"Old Dog" Vestibular Disease (dog condition)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

My dog got that and I thought that was it for him then and their. But the vet didn’t think it was as bad as it looked.
Then I brought him in for a follow-up visit, he was still pretty bad off and I was worried about getting him to eat and wanted to know if putting baby food in his mouth would help. This second vet asked me why I would want to keep a dog in this condition? Well, ,the first vet gave me the impression he might get over it, and he did. A few days latter he started eating again and going up the steps himself.
Glad I got the one vet first. I never heard about anything like that before and it was scary how he couldn’t keep his head up for more then a second.
He got over it and lived a couple of happy years after that.

We gave him some meclizine HCL travel sickness pills, which may have given him some relief. It’s hard to say how much.

They called it Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. I guess Idiopathic is short for “we don’t why this is happening.” Thank god it cleared up by itself.

22

Used to happen to our dog when she turned 12 or so. Once in a while she’d start holding her ear funny, her head would tilt and one cheek would sag lower than the other. Usually lasted a month or so but she eventually would return almost to normal. We called it old dog syndrome.

23

That is precisely what idiopathic means. Medical textbooks will give a more formal definition using fancier words, but those fancy words translates to “We have no idea how or why this happens.”

And kick that second vet square in the crotch. Someone who would ask that question is either too stupid to understand that this is a self-resolving, benign condition, or is utterly lacking in the empathy necessary to be a good vet.

24

Holy schnikey…it didn’t even occur to me to searc for a thread on this…so, my story…
Around noon, my dog and I were chilling on the couch, when she woke up and decided to head to the kitchen for her usual check to see if anyone had dropped anything on the floor. When she got off the couch, her back legs looked odd, but I put that down to being a bit stiff after her nap…she’s 14. I was quickly disabused of that notion when she started staggering like a drunken sailor on the way to the kitchen. Knowing that she hadn’t yet had her afternoon cocktails (note for the humor impaired…I do not actually give my dog an afternoon cocktail), I was fairly alarmed. DH did the world’s fastest pants-don, and whisked her to the vet.

Now, we are currently stationed in Japan, and our base vet really only deals with the military working dogs, with the occasional well-pet visit here and there. They don’t deal with sick animals or emergencies, so we see a Japanese vet. He’s a very nice guy, and has very good English, but I think medical protocols here are a bit different from the States. Anyway, he did blood work, said her heart sounded ‘loud’, and sent DH home with two meds, and said come back in 10 days. So…what is it, I ask, when DH and staggering pup get home. “Um…he didn’t really say.” “What are those meds?” “Um…I didn’t ask.” Gah!

Fortunately, my SIL is a vet, and we have Skype, so I call and wake up her and my brother, tell them to get on Skype, and follow the dog around with my computer. “WTF!?” I ask my SIL. She asks me a few questions, has me point the computer screen at various bits of my dog, and says it’s probably http://thebark.com/content/idiopathi...ibular-disease.
It looks scary, but odds are it will resolve in 3-7 days. Oh, and the meds are almost certainly antibiotics and prednisone, which we can give just in case, but don’t really need to. Which is good, because I really did not fancy forcing meds down the dog’s throat twice a day for 10 days.

So, the next few days we’ll be making sure she eats and drinks adequately, and giving her extra assistance with going outside, but she should make a full recovery. Scary as hell!

25

Wow, how weird that two Dopers had this happen to their dogs in a short timespan!

Glad you got your answer sooner than later. Not sure if your SIL told you but it should get worse before it get better. Dolly never got to the point of not wanting to eat but I did have to give her crazy-yummy food like tuna and chicken nuggets. Basically we just stayed home and stayed still for 10 days and I followed her like a hawk.

Dolly took exactly 10 days to get over it, and she has been perfectly fine since. We celebrated her 12th birthday last week! :slight_smile:

26

SIL did tell me it would get worse before it got better, and it’s definitely been doing that. She’s got herself a helluva head tilt going now, and her eyes are bouncing around like ping-pong balls. She also just had her very first potty accident since she was a little puppy…she just can’t signal us that she has to go, so we’re going to have to keep her on a strict sched. It seems like she wants to eat, but can’t manage to chew, so I’m grinding up hot dogs with her dog food and a little water, and she’s licked up some of that. I’m REALLY looking forward to this being over with.

27

If you can watch her pupils moving, be sure that they are only going side to side or in a rotary fashion. Vertical nystagmus is indicative of a central vestibular issue and is Not Good.

28

By the way, cats and kittens can also have vestibular problems.

29

Hey, Zipper, good to hear Miss Dolly’s AOK. Give her a big birthday smooch for me!

30

We had an older spaniel that suddenly developed a vestibular problem one day - scared the crap out of us thinking it was a stroke.

He was back to his usual self within a day and it never recurred.

31

She’s finally getting better, thank og. She hadn’t eaten anything since Monday, but today I finally managed to tempt her with some tuna and chicken She’s also steadier, and can shake her head without falling over, though she’s still got a pretty radical head tilt. That’s okay, I can deal with a perpetually quizzical dog! One odd thing…she’s extremely vocal, and will bark and howl pretty extensively, for just about any reason. But she has not made one sound since Monday afternoon. It’s…eerie

32

How long has she been sick now?

Dolly’s thing started on a Monday and didn’t get head-tilt bad until Thursday and over the weekend she was sideways as fuck, and didn’t show a lick of improvement until the next Tuesday. Wednesday she was slightly better and by Thursday she was right as rain. So weird!!

33

She started stumbling on Monday, her head cocked over and she got nystagmus super bad on Tuesday, and has slowly been improving since then. And she finally barked today, so yay!

34

I just wanted to thank you so much for sharing your experience. My Rascal (15 year old Australian Shepherd) started the drunk staggers/falling over on Sunday night. I spent a couple of hours on the internet and came up with this Old Dog Vestibular Disease diagnosis. I had never heard of this before, either. He was getting a little better on some days and then today, Friday, he is slightly worse. Of course, that put me right back into freak-out mode. I am so relieved to read that this is a normal progression of the disease. Thank you, again. I appreciate you taking the time to write about your Dolly’s experience.