We were having such fun showing, “JR”, (eventually GCHB Pun Kotzky Jolly Roger of Sunbriar, RA, BN, CD,TKI, CA). He finished easily and we continued showing him as a champion despite his young age and immaturity. He wound up the year qualifying for the Top-Twenty competition after defeating every top beagle he faced in the ring at least once. We were flying high.
Then one day he seemed out of sorts and developed a limp. He always loves the sound of the ice maker and runs to get a cube. I enjoy tossing one to him and he is an excellent catcher. But at that time, he let the cube hit the ground and limped away. We started to suspect this was not just a pulled muscle. He started to get better, though, and we were hopeful that he was mending. We were entered at the Cuyahoga Valley Hound Show and JR was doing well again so we went to compete. When we got home and were taking a picture; he turned and all of the sudden, again, he was lame.
We made an appointment to go the vet. Then we noticed that what we thought was his problem leg was not the one he was favoring. Now he was holding a front leg up. The veterinarian x-rayed him and found nothing wrong. They asked us to return as another vet with a special interest in orthopedics was going to be stopping in. We took him back and JR was examined again. Our vet also posted his x-ray on Vet-Rad, an internet site for other veterinarians to review his case and comment. No one offered any diagnosis. We were beginning to think JR was on a path with a bad end. It appeared that he was not enjoying life any longer.
We entered JR in the NBC Top Twenty that fall but we had no idea what his condition would be. One moment he would seem alright and then the lameness would return. Eventually we decided to leave him at home. We took our two young class dogs and went off to the show and hoped the rest would help him.
At the show we talked to several people about the problem he was having. One friend, Bobbie Robblee, suggested Lyme disease. She mentioned that there was a veterinarian, Dr. Susan Yanoff at the show that may be able to help so we talked to her. That evening at the Beagle Rescue auction we ran into Ruth “Darlene” Stewart, who heads the Beagle Health Committee for the NBC. We had never met face to face but were “Friends” on Facebook. We introduced ourselves to her, and JR’s life was saved.
We told her about his situation and the symptoms. We talked about the medical care as well. She homed in on what might be the problem and the more we talked it seemed more and more plausible. The name of the issue, Beagle Pain Syndrome, seemed a bit unlikely, but it had a more medical sounding name, Steroid Responsive Meningitis, (SRMA). She referred us to the NBC site on the internet and the health pages there.
When we got home we poured over the information and took JR to the veterinarian's office, armed with the case studies mentioned on the NBC site. After ruling out Lyme disease, Dr. Maley read the case studies and offered us to either be referred to a nearby specialist for an MRI, or just go with a course of Prednisone. We chose the Pred and the results were just what the case studies described, and just short of miraculous. Within a day, JR was fine. We had thought we were going to have to euthanize him but now he was a new dog. That was five years ago. Darlene and the information collected on the NBC site saved his life. We will be forever grateful to the NBC Health Committee and its chairman, Ruth Darlene Stewart. It is my hope that by writing this that any Beagle owner having this experience with your dog will enjoy the same successful outcome that we have.
Brett Sprout