Grifón de Bruselas"Syringomyelia"

In recent years an often late onset and terribly debilitating condition known as Syringomyelia has
been diagnosed in a number of smaller breeds. The breeds include Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Griffon Bruxellois, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Pomeranian, Miniature and Toy Poodles, American Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Shetland Sheepdog, Havanese, Boston Terriers and Chihuahuas amongst others.

CM/SM is characterised by pools of fluid building up within the spinal chord (syrinxes) and thought by many specialist veterinary neurologists to be caused by a malformation in the rear of the skull where the skull and it's contents are mismatched in size and volume. The CM stands for Chiari-Like Malformation, and refers to the cerebellum being squashed out of shape and position, and squashing other brain parts out of position, resulting in disturbances of the CSF flow, and subsequent pools forming over time, inside the spinal cord.

The only definitive method of diagnosis of Syringomyelia is MRI.
CM/SM can be present and asymptomatic, or not show up until old age. As a consequence of this, dogs with CM/SM are bred with and reproduce their malformation, for another generation to suffer. By acounts from several specialist veterinary neurologists CM/SM appears to worsen with successive generations and line or in breeding.

Where there are 'viewable' symptoms, the main one is pain, expressed however the dog can. Screaming 'for no apparent reason' is an obvious one, but less obvious signs of pain can include the dog seeking cool, quiet places, or being less able to eat from floor lever, or perhaps avoiding direct patting on the back of the head/neck area.

Other symptoms include, scratching at the neck/shoulder area, usually one sided, and often when 'on lead' or excited, or while walking. Some breeders report a slight tremble of one front leg, again usually one sided, ataxia, scoliosis of the spine, wry necks, limping, tenderness to the touch and avoiding being bumped into by other dogs.

People with this malformation describe the sensations in the following manner,
Headaches, sub occipital or neck pain, back pain, trigeminal pain, (such as facial pain) and radicular pain (pain which radiates into the lower extremity; in syringomyelia this often has a cape like distribution. However, the most disabling pain is dysaesthesia, which is variously described as a burning pain, hyperaesthesia, pins and needles, and stretching or pressure of the skin (Todor and others 2000).

So, how would your dog tell you if he was suffering any of these above symptoms?

Tremendous research has already gone into the heredity of this disease in dogs (and people).
Some of the worlds leading veterinary neurologists attended a conference in UK last November.
The notes on this Conference, and most of the technical information currently available is viewable at http://sm.cavaliertalk.com and http://www.thecavalierclub.co.uk

From another Cavalier site on the web http://www.premiercavalierinfosite.com
came the idea of comparing MRI's to Xrays and then to the dog in the flesh, via photographs
and palpation.

The rough coated dogs have been trimmed and wet down to display more of their actual shape - a rough coated dog in show coat, is much harder to assess, plus the ears are pulled down out of the way for a clearer view of the skull.