Anyone have a dog who has had/recovered from canine meningitis

[serendippity]

Hi all, we have an 8 month old cockerpoo (Yes I know taboo in the world of mumsnet but still) she was very, very I'll last month and diagnosed with meningitis (eventually) and it is a looooong road to recovery, around 6 months on steroids. She is so much better, but not an 8 month puppy still. She doesn't play, won't cuddle with us and, although obviously better and not seriously ill any more, still is a different dog than before treatment.
Vets are wonderful, but I'm keen to hear from owners, have you noticed changes in your dog during treatment? Did they bounce back during the reduction of steroids of after the treatment had finished?
I've spoken to alot of dog owners but no one else seems to have experienced this!
Thank you in advance

Sorry I have no experience of this but did pick up the bit about the steroids.

My dog had behavioural changes when he was on a high dose of steroids for a different condition. Whilst we were warned about excessive drinking, feeding and peeing we were not prepared for the changes in him. He was hyper barking at nothing and just wouldn't settle. There were other changes that just meant he wasn't himself. Totally back to normal once we stopped them.

Another thing to consider is if she has had a lot of admissions and treatments that can affect them. My dog has been very depressed and not wanting us around him after admissions and yes it did change him permanently in that he is a much more fearful and timid dog since.

Thank you biteyshark,
Good point about being the admissions, it may well have affected her. She was in such a horrendous amount of pain the whole thing would have been traumatic for her.
It terms of steroids, yep we were warned about physical side effects but nothing about changes either. She's just so much quieter I guess, which seems odd for an 8 month old puppy anyway, especially one who was so lively before.

I also think illness does change thier behaviour. Battendog has a nasty ear infection right now and it has definately affected his behaviour.

It's hard to explain and I don't think anything but his owner would have noticed the very slight changes to him. But they are there and include, understandably, slight less tolernace for things that annoy him, slightly more fear over things that make him, a slightly harder/less caring aelement to play and an extra dose of sitting, staring at me.

One month is not so long to be fully back to normal from a serious illness, plus you are still medicating.

Also, at 8 months old, you dog is growing up and my memory of those months is that behaviour seemed to change on a daily basis. One minute Battendog was a whirling dervish of doom and then he'd spend a few days calmer. As he matured, those swings got less and less until he started to stablise somewhere in the middle/towards the calmer end.

Meningitis isn't something you recover from easily - I know of dogs who've ended up on a low dose of steroids their entire lives to keep it at bay. Once they've had it once, they're also more likely to have it again.

I have a beagle and they're a breed prone to it for some reason. Mine has always been fine but I know lots of young pups (normally under 18 months or so) who have sadly been diagnosed with it.

I hope your puppy is okay - it's a really horrible illness

Thanks everyone for your replies, obviously I'm just relieved that she is ok at the moment, it's just still so odd to me that she has completely stopped behaving like a puppy.
Missbatenburg: I hope battendog recovers quickly from his ear infection!
Thank you for your kind thoughts Adeline, it really is a horrible, horrible illness.