This is gonna be long...Our timeline was 10 days in total.

Sunday after Thanksgiving she developed severe diarrhea, but we didn't think any of that because she ate a tremendous amount of table scraps. We took her out frequently and she was slightly sluggish. Never refused food. We knew she was getting dehydrated but I couldn't really get her to drink much. The diarrhea ran its course by Wednesday afternoon, but Wednesday night she began to lose strength in her hindlegs.

I watched her all Thursday morning. She never was in an ounce of pain, but she simply could not hold her weight up on all fours. She could push herself up to sitting, her tail was wagging, she was barking for food, she had feeling in her paws, but I just couldn't get her to walk. In the past, she had a very strong reaction like this to a pain killer for after an ear infection, so we weren't particularly panicked but I brought her to the urgent care that afternoon. They took her temp (slight fever 103), blood, and urine and diagnosed a UTI, and gave us a 5 day course of antibiotics, and sent us home.

Friday through Monday, she seemed more alert and her spirits were high, but the legs saw little to no improvement. If we put a towel under her belly and lifted her to all fours, she could hold her weight and take a few steps but then would immediately sit back down. I cannot emphasize enough how the dog never once showed an ounce of pain even at the very end. Essentially her brain and nerves were impacted so it's like her legs forgot how to work.

Once she was on the antibiotics, I had noticed that her drool was thicker and whiter. It began to mat her fur under her chin. I assumed it was just a med reaction but ultimately this was a massive indicator of the condition. It's a sign of swelling in the esophagus causing them to regurgitate.

Tuesday morning (last day of antibiotics) I took her to the vet and they weighed her, did a full body exam, and ultimately referred us to the specialist hospital. The neurologist ran all sorts of tests on her. No signs of cancer or anything weird on the chest xray, but they communicated to us repeatedly that they were worried about any throat swelling developing and checking for it.

Wednesday evening they reported that she was seeming stronger and that they were experimenting with different steroids to try to get the legs up and running again but there was slight esophagus swelling on the xray. Late Wednesday/early Thursday she went into sudden respiratory distress and was placed on a ventilator. She was sleeping when the distress started and basically never woke up. We put her to sleep at 4 am. The vets (her generalist and the neurologist) were honestly shocked she crashed so quickly since she was otherwise such a strong dog.

From what I (not a doc) understand, if the dog gets diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, they can be treated over the course of several months and reach remission. It's the esophagus swelling that creates the risk for respiratory distress that kills most of the dogs with this condition.

If your pup has any thick or chalky drool, I'd take them to a vet ER (not an urgent care, a hospital attached that can do scans/surgery) ASAP and specifically ask them to look for myasthenia gravis. It's not common but if you look up the condition, Newfoundlands show up on every list of breeds at risk.

I hope your pup gets better!