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Question
Hello

I have an 11 years old American Pit bull Terrier that I adopted 10 years ago.  Very healthy and loving and I love him a lot  as well.  4 months ago I left him at the kennel for 1 week.   A day after I got him he developed very unpleasant signs of weakness.  I took him to the vet and he was on IV for 12 hours and in 2 days was back to normal.  Blood tests fro valley fever etc. could not find anything.
2 weeks ago he started developing mild signs of the same - weakness,his backbones sticks out, etc.  The vet said it is 95% disc rapture.  Minimum movement for 3 weeks and gave some med.

I put him again in the kennel as I had to leave town,  and he got the same but much worse only after 4 days being there.  Again  IV etc. Now the vet said it is probably meningitis.  However, we still not sure as the exam is too expensive for me.   He is on antibiotics and anti inflammatory as if he got it.

My question - could being in the kennel activate any of this?

He was at the same kennel many times before and people are very nice there. But the fact that it happened just after that is scary.

Would you please give me some input?

Also, any general advice to handle him if it is indeed meningitis?

Thank you very much,   Gabe

Answer

Hi Gabe,

It's entirely possible that your dog's current condition has been gradually incubating for period of time, and because dogs are stoic by nature, you didn't know that a problem was brewing. It's also possible that your dog's meningitis is somehow related to his first mysterious disease, because canine meningitis can be caused by complications of a disease that start elsewhere in the body, including viral, protozoan, bacterial, parasitic or fungal infections.

A kennel stay (at even the best of kennels) can be stressful on a dog, so it's possible the stress of the kennel stay aggravated the condition in some way. That said, in one study published in 1995 in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, they said that a specific cause for meningitis could not be found in about 33% of the cases.

At eleven years old, your dog is in his senior years, the stress of being kenneled might just be too much for him at this stage of his life. Rather than kenneling him in the future, you might consider finding someone to "dog sit" in your home, where your dog's regular routines and surroundings will keep him less stressed than he would be in a kennel.

The good thing is, Meningitis can usually be treated effectively with anti-inflammatory medications.

I hope I've been a help.
Best of luck,

Patti