Syringomyelia in Cavaliers and Beyond: What Every Breeder Needs to Know

Dr. Marty Greer joins Laura Reeves to answer a listener question and break down one of the most serious and underdiagnosed neurological conditions affecting small breed dogs.

If you've never heard of syringomyelia, you're not alone — but if you breed Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Brussels Griffons, Pomeranians or other small brachycephalic breeds, this episode could change how you think about your breeding program.

Dr. Marty Greer walks Laura through the difference between Chiari-like malformation and syringomyelia (SM), two conditions that often get lumped together but aren't quite the same thing. The short version: when the skull is too small for the cerebellum, fluid circulation gets disrupted and painful pockets of fluid can form along the spinal cord. The result is a dog in chronic, often invisible pain.

The symptoms are easy to miss. Phantom scratching near the neck, sleeping with the head elevated, flinching when picked up or eating from a floor-level bowl — all of these can look like something minor. In Cavaliers especially, an ear condition with overlapping symptoms makes diagnosis even trickier. Only an MRI gives you a definitive answer, and that's where things get complicated fast.

MRIs run anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000. Dogs need to be fully anesthetized. Cavaliers aren't the easiest anesthetic candidates for a variety of reasons. And even after all that investment, the genetics are multifactorial and polygenetic, meaning two "clear" dogs can still produce affected offspring.

The numbers are sobering. When screening efforts launched in the U.S., the breed incidence was estimated at 60 to 80 percent. Careful screening cut that roughly in half — but that still leaves the breed sitting around 35 to 40 percent affected, and only a fraction of dogs are ever screened.

Treatment options exist but aren't encouraging. Surgical intervention has a relapse rate of over 50 percent. Long-term management means gabapentin, steroids and other medications for the life of the dog. It's a heavy burden for dogs and owners alike.

So what can breeders actually do right now? Marty and Laura make the case for breeding normal to normal as consistently as possible, tracking health outcomes across generations and pushing for group MRI clinics to bring costs down through volume. One breeder they profile used to pack 8 to 10 dogs into a vehicle and drive to Canada just to get affordable scans. That's dedication — but it shouldn't be the only option.

If you have access to an underutilized MRI machine or you're actively doing DNA research on this condition, Laura wants to hear from you. This is exactly the kind of problem the Pure Dog Talk community wants to tackle. Email: Laura@puredogtalk.com

Find more detailed information about syringomyelia HERE.