[lady_express_44]

"Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) was first described as a specific degenerative neurologic disease in 1973."

"The age at onset is 5 to 14 years, which corresponds to the third to sixth decades of human life. Although a few cases have been reported in other large breeds of dogs, the disease appears with relative frequency only in the German Shepherd breed, suggesting that there is a genetic predisposition for German Shepherd dogs (GSD) in developing DM."

"Degenerative Myelopathy is an autoimmune disease whereby the patient's own immune system attacks their central nervous system. This immune attack leads to loss of myelin (insulation around nerve fibers) and axons (nerve fibers)."

"The gross pathologic examination of dogs with DM generally is not contributory toward the diagnosis. The striking features being the reduction of rear limb and caudal axial musculature. The microscopic neural tissue lesions consist of widespread demyelination of the spinal cord, with the greatest concentration of lesions in the thoracolumbar spinal cord region.... Similar lesions are occasionally seen scattered throughout the white matter of the brains from some dogs, as well."

"While the cause of the altered immune system is not known, what is increasingly clear is that DM is caused by an autoimmune disease attacking the nervous systems of patients, leading to progressive neural tissue damage . . ." "There are probably genetic, environmental and toxic factors which eventually lead to its development."

"In many respects, DM is similar to what has been discovered about the pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis in human beings. In fact, based upon new data concerning the pathology of MS, we can now say with some degree of certainty that DM is MS in dogs."

http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/DM_Web/DMofGS.htm

I owned a Shepherd that had what they called "hip displacement" and had to be put down. It seems this is actually DM.

Cherie

[FinLady]

Interesting article.

Nope. Never had a large dog, but did have a small mutt who was mainly outdoors. So heaven knows what was in the mix.

[Erin524]

My aunt's pug Pudge, who had to be put to sleep back in March had something going on with her for a few months before she died.

My aunt had had Pudge checked out a couple of times over the last year or two of her life. Her vet had said that Pudge had something wrong with her that was demylinating her spinal cord.

Not all that sure what that meant. Pudge had been hit by a car (old guy couldnt make the curve in his minivan in front of my aunt's house, went up into aunt's driveway and neighbor's yard and hit Pudge about 3 or 4yrs ago)

She was also attacked at least twice by the crazy neighbor's dogs (that broke into my aunt's house thru the back door twice)

She also had some sort of virus a few years back.


My dog Tiny, after he died, the vet had done a little research into some of his symptoms he'd had the past few months (I wish I'd had him do a necropsy on Tiny) He said there were several possible causes, and now I dont have any way to prove what exactly killed Tiny, but one thing was some sort of autoimmunity that could possibly have been caused by some of his vaccinations.

Tiny had been sick off and on for about a year before he died, so I think he was pretty weak the last month or two before he died.. I actually suspect he was killed by the crazy neighbor. My aunt kept finding pristine hot dogs on her back porch. Think crazy neighbor was putting something in the hot dogs. Tiny ate something in our yard a few days before he died. We dont know what it was, but he suddenly got really sick a day or two later, altho now I can look back and see he was having cardiac problems for a day or two before he died. (he had a weird cough that started the morning after he ate the mystery thing in the yard)

[Kitty]

Our neighbors (when I was growing up) had a pure bred bull dog that had to be put to sleep because of a hip deformity that prevented him from walking correctly. It got worse as he got older and eventually he couldn't walk. It was so sad because I loved that dog and used to sit outside on the porch with him....his name was Wrinkles.

I wonder if Wrinkles had MS?

[Gazelle]

Cherie, are you sure you don't mean "hip dysplasia" that your dog had? Shepherds are one breed (among a number of other breeds) that can suffer from that condition. In fact, it's one thing that you should check to see if the parent's have and pups have been checked for it before getting one of the breeds that's prone to it.

But it is interesting in the article you referenced to see that they think this is similar to MS. I didn't see any reference to "hip displacement" or "hip dysplasia" in that article. Maybe I missed it (not being snide, just truly not knowing if I did or not).

[lady_express_44]

Originally Posted by Gazelle

Cherie, are you sure you don't mean "hip dysplasia" that your dog had? Shepherds are one breed (among a number of other breeds) that can suffer from that condition. In fact, it's one thing that you should check to see if the parent's have and pups have been checked for it before getting one of the breeds that's prone to it.

But it is interesting in the article you referenced to see that they think this is similar to MS. I didn't see any reference to "hip displacement" or "hip dysplasia" in that article. Maybe I missed it (not being snide, just truly not knowing if I did or not).

Yep, hip dysplasia is probably the correct name, Gazelle.

As far as DM, it is apparently very hard to tell the difference between hip dysplasia and DM.

"German shepherds are very prone to degenerative myelopathy. This is a condition in which the myelin sheath around the nerves degenerates, making it difficult for the nerve transmissions to get from the brain to the muscles. A progressive weakening of the rear legs occurs. It closely resembles the symptoms of hip dysplasia and can be very difficult to distinguish from hip dysplasia."

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/ddegnmyo.html

Both afflictions occur regularly in German Shepherds, both have a genetic component (or so they think) . . . so perhaps a person could still weed out the "potential" DM/dysplasia cases the same way.

I'm not sure which my dog had, but then I never had MRI's or anything done either.

Cherie

[Gazelle]

Wow, really interesting. And dogs can't even use the line that they'd rather not get the affirmative dx because they're not ready for an autopsy!

Thanks, Cherie. I learned something today.