Have you heard of old dog vestibular disease?

A few pics of our poor lil patient. Only the one on the carpet is her current pic.

 

You are a "AWESOME" fur baby parent................. Good karma will be coming your way at some point !!

 

I forget how that saying goes, something like "try to be even half as good a person as your dog thinks you are."

Still haven't got one man potty figured out though. Last night she had momma holding her head/collar slight pressure, I support lots behind her armpits, and less in front of back legs. I guess that way she can dip her backside without feeling she'll spin off the planet. Just me alone holding from the side or hovering over doesn't work, and she's not accident prone, so have to do some head scratching.

 

saskwoodburner You are doing a great job! We have had 2 dogs go through this before and a couple of friends' dogs too.. Everyone has wound up just fine in the end. Yes, it's terribly dramatic at first and you are absolutely correct to make sure that she is getting water and food in her. After that, just a whole lot of supportive care. BTW, last time it happened, my wife was out of town so I had to do everything myself. That was crazy.

 

Thought I'd come back with a progress report. She's still lacking balance, but her eye rolling has settled down a bunch. She can sit up by herself (and stand on the spot once up) without wiping out. She absolutely won't drink out of her bowl as I think the water reflection confuses her or makes her dizzy, although she has had no sickness at all since the day it started. She's kept everything down. But rice and meat/broth or water mix seems to be working for hydration. She will still take some water on a plate now and then. She can do both kinds of business while outside, so her plumbing is all good. She's still like a drunk 4 legged buddy, but she's trying hard. I try to support her enough for no wipe outs, but not so much that she doesn't have to try somewhat to keep her balance.

I have no clue how long she'll be off kilter but hopefully she shakes it off completely. It's hard to know what dramatic or noticeable improvements are, seeing the sedation knocked her for such a loop. A few days ago I thought she was a gonner.

We used our other (much bigger) dogs harness, added a strap, and one man potty trips are no problem. My headlamp has a red light setting, and that made it easy on her eyes for night walking outside at first.

That's about where we're at for the time being. Thanks for the support.

 

Did you notice improvement right away, or was it a longer time frame? I'm at 4 days later, and wondering if where I'm at is progress?

 

Usually starting to see some progress after 3-4 days, but I think the recovery can highly variable. Keep up the good work and love. Can't go wrong with that no matter.

 

Just a quick update on her progress 6 days in. Her eyes seem to have stopped rolling around, she can sit up and stand motionless without trouble. Walking on harness is still a bit dicey, as she gets distracted by smells and things moving and kind of forgets she has to concentrate on walking. Eating her mushy food out of a bowl no problem, in fact she will not eat lying down anymore, she sits up. she won't drink from a bowl yet, but added liquid to her food and eating snow have her very hydrated, to the tune of 4-5 piddles and at least one other business a day.

For a dog I thought was dying before me, it's looking pretty good. She'll even woof at me and throw a paw if I'm too pokey getting her harnessed (it's a happy don't ignore me thing). All in all, I'm quite confident if there's a next time, it will be less traumatic. And if there's anything in my posts that helps another person, great.

 

Thanks so much for the update. I've been following. Fortunately, this is the most common outcome, but it's never guaranteed. Thanks to all of your hard work and loving, she sounds like she should make it. YEAH!!!!

 

This sounds a terrible but also sounds like dog was having a seizure....

I’d say more but too much for now.
Edit: glad I read through a bit more and seeing your great care and the sweetie is improving .

 

Eleven days on, and things are quite a bit better. She's eating and drinking totally on her own, no eye rolling at all, and decent balance when motionless. She still has a bit of drunk pup walk at times, and blows a tire now and then, but she can be outside without a harness (only needed for the stairs). Even if she doesn't improve from this moment on, she still has quality of life, so I'm happy for that. She's almost back to her sleepy happy go lucky self.

One peculiar thing I've noticed at night, is she has no sense of a straight bearing whatsoever. She could literally get lost in a 15 x 15 foot square in the dark. Mind you, her eyesight isn't what it once was, but I hope her sense of spatial?? awareness improves. She is fenced while outside normally due to the fact that she'd run herself to pieces, so she can't actually get lost.

 

Great to hear she continues to improve!

 

Sask,
I am relatively new here. You are doing right by your baby and should be rewarded with the knowledge that your love and care are exactly what she needs.

Our old man, Jaco, had the vestibular and as you know it was super scary and heartbreaking to watch, this was three years ago. He progressed through it in very similar stages, I believe it took almost 3 weeks before he was back to normal.

Keep doing what you are doing!

 

Just found this thread. what a wonderful caretaker you are for your fur friend. I hope all is well for her.

 

All the best and loving wishes for your girl. I'm so glad she is coming around.

 

Thanks for the prayers and get well wishes. I think everything is going to be alright (as it can be) for her.

Again, I've got to say though, what a scary thing to experience. I had a cat when I was a kid that had a stroke, and you can only imagine what I thought when the dog first went wonky. It doesn't even matter when someone tells you they'll probably come out of it fine, because what you're witnessing sure does not look fine. And that feeling of being unable to make your furry buddy all better...

 

Here we are 17? days on now. She is full functioning, go out/come in /eat n water/ business/ no leash or harness. She still has the head tilt (which makes her seem way too serious!) and still a bit of drunk walking or lose balance now and then. She's gotten used to it enough that she's not in fear. We still keep a make shift barricade to keep her in a 10 x 12 area in the living room so she doesn't have a stove accident. If she had a nick name, it would be "get low" If she loses her footing or wants to shake her head, she spreads out all her legs and literally gets low, her back line must drop 2-3 inches so that's a neat way for her to adapt I suppose. She's mentally back to her normal happy self.

 

Great news. Happy self is good!
Thanks for the update.