Necrotic Myelopathy

Necrotizing Myelopathy: How to Cope

Necrotizing Myelopathy is a degenerative disease that affects the spinal cord in dogs, gradually affecting mobility and sensation. It is a progressive disease, so its not known to get better without treatment, and even with treatment, its progress is usually only slowed. The problem is one of the autoimmune system. As antibodies are produced that mistakenly attack the own body, tissue in the central nervous system is destroyed or "necrotized" this phenomenon is often described as the body literally eating itself. When the muscular tissue surrounding the spinal cord is eventually eaten away, it exposes the sensitive nerve fibres of the spinal cord itself. When those are affected, disastrous results begin to happen instantaneously. Paralysis results as the control pathways between the brain and the muscles are shut down and destroyed. [...]

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