It’s been quite the month
January 11th was Jubilee’s last healthy day.
It started with her not getting excited to go for walks paired with her tail being tucked down on her rear end like it was glued there.
We thought maybe she was being dramatic since it was cold outside — Wisconsin winters can be brutal. As far as her tail, we did our research and found the common Limber Tail syndrome — there’s so many different names for it, but it was nothing serious.
We took her to the vet and got some anti-inflammatory medicine. So we didn’t make too much of it. But then she started to act differently.
Her motivation disappeared, her lameness increased, and her ability to move comfortably was nonexistent.
She couldn’t walk, like actually — she couldn’t freaking walk.
When we tried to take her outside to do her business she would become too exhausted and just lay down in the freezing snow. Heartbreaking. We started carrying her everywhere.
Tests, blood work, ultrasounds, x-rays — all with no answers. Frustrating.
“We don’t know” is worse than an actual diagnosis. We were at a stand still. That’s when the dark thoughts creep in: Why Jubes? What if she never walks again? Is she dying? How much does that cost? What the f**k is wrong with my dog? Scary.
Jubilee is our first dog, and everyone realizes how much she means to us. Everybody loves Jubes, so we were determined to go as far as we had to in order to help her get better.
We were eventually referred to UW Veterinary Care down in Madison.
Jubes met with Dr. Taylor along with the Neurology team who both came back with the same thinking— myasthenia gravis. A blood test that had to go all the way to California would confirm it.
Myasthenia gravis is a disease in which there is a malfunction in the transmission of signals between the nerves and muscles. Dogs with myasthenia gravis exhibit extreme weakness and excessive fatigue.
Often treatable for dogs, but one of the side effects made our hearts drop — Megaesophagus, which can lead to aspiration pneumonia and is more than likely fatal to doggos. Roller coaster.
Often the esophagus is affected in dogs with myasthenia gravis; these dogs have trouble swallowing and drinking. When a dog’s esophagus loses its motility due to myasthenia gravis, secondary megaesophagus can occur. Megaesophagus is when the esophageal muscle relaxes so that food and liquids cannot be pushed down into the stomach by normal muscle contraction. In some situations, this condition may cause the dog to aspirate food and water, which can in turn result in aspiration pneumonia.
We learned that in most cases, dogs will develop megaesophagus before myasthenia gravis and luckily for Jubes, there were no signs of megaesophagus when they ran chest x-rays. A huge break at a time where it seemed like we couldn’t catch any.
The test would take 7–10 days to get back but we finally felt like we were getting some answers!
Or so we thought.
The California blood test came back negative. We already started treatment for myasthenia gravis since that’s what they thought she had, and even though the test came back negative she is already so much better.
They have occasionally had patients with negative results that have continued to respond to treatment so we will stay on that course for now.
It very well could still end up being myasthenia gravis, but the vet also informed us that her thyroid level was low — which could result in hypothyroidism.
The thyroid gland is in the neck. It makes a hormone called thyroxine that controls metabolism. With hypothyroidism, the gland doesn’t make enough of that hormone. It’s a common disease in dogs. It is thought that in some cases of hypothyroidism, your dog’s immune system attacks his thyroid. The good news is this disease isn’t life-threatening.
We have a follow up appointment next month. So what now? Now we move forward.
They gave us a sweet harness so we no longer have to get any extra squat reps when we go to pick her up, it’s like a Jubes suitcase. She obviously loves it.
We got her a new orthopedic bed for those weathered hips of hers.
We take her on short little walks with the hopes of getting back to somewhat normalcy. But for now, we couldn’t be happier that she is up and moving again.
Thankfully, she has a nice stroller to ride around in for the time being. A previous Christmas gift that we knew would eventually get some use.
It’s been quite the month and Jubes is a trooper. We’ve been living at the vet and we’ve spent way more time down in Madison than we ever have before but it has been worth every second.
There’s always the debate on how much you should share on social media. We aren’t looking for sympathy or attention — we just really love Jubes and a lot of other people do too, so we thought they’d like to know.
We can’t thank our primary vet, Valley Animal Hospital, and UW-Madison’s Veterinary Care enough. Jubes is now on the road to recovery and for that, we are grateful.
