Understanding acquired and congenital myasthenia gravis in dogs — neuromuscular disease requiring careful welfare management.
Myasthenia gravis causes profound welfare impairment through neuromuscular weakness and its complications. Affected dogs tire rapidly with exercise — limbs buckle, dogs collapse, and struggle to rise. The muscle weakness makes normal activities impossible. Megaesophagus — dilation of the oesophagus from neuromuscular dysfunction — causes passive regurgitation of food and water, risking aspiration pneumonia.
Aspiration pneumonia is the most serious welfare complication and the leading cause of death in dogs with MG. Food and regurgitated material enters the lungs, causing bacterial pneumonia. The respiratory distress of aspiration pneumonia, combined with the underlying weakness of MG, creates severe acute welfare crises. Feeding from an elevated position (Bailey chair) dramatically reduces aspiration risk by using gravity to aid oesophageal transit.
The welfare trajectory with treatment is variable. Some dogs achieve spontaneous remission over months. Others require long-term immunosuppression. Careful monitoring using acetylcholine receptor antibody titres guides treatment adjustments.