Rolls Royce
Rolls Royce Jack Russell x Mini Fox Terrier – Born July 2009
Rolls Royce is a beautiful, intelligent and loving Jack Russel x Mini Fox Terrier female dog. She is small, compact and usually healthy and active.
In the last week of October 2013, we noticed that Rollie had a small tremor in her hind quarters. As she loves to walk on the beach in the mornings and go to the industrial park and chase the ball of an evening, we assumed that she had overdone her exercise. We enforced rest.
Her shaking continued to get worse over the next few days, and by the Friday, 2nd November, even her head was shaking visibly and uncontrollably. She was quite distressed about this – looking to us for guidance. There was a lot of stress in our family at that time as my Mother died on the 3rd November, so even though we knew Rollie needed urgent treatment, we had other pressing worries and arrangements to make (the 3rd was a Saturday).
On Monday morning, we requested an urgent Vetinary examination from our Local vet who had been looking after Rollie since shortly after she came to be in our family. The Vet performed blood tests and count, kidney function tests and monitoring, and tested for known pathogens and a variety of venoms. The Vet advised that it was possible that Rollie was suffering from “Short White Hairy/Shaker Dog Syndrome”.
“Shaker Syndrome” is named for its description of the symptoms, and the fact that it mostly affects small, short white hairy dogs, although it is not confined to this colour of coat or any specific breed. The syndrome is an inflammation of the part of the brain that is responsible for co-ordination and control of muscular movements. This condition is not contagious and it’s origins are not really known.
We were told that the only way that this could be ascertained for sure was if Rollie had a Spinal Fluid Test (tap) taken for examination of the nervous system. This treatment was performed on Monday afternoon at the Emergency Vet at Sippy Downs where she stayed for the next three days.
The condition was confirmed and treatment started which was oral administration of increasing doses of Prendisone and Valium, as a muscle relaxant and ease of anxiety. Over a period of 12 months Rollie ingested this medication and the worst of her shaking subsided. After this period she was gradually weaned from the medication, but it had lasting permanent side effects.
These included long periods of vacant staring, heightened anxiety, short-temperedness and an unwillingness to exercise or leave the house.
We heard about Dr KK and decided to give Dr KK’s treatments a try. These included administration of specific Vitamins, Acupuncture, Chinese medicine, specific dietary elements according to TCM practices, and targeted area massage to her body. After a very short amount of this combination of treatments Rollie showed marked improvement in her health and mental outlook. I believe that Dr KK’s holistic approach to this unusual problem would be able to achieve a very positive outcome for other little doggies suffering from this ailment.
Many regards
Desley and Rollie
