Why is my dog's head shrinking and muscles wasting? Vet can't tell.

The most common reason that we will see symptoms like you are describing of a loss of muscle in all legs, but being more affected on one side would be a problem in the nervous system. Most commonly, we will see problems in the neck that affect one side more than the other. I would start with having your veterinarian examine Trick again and perform a full neurological examination. Depending on their findings, the next step may be a consultation with a neurologist. If Trick is only 4 years old, then it is certainly worth doing additional testing to determine what is doing on and if additional treatment could help prevent further muscle loss. Although we can certainly see muscle loss from arthritis, it rarely involves all 4 legs and is not often so asymmetrical that you can tell that one side of the body is worse, so I think it is worth consulting with a neurologist. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

There are a couple of things that come to mind when you mention Shrek's symptoms, and I have personal experience with it. Last year, my 12 year old Golden started having trouble opening her jaw, and the muscles around her head and skull atrophied (shrunken and wasted away). She had an inflammatory disorder called masticatory myositis (MM). This is when the immune system attacks the masticatory muscles, leading to pain with opening the mouth and wastage of the muscles of the head. It is a disease that mainly affects large breed dogs. It can be treated with a course of steroids, but prognosis depends on the severity of the disease. In my dog's case, the steroids helped, but it turned out she had cancer as well, and a large lump grew on the back of her head. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do for her, so I had to let her go peacefully. When you mentioned the growth on Shrek's face, my immediate thought was that he may have a cancerous growth as well as MM. This is a hard decision to make, whether to let him go or not, but my advice would be to have the lump diagnosed first. If it is cancerous, that will help your decision. I would have an appointment made with your vet for Shrek first thing tomorrow so you can discuss the chances he has MM and have the lump diagnosed. The vet can perform a test called a fine needle aspirate on it. To do this, the vet sticks a small needle into the lump to get a sample of it's cells, and examines the cells on a slide under a microscope. It's usually painless to the animal, and relatively quick to perform. I would be glad to consult with you further on this issue. I work for a home euthanasia service, and face these types of decisions all the time. In addition, having had personal experience with similar symptoms in my dog, I may be able to help you further beyond this answer. If you'd like to consult with me, simply click on the "consult online" button under my answer. I'm sorry Shrek is so sick and you have such a tough decision in front of you :-(

Hello. I am so sorry that Sully is not well. Unfortunately, you may need to be some additional diagnostics to find out if & how all these symptoms are related. The temporal muscle atrophy, & difficulty opening the mouth may be due to a nerve sheath tumor, or masticatory myositis. And, it is concerning that an ear infection is taking several weeks to clear up. If you can consider a MRI, that would definitely show what is going on in that part of Sully's head. Until you know this, it will be very hard to improve things. Antibiotics & steroids are appropriate therapy, but we just cannot recommend much more without more information. Good luck with Sully & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It appears that Hunter is losing his temporal muscles, which is giving that caved-in head appearance. Considering he is also sensitive to the area, I am suscipicious of a condition known as masticatory myositis https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/masticatory-myositis-in-dogs However, this could be due to general muscle wasting. It's expected that some muscle wasting will occur as they age, but if he seems to be losing a lot of muscle, then this could indicate a chronic disease from an infection or cancer. I don't want you to worry about Hunter having a terrible disease, but it's best to have him evaluated by a veterinarian. They will be able to tell if there are any potential major problems and can help narrow-down the cause of this. I hope that helps and Hunter gets better soon.

I am sorry to hear about your dog. It is hard to say without know if your vet did any testing and what the results were. We would worry about things such as diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, protein losing nephropathy, protein losing enteropathy. If you have any information on bloodwork, x-rays, or ultrasound testing done on your dog it may help us narrow possibilities. You can consider doing a consultation with one of our vets if you have this information.

The reason you are noticing that the top of his head is more prominent is because of muscle wasting of the head muscles. This is a common in older dogs and often times it can be due to cancer. The "cone" or pointiness of the head is the occipital bone. I suggest you get Sammy to your vet for an exam. They can give you better advice since they can get a hands-on examination. I can only guess by looking at a photo. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Thank you for posting this question. There are several processes that can cause muscle wasting and distended belly. Cushings disorder is a common problem in older dogs where the body produces too much steroid hormone, but also certain types of kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, or chronic gastrointestinal diseases can cause muscle wasting and fluid build up in the belly. Tumors can also have these signs. I would encourage you to have Buttons examined by her veterinarian to find out how best to help her. I wish her the best!