Marley

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Marley is a two year old Cocker Spaniel x Poodle who has been spending rather a lot of time at the veterinary surgery recently!

He is usually a bright, happy youngster who loves agility training and playing with his friends, but in recent months has been a very poorly lad.

It all started with Marley being sick with bloody diarrhoea which was investigated and treated. His clinical signs had resolved after a week and we hoped that he had made a full recovery.

The following month poor Marley was not well again but he was presenting different symptoms, he seemed uncomfortable and reluctant to move around. He rapidly got worse until he was very wobbly; he had also lost weight.

Our tests indicated the need for specialist treatment so he was referred; he was diagnosed with Immune-Mediated Polyarthropathy. This means that his joints were swollen and painful due to the abnormal actions of his immune system.

He was started on a long course of steroids to suppress his immune-system. His mobility gradually improved and his vomiting stopped. One of the common side effects of steroids is an increased appetite. In Marley's case, he became ravenously hungry and started to scavenge for anything he could eat. This turned out to include socks, as we discovered when he vomited one up! We were optimistic that he had not eaten the pair but this little dog really was having a bad time and had to have the second sock surgically removed. He was hospitalised with us whilst he recovered from his operation so that he could be closely monitored.

After a long and worrying two months, his owner reports that Marley is getting back to his normal self. He has had the all clear to re-start his agility training, and he can run around with his friends.

Marley is still on long term medication to control his immune-mediated polyarthropathy but we are optimistic that we may eventually be able to wean him off his medication. Marley's owner had taken out pet insurance for him which took the financial worry of his treatment away as the insurance company has covered the majority of the cost of his treatment.