Geriatric Vestibular In 17 Yr Old Maltese X

[MaxLhasa]

I've never posted before but I thought this should be something for everyone to be aware of.

Last Wednesday we decided to make a car trip from Melbourne to Adelaide with our 2 babies, 17 yr old Malt x & 10 month old Lhasa Apso. They both LOVE going in the car.

We stopped halfway (Horsham) for a wee/walk rest & the 17yr old wasn't standing very steady. He is an extremely agile old boy & shows no signs of athritis pain. (I credit years of Sashas Blend to this.) After walking him around alittle bit he began spinning in circles & staggering as if he was drunk. I thought perhaps he was developing a bit of travel sickness with his age. I popped him back in the car & his head was bobbing around like he was watching a fly buzzing in his face. Then I noticed his eyes moving rapidly left to right. SCARY!!

I called my vet back in Melbourne who recommended I see a vet in Horsham before we continue on. After almost 2 hours at the vet she diagnosed Geriatric Vestibular. His symptoms, while there in the room, calmed down & he began walking quite nicely again with slight swaggering. The vet gave him a shot of anti-nausea & we decided to continue on to Adelaide.

I did some internet research on the subject & it calmed down my fears done slightly regarding his symptoms.

The next day (Thursday) he was still unsteady (worse than yesterday) on his feet, falling down & bumping into things but eating & drinking well through the day & generally quite bright. Although he did have very mucky poos during the day & his eyes were still left/right darting but not as pronounced as in Horsham. By 11pm that night he was refusing water & food, actually turning his head away from boiled chicken. He loves his chicken!

Friday morning he was at the vet & she immediately put him on IV fluid. He stayed in hospital for 2 nights. Turns out that he also had gastro along with the vestibular. He had NO vomitting at all during this entire saga.

By this stage he had a very severe head tilt & just looked plain sad ;)

Monday we decided to make the trip back home to Melbourne & he travelled extremely well. Still very unsteady on his feet, needing me to hold one side of him while he moves about. But drinking water very well.

Today I've stayed home from work to give him a rest in a familiar environment & make sure he drinks etc.

THANKFULLY he is very much improved, head still tilted but eating (cortizone!!GRRR) & drinking. He seems to be coping with his dizzyness & walks slowly to compensate. We're off to our vet tomorrow to get some more blood tests etc & just make sure everything is right.

With all the reading I've been doing on vestibular, it seems that many people have put their baby to sleep thinking that the symptoms were a stroke or something not recoverable. I panicked & thought the same thing when he was circling & staggering.

If your pooch starts doing the drunken walk, circling & falling over, eyes dart back & forth, tilting head to one side & bumping into things then please do some internet searching on GERIATRIC VESTIBULAR. There are other symptoms which we have been lucky not to be suffering with at the moment, such as vomitting. It is something the dog can recover from.

I'd love to hear about anyone else with experience of this & how their pooch is coping & any recurrences. I can find lots of articles online about it but I'm really interested to hear real life cases.

[Weibritty]

Hi MaxLhasa

My 13 year old Brittany had a severe episode of Geriatric Vestibular Syndrome about 3 months ago now. Same symptoms as your old boy. She was staggering and walking with a very unsteady gait, had fast flickering eyes and slightly glazed over look about her eyes too, vomiting, drooling and also a head tilt. She spent 3 days on an IV drip due to the nausea and couldn't eat food without throwing it back up. Eventually they got her stabilised and once she was eating solid food without throwing up I could bring her home. I was also advised to have a scan done on her if she did not improve within a week, just to rule out any other underlining problems, but so far haven't needed to do it.

My girl stumbled around very wobbly-like for about a week and eventually regained most of her balance back, although every now and then her feet seem to go from under her and she has taken a bit of a tumble, but picks herself up without a worry and carries on. Her head tilt has disappeared as well, but my vet said some dogs have the head tilt forever. I also fed her with her food and water bowls elevated to help her out but now she can eat and drink from the floor again.

It is very frightening seeing your dog go through this and quite upsetting, but it is not life threatening and most dogs recover very well. Keep your boy quiet and let him rest and I'm sure he'll bounce back just like my girl did.

[ish]

We also went through this recently with our 15 year old Golden Retriever - took her to the emergency vet because we suspected a stroke. She was staggering, not eating, vomiting and very uncoordinated.

