Friday evening I called for Millie. It was time for her supper, and although over 12 years old now, her hearing is still as sharp as a pin, especially when she knows meat and biscuits are awaiting her arrival. So I was surprised she was not at my knee, just hearing the rattle of the dog bowls. Let alone calling for her. So I popped my head around the door into the utility room, to see her stood (back to me) on the big dog bed. I called her name again and at first her reaction, I thought I had surprised her and then for an awful moment I thought she was having a heart attack. She suddenly flipped over off the dog bed staggering around and seemed unable to get her balance. I quickly got hold of her taking her to a sofa to keep her calm, and then I noticed her eyes flickering back and forth. I've seen siezures in dogs, but this was different, and a quick search by one of our children came up with it potentially being Vestibular Disease and apparently quite common in old dogs, enough that it is also called, "Old Dog Syndrome." We took her to the vets and he confirmed that all her symptoms pointed to Vestibular Disease. As she had not been sick and showing little distress. Still wagging her tail, when you called ner name. The vet said, "Time is our best friend with this condition, and 48 hours should hopefully see nearly all symptoms ceased." Well, 24 hours later it was hard to believe she had, had anything wrong with her. The video below is of her yesterday following one of our children around, who had a treat for her, and as you can see looking pretty good for a dog over 12 years old. Millie is on not on any medication and her heart murmur that was diagnosed around 5 years old is still slight between 1-2. Her respiratory rate at sleep I have recorded as low as 11 breaths a minute recently. She like her daughter, Smudge when sleeping, you sometimes have to watch for a while to check if still actually breathing. Respitory Rate With Regard To Mitral Valve Disease I've never experienced Vestibular Disease in a dog before. It is a frightening thing to see, and said to be like vertigo in humans, but fingers crossed for Millie that all things point to it just being an idiophathic episode, so her outlook is good.
4 Comments
Emily
5/19/2020 12:20:25 pm
Poor Millie! Glad to see she is much better now
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Jackie H
5/20/2020 10:14:59 am
Glad she's recovered. Our last dog had vestibular disease - was really scary to watch as you feel helpless. Luckily he recovered as well. Eddie is doing really well - he is VERY sociable and wants to play with every dog! He's grown into a lovely dog .
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Sue
5/21/2020 06:13:33 am
Glad Millie doing well she is really good for her age,but scary when things like that happen out of the blue, xx
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Andrew Smith
6/1/2020 12:57:54 pm
Hello Jane, I’ve been meaning to comment on this post for a while. Pleased that Millie is recovering well. I had not heard of this either. Jessie, our CKCS, who we lost around 10 years ago firstly experienced this at the age of 12. She had a few of these and always made a full recovery, we eventually lost her at over 15 years of age. It’s very frightening to experience. We always referred to it as a “stroke” even though I believe dogs cannot experience strokes such as us humans. Harry had one of these in March 2019 which was his first and only episode and as you know we lost him a few weeks ago, also aged over 15. I have now researched vestibular disease and this is clearly what Jessie and Harry experienced. We never stop learning do we!!
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AuthorWelcome to this blog. I am Jane, a hobby breeder, situated in North Devon, England, UK (map at bottom of page ,shows where we are) on a quest to breed a healthier small spaniel similar to the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Archives
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