Has Anyone's Dog Ever Had A Stroke?

[Bow Wow]

yesterday Lily was standing next to me one minute, then next minute she bolted into another room. I ran after her and saw that she was hyper extending her front and back right legs. I thought she must have pulled a muscle or something.

I called hubby, and was going to arrange to take her to our dog muscle man, because she could hardly walk. Then I notice that she was hunched up and started fitting. Panicked we put her into the car and drove her to after hours emergency. Thinking that she must have been bitten by a snake to have gone from normal to can't walk and fitting in a matter of minutes.

The staff checked her vitals, gave her Valium in a drip and she calmed down. They didn't think it was a snake bite, checked for a tick, found nothing. But what they did notice was that Lily could not stand at all! You pick her up and her head went to the side in an arc.

Because she was calm though we took her home, and was going to take her to her vet first thing. Her breathing started to increase, could not stand it was heart breaking to watch her, we thought that we were going to loose her and we had no idea why. The emergency vet had no idea either and said that our vet would do more tests. All her vitals and gaging refex was normal.

We stayed by her side all night, taking her outside to the toilet, but she would not go. She was as limp as anything.

I was beside myself, because I did not know why this was happening!!! So as I watched her, I started to google her symptoms, what I came up with was a stroke! Sudden loss of muscles, seizures, heavy breathing. Arching neck.

It said that the dog should start recovering straight away and be back to normal with in 72 hours. I was giving her electrolytes by syringe ever couple of hours to keep her hydrated. Then one time I took her to the toilet, she seemed to have a bit of strength in her front legs, not much but I could notice it. Still did not empty out. Each time I took her I noticed her getting a little bit stronger, last time I took her outside was 4:30 am and she definitely was stronger in her front legs.

At 6 am hubby came out into the lounge room where we were and got down and called her, he was so happy that she was still alive and was not breathing heavy anymore. Well Lily wagged her tail and tried to get up to go to him. Encouraged by this, we took her outside and she stumbled around like a drunken sailor, but she walked!!!!!!!!! We were so happy!!! Our baby girl who we thought we were going to lose, was getting better, and she went to the toilet!!!

Took her up to vet, she was baffled as to what happened, but when I suggested could it be a stroke, she said she could not discount it. But because Lily is only 3 years old, she was really baffled.

Thought maybe epilepsy?? But because she didn't bounce straight back and lost the use of her limbs for so long didn't quite fit in with that.

Anyway she kept Lily there today, clipped her coat ( Lily is a cavalier) checked for ticks. Nothing all vitals were normal.

Now Lily is walking around 90% normal and getting better as time goes on, thank God!

So has anyone ever had this happen to their dog? Was it just a once off? If Lily is not 100% within a week, or has another episode, I have to take her to a vet that specialises in neurological neAr home.

This has got me so confused , and worried that it could happen again.

Would love to hear others stories.

So sorry for the epic novel!!! Lol

Edited October 16, 2014 by I <3 bindi boo

[Yonjuro]

Oh gosh, that must have been terrifying. I am glad that things seem to be improving no doubt due to the excellent care you have given.

I am sorry I don't have any advice or knowledge to impart but I wish you all the very best and hope that it was a once off and things continue to improve.

[kelpiecuddles]

Not a dog but I had an elderly cat who had a series of strokes toward the end of her life. Over the course of 4 years she had five but always began to recover within around 24 hours and mostly back to normal after around a week. We did eventually have her euthed after that fifth one but she was nearly 22 years old so it wasn't really a surprise that she didn't bounce back so well after that one.

[CHA]

How frightening for you and at such a young age! So happy to hear that she is improving though. My dog had an episode with symptoms that sounded very similar to what you little girl has gone through. She seemed to have some kind of a fit and then her head went to the side and she couldn't move from that position. Got her to the vets for treatment, typically this was the middle of the night (can't really remember what they did as this was a couple of dogs back....) I know we sat up with her for a couple of nights cradling her in our arms because she couldn't unbend, and we had to carry her out to toilet etc. Very frightening. She did go on to have a happy long life after that, but it did seem to be the start of the decline for her. I think she would have been about 13 when this happened (pound dog so never really sure of her age).

I hope Lily continues to improve and that this is just a once off :)

[brightstar123]

Hi, I would make an appointment for Lily with a specialist neurologist if I were you.

From what you have described it could definitely be a stroke but there are other things that could be possible, like vestibular disease or definitely idiopathic epilepsy. Idiopathic (unknown cause) epilepsy is often diagnosed in dogs between 1-3yrs of age and as you said dogs can have ongoing abnormalities after the seizure for anything from minutes to days. They are usually normal between seizures. If it wasn't done in emergency, I think it is important to investigate underlying causes by doing a full blood count/biochemistry, urinalysis and testing for thyroid disease.

I had a case of a 4yr old female Keeshond that presented collapsed with a stroke due to undiagnosed hypothyroidism. She had mini-strokes and slightly abnormal behaviour, then the following day she had a severe stroke and was sadly PTS. The emergency vets do a great job saving lives but a neurologist can take their time and do a very thorough neurological work-up, which would be a good idea IMO.

[Bow Wow]

Thank goodness Lily is improving and is nearly back to 100%! yes we have decided to take her to the specialist anyway, as I need to know what happened, to try to avoid it happening again. Will keep you updated

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[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Thank goodness Lily is improving and is nearly back to 100%!

What a relief.

My brother's dog had a stroke - at least that was what the vet said it was. She couldn't walk properly for a while and went all lop sided on her right side, I think, Her ear and mouth went droopy on one side...

But she got better, could walk and run ok, and recovered most of her training (she always had fairly selective hearing anyway). But stayed a bit lopsided. Lived a good life for another 5 or 6 years I think - this was about 15 or so years ago.

[Ranga]

This is an interesting site ...

http://www.cavalierhealth.org

And this discusses strokes in Cavs ...

http://www.cavalierhealth.org/cerebellar_infarcts.htm

Hope your little dog recovers well :)

[Bow Wow]

Thank you ranga, that is a very interesting read

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[Staffyluv]

How terrifying for you all. I am so glad Lily is improving so well now.

Not me personally but my sister's old SBT girl had a stroke - I saw her the morning after and the only real difference from Rosie to Lily is that Rosie lost her vision as well.

Rosie started to come good about 48 hours after it happened but then she had another one (she was 12 years old), so my sister called her vet and he came right over and gave Rosie her wings..

Rose was older and had an accident - another, much bigger dog had jumped on her the day before the first stroke.

I hope Lily continues to improve...

[Bow Wow]

Update:

Lily had another small episode Monday just gone. No where near as bad though.

I took Lily to the specialist today. It took two hours of testing. We had bloods taken, but they will come back later. He does not think it is Vestibular. Her right eye menace was slightly less then her left eye. Which means when he goes to tap her eyes, her normal reaction is to blink. She does so in her left, but not as much in her right, which looks like something may be happening in the left side of her brain.

He has classed Lily's episodes as seizures, so now we are doing the tests to see if we can find the cause of the seizures.

No medication has been prescribed as he is doing the wait and see if she has another one.

So time will tell us hopefully what is going on with Miss Lily.

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