Thankfully she seemed to only have quite a mild dose (despite seeming very unwell initially) and other than going off her food for about a week, was much better by the next day. She's now back to her normal old sleepy self

I don't think there is any harm taking the dog to the vet when stroke-like symptoms occur though, you'd be kicking yourself if you waited a few days, thinking it was vestibular syndrome, and it wasn't

[MaxLhasa]

Any unusual activity makes me run to the vet with him, especially at 17.

In some of my reading about it there were many people who were encouraged to put their dog to sleep only to discover that they may not have needed to. I was lucky to have come across 2 vets who are very experienced in seeing the symptoms. Both vets were in towns with aged populations of owners & dogs.

What I wanted to get across to everyone is to make sure your vet has ruled out vestibular disease/syndrome before they do anything drastic. I think I would have been led down that path initially when he was circling, falling & eyes frantically darting. I straight away thought "stroke, we're going to lose him!" Both vets we saw are getting giftbaskets this week.

I've just been out in the sun with my little man & he followed me round the garden, albeit shakily, having a sniff of everything. Love him heaps

[MaxLhasa]

We have been so fortunate that he didn't vomit at all & his appetite returned after being on the drip for 24 hours. We also had the vet discuss a scan with us & so far the improvements he's made don't make the scan necessary.

The poor little guy has been through so much in the last 8 months, developed indolent ulcers in both eyes in October & lost his 16 yr old brother in November. I just hope he can now live out the rest of his days pain free, comfortable & happy. ........... now I have to cuddle him........

[yellowgirl]

Thank you for sharing your story MaxLhasa. What a terrible scare that would have been for you! Sorry to hear that your boy lost his old friend last year . You must be doing something right to get them to such a wonderful old age though

Thanks again for the info, as an owner of a couple of oldies I really appreciate it.

Hugs to your oldies too Weibritty and Ish

[cowanbree]

My sheltie Kellie had it. It was a very bad case and took her over a week before she could walk unaided but she did recover to a reasonable quality of life. She was always a bit unsteady on her feet and she kept her head tilt but never had another incidence. I do however have a friend also with an older sheltie and her old boy had 3-4 episodes over the last years of his life.

[toofarnorth]

My girl Gemma had two attacks of GV..both happened at night time. The first time I woke up to hear her staggering around my bedroom, i turned on the light and immediately thought she was having a heart attack as she had a heart condition. She had pooped and wee'd and was just terribly confused. I called out the vet, thinking that i should be saying my goodbyes to her. But the vet was able to diagnose GV, and said that there was a good chance that she could make a pretty good recovery, which she did. She was able to get back to about 90% of the way she was, but after that she always had a slight head tilt and her balance was slightly off. I thank god that night that the vet that came out (emergency vet that wasnt my reg vet) was very experienced and was able to diagnose it within about ten minutes. He was brilliant.

The second time wasnt as bad, and as I knew what was happening I just held her and spoke to her to help her stay calm.

[rubiton]

The family Golden Retriever got this (the vet at the time called it a dog stroke - the eyes darting and couldnt stand up) in Easter 97 or 98 - with anti inflammatories and anti biotics and stayed with the vet surgery over that weekend. When he came back he was a little unsteady and had the head tilt. Never was quite the same but lived until Dec 00 when he was 17 and was put down due to unrelated issues.

[4Kelpies]

My old dog had a bout of this several months ago. Compared to other stories I've heard, his was a mild case. He was still eating but would lose his balance when he put his head down to eat. He was walking crookedly - bumping into the sides of doorways and falling over when he tried to turn. His eyes were going from side to side. My vet diagnosed it quickly and was very reassuring that he would recover. I took him to a chiropractor/acupuncturist who gave me some tablets and Chinese herbs for him. He spent a few days in his bed but was much steadier on his feet within a week. I still have his food dish elevated - when he tried to eat from the dish at floor level, his feet would slide sideways and he would crash to the floor. He still has the head tilt but in other ways he has recovered. He is fourteen and a half.

[becks]

It's quite common and i have come across plenty of people who's dogs have had this, including my own 15 year old mini schnauzer. She had home nursing and took about a week to be mostly recovered from it.