What is Canine Myasthenia Gravis?
You may have heard of Myasthenia Gravis in connection to humans, but the disease can also affect dogs with many of the same symptoms. Essentially, Canine Myasthenia Gravis (CMG) is a neuromuscular disease that affects communication between the nerves and muscles that operate your dog’s legs, face, throat and more. In a normally functioning body, neurons receive messages from the brain and govern the movement of muscles. Neurons communicate between each other by emitting chemicals known as neurotransmitters. Once a message has been sent by one neuron and received by another, the chemical message, or neurotransmitter, is destroyed by the appropriate enzyme to prevent it from continuously communicating the original message. This allows the muscle to respond to the message to move as it was originally stimulated to do, without repeating the movement unless a fresh signal is received. There are actually three kinds of muscle tissue, but it is striated/voluntary muscle tissue that is affecte
