Scleroderma in dogs

Question
My 8.5 year old English bulldog has been battling some type of "condition" for 4 months.  At first it was diagnosed as SARDS, then optic neuritis since she suddenly lost her vision.  Her gait has become more and more ataxic and she has no affect at all.  It is almost as if she has become autistic.  Her skin folds  and face wrinkles have thickened and so has the skin on her lower jaw at her gum line.  The skin surrounding her tail pocket has become so hardened over the past month that I can no longer clean in it.  She has been on Prednisone 10 mg bid since the first of December.  at first it made a huge difference in her gait, her affect, everything.  Now it doesn't seem to help at all.  Could this be scleroderma?  Do dogs even get scleroderma?  Any suggestions or advice?

Answer
Oh, boy. This sounds like a very complicated medical case. When that is the picture painted for me I end up asking more questions than giving answers.

First of all, has she had a CT scan of her head? Has she had a CSF tap? Is all of her bloodwork normal including a thyroid level? Has she been checked for tick-borne diseases, ie. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme Disease, etc.?

Diseases that come to mind with the symptoms you describe are: Steroid-Responsive Meningitis(need a CSF tap to confirm), Brain Tumor(CT scan would confirm), Bacterial meningitis(CSF tap), Lymphoma(CT or CSF tap), profound Hypothyroidism(blood test can easily diagnose and it is VERY treatable), tick-borne diseases(titers), fungal diseases(csf tap or titers). If you are not working with boarded internal medicine specialists at this point I would strongly recommend that you consider doing so. This case may be beyond the scope of many private practices.

Dogs do not get scleroderma.

Dr. Gifford