Has anyone ever had a dog with syringomyelia, I am really devasted at the moment as my 10 year old yorkie has been diagnosed with it, she has tablets to take which are supposed to help but obviously will not cure her, does anyone know how long the tablets will keep her going for, I just cannot imagine how I could possibly take her to be put to sleep, but I realise it will probably come to that eventually. I also have her daughter and now I am really worried that she may have inherited it.

here are various links about the condition: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Syringomyelia&meta=

I've had at least 3 Cavaliers with SM, one was PTS last year when he lost the battle against his failing heart aged 11 3/4. I have one dog who has had three 30 sec episodes in 9 years & the other is 8 years old &is asymptomatic(diagnosed by MRI scan)who has never shown any symptoms at all, whose father was PTS under 3 years of age, because of the symptoms of SM he suffered from.

To the OP -  Clare Rusbridges ( the leading researcher in SM ) new website answers many questions
  http://www.veterinary-neurologist.co.uk/faq.htm

Thank you for the information, the links are a great help, my dog is a yorkshire terrier and I am not a breeder at all, my dogs have both been spayed, did have one litter with my older one that has got syringomyelia, 3 pups lived kept one myself and got so attached to the other 2 pups could not sell them, gave them to friends so that I could keep an eye on them.

Just out of interest how much is it roughly to have a dog MRI scanned for something like this?  Just me being curious :)

Hi GP

If done for diagnostic investigation about £1000-1500.
If done as a screening mini scan down to C5 ( fifth neck vert.) around £300 until this year - now if arranged in a group lower than £100 because of club subsidies.

Wow so not as expensive as I thought.  I didn't realise they could do a 'mini scan' to check for SM, I just presumed it would have to be a full scan.  Doesn't make sense not to at those prices. 
Thanks for the reply, it was just me being nosy really as I don't know anyone who actually owns a CKCS let alone breeds them.

All knowledge is useful....you never know it might be a question on Who wants to be a Millionaire :-)

We paid £200 without any subsidy from a club & this was before the clubs got involved

I have always had Yorkshire terriers as pets since 1967, not to breed with, and my son actually talked me into letting my Yorkie have a litter of pups, and that is the only one, never advertised any litter on Champ dogs, and when I used to be on here a lot was when my Yorkie was having her pups, early in 2005. In answer to the price of MRI scans, I just took my Yorkie to a specialist last friday with her x-rays from my own vet, I took her to Fitzpatrick referrals in Godalming Surrey, and actually saw Noel Fitzpatrick himself. When he saw her x-rays he said she had a collapsed disc in her spine, neck area, her leg collapsing as she walked was her only symptom, he said he needed to do an MRI scan, and he thought it best to operate on her spine straight after the scan, he is very experienced at the operation and I trusted him to do it and left her there. I received a phone call asking me to collect her when he had finished operating for the day at 9pm in the evening, as he wanted to talk to me and also that he had not operated on my dog. He told me that she had syringomyelia and that he could not operate as moving her spine would definitely have killed her, I was given 3 lots of tablets for her and have to go back with her in 3 weeks, and with tablets scan etc it cost over £1700.

I was only referring to the fact, tongue in cheek, that you say your not a breeder, when you have bred a litter, so many people say that, and I fail to understand why.

It's usually said in conjunction with excuses as to why they did not do it properly, i.e. health checks breed to standard etc.

Please keep this thread on topic and discuss information on Syringomyelia that maybe helpful for the OP and others that may come here via search engines.

Syringomyelia is very rare in Yorkies so not something you would get checked according to the specialist, and I had never heard of it until there was a programme on the tv about syringomyelia in cavaliers which I am sure was this year. The specialist told me he had not seen a Yorkie with it for 15 years and last friday he saw two yorkies with it and also the disc collapsed in exactly the same place within a couple of hours, one of them being mine, and the other one was a year younger. I did talk to the other owner and asked where she got her Yorkie from, but she did not know the origin of her as she had only had her for a couple of years, she was a rescue dog.
I would not have dreamt of breeding one litter from her had I have known, but she has always been fit and full of life, it is only this year she started to have trouble with her leg, but it is only now and then it seems to fold under, but she just ignores it so I am sure it does not hurt her, its just that she looses co-ordination. She is still fine and hopefully will be for a long time, I hope.

Could SM be linked to the fact that yorkie seem to be getting smaller and we are seeing teacup yorkies? JW

Doubt it as most pet bred ones are way over size, teh teacup fad seems to be in USA.

> Could SM be linked to the fact that yorkie seem to be getting smaller and we are seeing teacup yorkies? JW

My dog with confirmed by MRI scan SM actually has a larger head than the average show/pet Cavalier, the malformation at the back of the skull is what allows the cerebellum to herniate out & block the spinal tract which stops the cerebral fluid leaves the brain via the spinal tract, which means the ventricles of the brain become enlarged as the fluid enters.

My yorkie is small, weight around 6ib and her daughter is about the same size, bought the ill one from a reputable breeder and she was not cheap by any means, there were much cheaper ones around at the time 10 years ago.

Interesting quote from Vet Steve Dean in last edition of Dog World refering to latest research.....

"This is a fascinating development because instead of the problem being associated with a small skull it is possible that the problem relates to the relative size of the brain itself."

So looking at the size of a dogs skull with the naked eye...appears to have no bearing on the condition.

>My yorkie is small, weight around 6ib

Your Yorkie is actually a pretty good size (breed standard says up to7lb); substantially larger than the tiny ones, some of which don't even get up to 3lb.

Yes I suppose so as did see one once that a breeder had, and it had its hair left really long, and looked like a tiny mop running around, really cute though. But to a lot i see around mine are small, when I take them out for a walk they usually get lots of attention and the first words are usually, aren't they tiny.

> did see one once that a breeder had, and it had its hair left really long, and looked like a tiny mop running around

That is how their coats are supposed to be for show.

I do know that but it was their pet, they did not show that one, and its coat dragged all along the floor so didn't stay very clean or tidy.

I know someone else recommended Claire Rusbridge but we consulted her when our GSP was poorly and she diagnosed Degenerative Myelopathy.  Unfortunately he died two months later.  Anyway the point of this is to say she is the most marvellous vet, very caring and very, very knowledgable.  I would recommend her to anyone and she specialises in Syringomyelia so i would definately get in touch with her.  Good luck.

CATH, have you spoken to Carol Fowler? She has had 2 dogs with the condition and can probably give some good advice.
http://www.cavaliercampaign.com/

Thank you for the last two posts, they are very helpful, Dinky is now on her second type of medications but do not seem to be doing much for her unfortunately, but she is due to see the vet again on wednesday so they will probably be changed again, it is not possible for her to have the operation for syringomelia as the vet said she would definately die, if he operated. She does not seem to be in pain just her front legs seem to really be all out of co-ordination at times and the one leg bends under quite often, she does not actually fall when it happens as she corrects it quickly, but at night she is not good and it does worry me in case she is in pain and just suffers in silence. Unfortunately one of her offsprings has had a few symptoms so it looks as if he has inherited it, and her sister who has never had any symptoms has had two seizures in the last month, so its not looking good.

> its not looking good

How awful for you. Poor things. Hope you can manage to give them a good life despite it all. xx