On the 28^th August 2014 Wednesday afternoon Ruby was frothing at the mouth we went to the vet where she stayed for 9 nights

It was first thought she had limbic epilepsy as she was salivating excessively and the jaw was not fully opening and she could not swallow and was put on phenobarbital and was on a drip.

On the Saturday 30^th August she was taken off the drip and also stopped the phenobarbital and was put on prednisone

Week 1

She was not really improving and on the Wednesday the 3^rd September I took her to the specialist at Sash and saw Dave Collins, he did 2 additional blood tests 2M (masticatory muscle myositis) which went to the United States and the Neosporin which went to Western Australia

They could not give a clear diagnosis but appeared to be some form of Myositis and poly myositis in the throat area which was affecting the swallowing and the jaw

I took her home on the Friday 5^th Sept and all she has been able to eat is the liquid food Hills science A/D prescription food made in to a runny paste for her to lick as was still unable to swallow

Ruby weighed 23 kgs on the 26^th Aug and went down to 17.3 kg on the 16 Sept. when they suggested the option to put in a feeding tube in which I did not feel comfortable with.  I persevered where it was suggested using a big spoon and feeding her, what a huge difference as we were able to get all the food into her in a much shorter time frame,  it is quite funny she sits there waiting for me to give her the spoon and the head comes forward wanting me to feed her

In a couple of days she had gone back up to 17.8kg

Week 3

By Thursday 18^th Sept her swallowing was starting to improve

However she has been having a bit of reflux and by Sunday was having really bad breath and her bottom jaw was quivering at times

All the tests and x-rays including the 2 the specialists tests  have all come back negative and all they can say is she has Myositis and poly myositis in the throat area which was affecting the swallowing basically it is an unknown form of myositis. One of the vets has indicated that he feels it could have been viral that started it and feels Ruby will have a full recovery and regain a lot of the muscle waste to the scull and it will not return.

Week 6

we are seeing huge improvements and each week have been reducing the tablets and currently we are down to half a tablet in the morning and 3 quarters a tablet at night of prednisone each day, half morning and night of zantac and 4ml of probiotics each night Ruby has now had a couple of lamb shanks this week unable to get through it all but is really working the jaw muscles

Week 7 and 8

reduced the prednisone to half morning and night and continued the Zantac, we have been steadily putting on weight 18.8 kg and started to walk further trying to treat as normal

Week 9 

Today 1^st November visited vet and we have further reduced the tablets to half a tablet in the morning and also half a zantac I will go back to vet in 2 weeks

The last couple of weeks have been very hot and Ruby has not been coping and breathing very heavy all the time even at night. The vet has put her on antibiotics today as she does have bit of a crackle in her chest but her heart is very strong, also has had a lump under her chin that has been very pink and has been steadily getting bigger I was told not to worry as dogs have these lumps that usually has a hear growing out of it but to maybe just wash with malaseb, yesterday Ruby must have rubbed it and it started to bleed. The vet has taken some of the follicles and was putting it on a slide but I have not had the results yet.

Over all the vets are really happy with Ruby’s progress today was 20 kg , still has sunken skull but advised now we are down to half a tablet we should start to see the muscles come back a bit and also should stop the constant weeing and also breathing should start to improve.

The jaw (mandibular ) are getting a lot stronger