[Dailydrool] Masticatory Myositis

[Echo]

Just wondering if anyone out there has any knowledge of a disease called Masticatory Myositis.  My 9 month old Basset has just been diagnosed with this.  When he opens his mouth wide, it gets stuck and it very hard to close.  He cries because it is so painful.  We had a special blood test done and it came back negative (as the vet said it might) so then we had to have a muscle biopsy done and it was positive for the disease.  The disease also causes muscle atrophy in the head.  It just makes his head look a little bit more bony than normal.  Otherwise, he acts like a normal puppy.  The only time I think he is in pain is when his mouth is actually in the open position.   He has started steroid treatment (Prednisone) so I hope this helps. He still eats fine.  Of course he won’t chew on his chew toys anymore (or me!) but he still gets rambunctious and runs around like a crazy dog when he wants to play.  Just wondering if anyone else out there
 has had any experience with this type of disease and how they dealt with it.