Yesterday we had to deal with the Cat problem. This morning we took Samba in to see Dr B. She seems to be feeling better after taking her meds for her tonsils, but she is still not letting me open her mouth and she chews on the left side only. There seems to be pain on the right.
After an exam he suggested an x-ray of her jaw and a biopsy of the muscle. His feeling is that she may have Masticatory Muscle Myositis.
The x-ray showed no dislocation or abnormalities of the jaw. Good news.
Now the bad news. Inflamed, swollen tonsils are one of the symptoms of MMM. She had that. A week ago they could open her mouth fully, now only two thirds of the way. The natural progression of the disease would make her unable to open her mouth at all.
While we wait for the lab results, we're starting her on treatment. Large doses of Prednisone daily tapering off over a six month period, soft food and until the pain is under control, no chewing. After the pain is managed, we'll start her on physical therapy, holding a soft toy and eventually chewing a soft toy with supervision.
The disease is not necessarily life threatening as long as she has treatment. It could progress to where she can only eat liquids, but we're hoping for remission and that she can lead a fairly normal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment