Sweet Sophia has really had a difficult time. Her Neurologist did another MRI to see if her brain scans had any significant changes since she was originally scanned and, unfortunately, she does not. Dr. Bergman and his wonderful Staff have been giving this sweet girl incredible care and TLC while they adjust her meds and think outside the box to come up with what he believes is the major reason for her inability to walk for more than a few seconds. They got her seizures under control, but there were time slots when she was in a fog for no known reason. She was acting differently from a dog that had brain loss from a massive seizure.
Dr. Bergman finally decided that even though the original Owner said he had not noticed Sophia having seizures, he does not believe that is true. He now believes she has been having seizures all along. We think she ended up in the ditch because she was disoriented and wandered into the street during a seizure. Because she was not on any medication, her seizures became more frequent and longer. That we believe is the cause of the white areas in her brain scan. Dr. Bergman believes Sophia has GME, which is an autoimmune brain disease based on her response so far. GME can take on many forms, and it is unclear what causes it. We have done a Spinal Tap, and that came back negative for infection. Sophia does not have the typical GME so we could be wrong, but all of her symptoms are pointing in that direction. The fact a higher dose of prednisone suddenly enabled to walk almost normally again is another reason.
We finally feel Sophia can go into a home with lots of supervision. She will have to come back to see her Neurologist to make sure her brain matter is not changing. GME is a debilitating disease. Some dogs live a long time with it when their seizures are controlled others do not. We do not know what the outcome will be for this sweet girl. What we do know is that she is going to get everything possible to have the best Life she can have. She has been in the hospital in ICU Neurology for several weeks now. She will be transferred to a Rehab Facility in Georgia to build up the muscle tone she lost and to help her regain her balance.
We have gotten only a small amount of donations for this wonderful girl. Please, help us with her care so we can help more dogs like Sophia. If we had not stepped up for her, she would have already died from a massive seizure. Sophia is a young dog that deserves every chance possible to live a great Life with the time she has left. She is going to get that with us. Thanks for caring.
