Vestibular Disease

[Malamum]

Does anyone have any experience with vestibular disease?

On Monday night Kira was fine and was her usual happy self. When we went downstairs on Tuesday morning she was lying on the group and wouldn't get up and walk around. When she did she would fall over.

We were worried about it being a tick, or poison or that she was bitten by something so rushed her to the vet. Turns out that she probably has vestibular disease, which basically means she is getting disoriented and dizzy and loosing her balance and falling over. This is apparently a fairly common condition in geriatric dogs, but Kira is only 6, so pretty young for this to be occurring. Granted, she is a large dog but she is still young and otherwise healthy.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a dog that has suffered from this and how they went. Is it an ongoing thing, does it totally go away, is it reoccurring etc etc? We have her at home and need to keep any eye on her and then take her back for another assessment so the vet will obviously answer all my questions (and I've done a bit of reading up on it on the net) but I'm also curious about other people's experiences.

[persephone]

I found THIS thread from some time back... maybe it will help.

Hope your girl is ok again soon

[Malamum]

Thanks Persephone. I should have thought to do a search. I've had a bit of a read and it was helpful.

[Diva]

I have had an elderly dog with it, about 12 when she got it I think. A lot of intensive nursing initially as she had to be carried out to the toilet etc, but she recovered completely.

[Malamum]

Thanks Diva.

From the sounds of it she doesn't seem to have a too severe case. She can still walk, she is just going slow and taking her time and thinking about it. If she gets excited then she tends to fall over.

We are just trying to keep her calm and we are not letting her go outside on her own as we have lots of steps and ledges she can fall off in the back yard. We just put her on a leash and walk her out the front for her to go to the toilet. She's almost 40K so carrying her is bit hard. The OH almost broke his back carrying her to the car yesterday morning.

My Dad has gone to stay with her today while we are at work and said she is happy enough, still just wobbly on her legs when he takes her outside to go to the toilet.

She is also on a course of antibiotics in case it's an inner ear infection that is causing it, however there is no obvious ear infection in the outer ear canal.

Hopefully she will make a full recovery as she is still young. I was getting a bit worried that it would be a permanent ongoing issue but from what I've been reading that doesn't seem to be how it usually goes.

[cowanbree]

The only issue is that is usually reoccurs. I have had it twice, 1 only had the one incident but the other have 3 in 18mths. My friend has also had it in her dog and he had 3-4 incidences of it. Once you know what it is it isn't quite as scary but there is still the issue of keeping the dog safe long term

[Diva]

If you do need to help her walk, a towel around her waist that you can hold the ends of from above her can help save your back, basically she is walking but you are taking some of her weight and steadying her with the towel.

My girl didn't get a reoccurance of it but then she was already old and only lived another 2 years.