Rapid muscle wasting disease appears again
By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, July 8, 2024
You tuck your one-year-old silver pup with those bright yellow eyes into bed for the night, kissing his forehead as you always do.
Then, you close the crate door and turn out the lights.
A peaceful night’s sleep awaits.
Eight hours later, you arise from your slumber, open the drapes, and peer out on another bright, sunny day.
You walk over to the crate and release your furry companion as he wags his tail in delight to see you.
As you walk together down the hallway to the back door, something looks odd.
Is that a bone pushing up under the skin on the top of his head?
He rushes out the door to do his business, then bounds over to you for some pets.
You take a closer look at his forehead as you pet him affectionately.
This can’t be right.
Something is definitely wrong here.
The muscle tone on his forehead has simply disappeared.
In its place is a sunken skull with a layer of fur and bright, round peeping eyes.
Despite his wagging tail, alarm bells ring out in your head.
You feed him breakfast.
No issues.
You check his stool.
No issues.
Just to make sure you aren’t seeing things, you send a picture to Jennifer and ask for any advice.
It’s a good thing you received your dog from a Dire Wolf Project breeder, because Jennifer tells you right away she suspects MMM (Masticatory Muscle Myositis) and advises you to schedule a vet appointment immediately for a blood test.
No guessing and no expensive medical experimentation required to find the cause.
A week later, the blood test results come back…
POSITIVE!
Your hearts sinks.
Jennifer’s heart sinks.
The only known treatment is a serious initial dose of steroids to stop the progression of the auto-immune disorder telling the white blood cells that the masticatory muscles (those on the skull) are foreign invaders that need to be eliminated.
Then, continued lifelong monitoring for disease progression, using steroids at times throughout life when flair-ups occur.
This is what happened to Ryu (fka: Lock, Essex/Narissa) from the Dock of the Bay litter.
Luckily, this was caught immediately.
If MMM is diagnosed early and treatment is initiated right away, a dog usually regains normal jaw function and the ability to open and close his mouth without pain.
But left untreated, lockjaw would occur and the dog would no longer be able to chew or eat.
Ryu never felt any pain while chewing before being diagnosed, so it looks like he will be okay.
Nonetheless, this is a devastating blow for all involved.
Ryu (fka: Lock) was going to be bred back into the breed to further the lines.
His beautiful easy-going temperament and lovely light silver coat with bright yellow eyes would have been wonderful for the breed’s development.
But…
Health always comes first!
Although we haven’t seen this particular disease pop up in the last five years, I will now end this line from the breed.
Narissa only had one litter, which will not have any further offspring.
I have gone back through the health database and found MMM is being passed down from the old stock (before 2010 with the addition of the newest crossbreeds),
The reported incidence rate is extremely low… sitting at 1% over the last 10 years.
In other words, 99% of all DireWolf Dogs do NOT develop this particular disease.
The menacing thing about MMM is that while there is a genetic component, veterinary science suggests that this disease is somehow initiated by an environmental factor.
I don’t necessarily subscribe to that idea because every single reported case of MMM in our breed has occurred at or around one year of age.
And…
There is no consensus as to exactly what triggers the immune response to occur.
Boy, if we could know the exact triggers, we could prevent the auto-immune response in the first place.
But we don’t.
So, for now, we eliminate the line from further production and continue to monitor this disease in the others lines.
If you are curious to review the other dogs that have been reported to suffer from this disease, click the link below to go to the Dire Wolf Project’s Health Database:
https://direwolfproject.com/direwolf-dogs/our-health-foundation/health-database/
Today is Movie Monday!
The Monster Movie litter puppies are now 4 weeks old and growing up fast.
Here is a link to this week’s video showing you all about the extensive training work Dire Wolf Project breeders perform with each litter to help them be ready for the transition to their new homes:
Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.
Lock a healthy pup
Lock (Ryu) with MMM