A Beautiful Dog
Shiner grew into a beautiful dog, resembling a cross of Lab/Golden/Great Pyrenees. He had severe hip dysplasia, but we kept his rear strong with daily leash walks and glucosamine/chondroitin supplements. Shiner, Suzie and Xena would play for hours. You would never have known he was dysplastic. Unfortunately, at some point he developed masticatory myositis, an auto-immune disease that attacks the facial muscles and, if left undiagnosed and untreated as his was until too late, it attacks the muscles in the whole body. I knew there was something wrong with him, but our vet insisted it was just itchiness due to contact allergies. A new vet in the practice recognized it immediately at one visit, but by then it was too late.