Frank’s Story

Age at diagnosis: 7 months

Breed: Staffy cross breed

Frank was 7 months old when he jumped on the bed and yelped - 10 hours later we were rushing to the vets with our extremely poorly puppy. Our vet gave us a very fast diagnosis via bloods CRP check. Prednisone made him feel better very quickly, but then he spent a long 12 months trying to wean off pred, with 2 flare ups in that time due to being given Simparica Trio. He developed a severe case of calcinosis cutis and suffered with vomiting and diarrhoea. We didn't receive much support from our vet during this and I had to research and advocate for Frank regularly to get him the treatment he needed. We saw a neuro specialist and they really helped us get him on track - I got his gut microbiome tested and switched him to home cooked food. He recovered and managed 51 weeks in remission. Unfortunately he relapsed again in December 2025 for unknown reasons. We had moved to a new vet and they have been wonderful while we work to taper him back off pred, to hopefully have some more time in remission. He continues to enjoy life as best he can and he will be going on holiday soon!

Frank 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.