You are here

Cooper's Tale...

Cooper Jones is a cheeky little 11 month old Beagle. He was presented to our Ystrad Mynach Hospital in December with vomiting and diarrhoea, he was not himself and taking longer than usual to eat his dinner.

One of our Vets Lorna examined Cooper and found him to be very depressed and quiet, he had a high temperature and a painful neck. Initially we performed blood tests and started Cooper on treatment for the vomiting and diarrhoea; medication to bring his temperature down and pain relief.

From Coopers presentation, his age and breed, Lorna was suspicious of a condition known as 'Steroid Responsive Meningitis' (SRM), because of this we checked a protein in the blood called C-Reactive Protein which is an indicator of inflammation.

Coopers blood results revealed an inflammatory process and his C-reaction protein level was 136.8mg/ml which was very high, as normally it’s less than 10mg/ml. This helped to confirm the suspicion of SRM. Radiographs of Coopers neck were performed next to ensure there was no trauma or damage to the discs between the vertebrae in the neck. The X-ray was found to be normal.

 

 

In some cases we would also refer the patient for an MRI scan and a sample of the fluid around the spinal cord would be sent for testing to confirm the diagnosis. However, Coopers owners decided against this as these tests are more invasive.

On the suspicion of SRM we started steroid treatment and very quickly Cooper was feeling much better, his temperature returned to normal and he was back to his normal self. In no time Coopers C-reactive protein level in the bloodstream was back to normal too which is a great indicator the treatment is effective.

The cause of SRM is not known but it is thought to be an autoimmune disease process causing inflammation of the meninges (the covering layer of the central nervous system). It is a non-infectious, inflammatory disease that is usually seen in dogs less than 2 years old and Beagles are a breed that are predisposed. SRM is the most common form of meningitis that we see in dogs.

Cooper is currently on a reducing dose of steroids which we hope to be able to stop in the near future. Lorna and the rest of the staff at Valley Vets are extremely happy with Coopers recovery and progress.