th. he checked her out and gave us some pain medication for her, Deramax 25 mg. with instructions to give her 3/4 to 1 whole pill per day. We brought her home and watched her carefully. Her eating habits and her stool were both normal. We scoured the yard for anything that could be toxic that she might have eaten, (nothing was found). On January 11th, she became very ill and seemed to be hallucinating . That evening she would not stay on the bed where she normally sleeps w/ us, she seemed to be afraid of everything. Trembling and moving very slowly, she would go to the corner and just cower there. We did not give her the pain medication thinking maybe that was the cause, but she continued to act this way the next day as well. She would stand for long periods of time trembling with her nose planted on the floor like she didn't have the strength to lift her head. She would hide in the corners and under furniture, would startle at sudden movements, seemed to be seeing things that weren't there. She was very fearful and confused looking. These episodes would come and go throughout the day. Her appetite did not fail though and her potty routine was fine. Her water intake seemed a little less than normal.
On January 12th, we searched on the internet and found her symptoms at this web site http://www.borderterrier-cecs.com/cecs_symptoms.htm . She is not a border terrier, but the symptoms were so very close we did what was suggested and switched her diet from a corn based food, to a chicken based and no corn.
On January 14th her symptoms of trembling and
moving like she was in pain continued. The hallucinating episode seemed to be
over (thank goodness). We took her to the Pet Care Veterinary Hospital in Santa
Rosa where they did another general checkup and blood draw. The results were
negative, there was nothing in her blood that would make her react the ways she
was.
On January 21st we took her back to the vet in Santa Rosa and requested x-rays be taken....we thought maybe it was a bone issue, maybe she had been injured while playing with the Labradors that come and go in our household. The vet examined her by hand (no x-rays) and said it wasn't a bone issue and recommended a neurologist.
Please take a look at the movie clip below to see TidBit's symptoms...we were able to access a camera only a couple of days ago so we missed the really bad episode but we tried to catch as much as we could. We just want her pain to go away, it breaks our hearts to see her this way.
There are 4 sections to this movie, the first one shows her stiff walking, the second shows her trying to go down stairs, (she used to bound down), the third shows her stumbling and the fourth is extremely dark but you can see the trembling in her legs.
To contact us please call 707-884-1855 or e-mail to terri@sayegh.org
On January 27th we took TidBit to the Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park to see Dr. Vince Pedroia, DVM, a neurologist. He had printed out this web page and watched her movie. He was extremely gentle with TidBit and very professional and meticulous with his diagnosis. We were very grateful that he took the time to explain in detail what her symptoms could mean. He suggested taking some fluid from her joints to determine if she had a high level of white blood cells which would confirm his suspicion of polyarthritis.
They gave TidBit a local
anesthetic, shaved her knees, and took the samples. Within an hour the doctor
had results.....she had a very high white blood cell count in her joint fluid.
The doctor prescribed Prednisone (a steroid). We took her home and gave her the doses. within 2 days she was back to her normal, happy self. She stayed on the medication for 1 month.
Here is another movie of her now, bounding down the stairs and feeling very good.
