You may be surprised to know that dogs can also become afflicted with meningitis. It affects the meninges (the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord) in dogs the same way as in humans by causing inflammation in them.
The most common symptoms of meningitis in dogs are loss of mobility and concentration, seizures, hyper reaction to touch. These are besides of course the characteristic stiff neck and fever signs that point surely towards meningitis. There is an increased tendency towards meningitis in certain dog breeds such as the Pug, the Maltese Terrier, the Bernese Mountain Dog, and the Beagle, although other dogs also may suffer from it.
In Beagles, the disease manifests in young puppies in the three to ten months age range. In Bernese Mountain Dogs, meningitis appears in an aseptic form when they are 3 months to one year old. The symptom that shows up in them is a stiff gait besides pain in the neck and fever.
Pugs and Maltese Terriers on the other hand suffer from what is known as necrotizing Meningo-Encephalitis. A change in their behavior, tendency towards seizures, and stiffness and pain in the neck form the characteristic symptoms in them.
The illness is usually brought on in them when they are anywhere between 6 months and 7 years old. The seizures occur more frequently and more violently with the passage of time. The prognosis is bad and the survival rate is poor and only few weeks after the meningitis germs incubate the affected animals die.
As in humans, meningitis in dogs can be of viral or bacterial origin. The most common form of meningitis is of Steroid Responsive Meningitis and it manifests mainly in young adult dogs. Less frequently, certain issues in some dogs with their autoimmune response system also are known to cause meningitis. In the latter, what occurs is that the dog's immune system attacks a part of their body as it deems it incorrectly as foreign.
In the former (steroid responsive meningitis) manifestation of the disease, dogs will show clear signs of listlessness and lower mobility because of stiffness in their neck and tenderness to touch. It can be diagnosed by a veterinarian through a test involving a spinal tap of cerebrospinal fluid.
Fortunately, the steroid responsive meningitis in dogs can be treated successfully if detected in time and by administering steroid therapy in high dose initially. Later the dosage of the steroid can be gradually lowered and after six months the dog can be taken even entirely off the medication without any recurrence in some dogs. Surprisingly, some dogs will still need to be on a low dose of steroids for the rest of their lives.
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