Oscar’s Story

Age at diagnosis: 9 months

Breed: American Bully

We brought Oscar home when he was about 5 months old. He was playful, goofy, loving. A few months later, in the middle of the night, he was crying and refusing to stand. I thought maybe he'd played too hard with our much larger, older dog and hurt his back. I brought him to the ER vet. They released him a few hours later and he seemed more responsive but still not himself. The next day he was crying again and refusing food, so I brought him back to the ER where he stayed for the next 3 days. He was lucky to have a great neurologist recognise that this could be SRMA. She recommended an MRI and spinal tap. We could not afford the MRI but did do the spinal tap, which confirmed SRMA. Oscar was stabilised and sent home.

Over the next 2 years he had a few relapses but would recover quickly with prednisone. Now he's been relapse and medication free for almost 4 years. He'll be 7 years old in October and is my 3 year old granddaughter's best friend since the day she came home from the hospital. Very grateful for the neurologist that recognised the symptoms in such a short time.

Oscar 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.