26/03/2026
Meet Diesel π₯°
Diesel came into the clinic a few weeks ago with some strange behaviour as though he had hurt himself. Being a usually very happy go lucky boy, we were all very worried.
After examining him, he was found to be very painful in his neck, this could possibly be caused by injury, infection, inflammation or neoplasia. Robyn prescribed pain killers and rest for him. Sadly Diesel did not improve. The team xrayed his neck which did not offer any answers, so a referral to the neurologist was needed to perform an MRI.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) provides detailed images by performing multiple different scans of the tissues. It provides extremely detailed imaging of soft tissue which cannot be seen on plain xrays, such as the spinal cord, especially the cervical spine (neck) for Diesel. A contrast media is given intravenously to identify areas of damage or inflammation.
Diesel's MRI showed a signifiant amount of inflammation in the meninges (lining) of his spinal cord. You can see this on the MRI image, shown as the the white areas, arrowed, along his spinal cord (not normally that white after constrast media). Usually a spinal tap is collected to help with the diagnosis but his cord was too inflamed making this procedure too dangerous.
This inflammation of the meninges is caused by meningitis which may be infectious or a steroid responsive meningitis arteritis (SMRA) in nature. Diesel was diagnosed with SRMA due to his rapid response to his steroids and the infectious test was negative. The condition is very painful. It is treated with pain killers and longterm steroids to reduce the inflammation.
Thank you to Dr Georgina Stewart for her excellent care and support of Diesel for his MRI and ARC Vets Central in Freemans Bay. And thank you to his lovely mum for trusting us with the care of her gorgeous boy. The team are so pleased to hear that he is back to his bouncy happy self, so that he can play with his new little sister πΆπ₯°π©·π©·