Masticatory Muscle Myositis ( MMM )

[Margaret C]

I have been asked about an auto-immune disease called masticatory muscle myositis ( MMM)

It is a condition that shows up when young puppies have problems opening thir mouths.

Rod Russell has information on his site..........
http://www.cavalierhealth.org/mastic...e_myositis.htm

Has any one had a cavalier with this problem? PM me if you do not want to give details on the list.

[Cathy T]

Interesting that you should bring this up. Our club meeting speaker this month spoke on just this very topic. Here is a link to her website. Dr. Shelton is the foremost researcher into muscle diseases here. Her "pedigree" just blew me out of the water. Such an incredibly educated and dedicated researcher with a huge warm heart. If you put "masticatory muscle myositis" into the search of the website there are a couple of cases documented. http://vetneuromuscular.ucsd.edu/cases/2005/jul05.html. Rod Russell's site also has some good information http://cavalierhealth.org/masticator...e_myositis.htm and he, in fact, references Dr. Shelton.

Hope these help Margaret.

[Nicki]

Margaret, I think this can occur later in life too, not just in puppies. On one of the forums I used to belong to, someone had a Springer Spaniel develop it.

I don't know the long term outcome, sorry.

I do remember reading about a Cavalier with it, but some time ago - not personal experience.

[Pat]

Margaret,

There have been several people with Cavaliers who have posted about this on the Cavalier Connection (US based) message board, and there are quite a few threads there. I've replied to most of those posts over the years with info. (I actually encouraged Rod to update his site with info about the disease as I was hearing about this more and more.) You can go to that message board and use the search function to find the multiple threads........or I can go over there and bump the messages up to the top of the health folder for you to easily find. Or I can email direct links to you if you'll send me a PM with your email address. This is not just a disease of puppies - most of the dogs were adults.

Also, you may remember this paper from the UK "An Investigation into the Cause and Most Successful Treatment of a Group of Symptoms, Particularly a Stiff Jaw and Swelling Head, in 32 Cases of C.K.C.S."
(this is copywritten by Vera A. Darby 1st November 1995). "This investigation was begun by Anne East and Vera Darby in July 1994 after hearing of this group of symptoms occurring in some puppies." I've got a copy of that paper somewhere, and I transcribed significant parts of the paper over on the other message board some years back.

Pat

[Pat]

And another. I do have the paper that I referenced above - I recently sent it to Karlin and to Rod.

Pat