Cooper’s Story

Age at diagnosis: 7 months

Breed: Shih Tzu

Cooper is a gorgeous, playful Shih Tzu puppy. He came home with us at 8 weeks old. He made us a family of 5 and was the star of the show from the day he walked through our door. He was from a breeder and was vet checked as completely healthy by both the breeder's vet and ours. He has been vaccinated as per UK recommendations, completed at 12 weeks.

Cooper was an excitable, happy, loving puppy until the first day of symptoms at 7 months old. This presented as tiredness and loss of appetite. After 48 hours he was yelping when touched and his back legs looked a bit wobbly, so we took him to the vet who diagnosed a back strain probably from playing too hard. They prescribed gabapentin and an anti-inflammatory for 14 days. He showed no improvement but didn't seem to be getting worse. We called the vet around day 7 as he still wasn't getting better — he was spending all his time in his crate, only going out for the toilet. The vet said give it another few days.

By day 12 he seemed to be getting worse, all the same symptoms but acting strange, staring at walls and twitching in his sleep. We took him back to the vet who said she thought some type of neurological condition. She performed blood tests and his CRP levels were very high. He was referred to a neurologist. We were devastated as he was so ill. The neurologist saw us the next day and was around 99% sure it was MUO. They wanted to do an MRI and spinal tap to be sure but our insurance wouldn't cover that plus treatment. As she was 99% sure it was MUO, we took the difficult decision to take the risk and prioritise treatment. He started on 10mg prednisone in intensive care. He stayed in the hospital for 4 nights. We were not allowed to visit and told he may not survive. Leaving him was one of the worst things I have ever had to do, however he responded so well to treatment. We got regular updates and when we picked him up he was like a different dog. Back to his old self. We were so relieved.

His meds are being tapered down and he is doing great. You would never know he had been so ill. We have a neurologist check up in two weeks and hoping he is in full remission.

Cooper is part of The Theo Project's canine meningitis registry - a growing global collection of MUE, MUO and SRMA stories shared to help families facing this diagnosis.