Thought nikki was having a stroke this morning

[Ania]

That would have given me a heart attack! Scary thing to watch and go through. I hope the ear cleaning goes well and she recovers quickly.

 

[BlueBandit]

thank you guys for all your support. i really appreciate it.

im waiting for a call from the vet right now to find out what the status is on her.
it was the most scariest thing ive seen.

Yes! keep those sheltie ears cleaned.

 

[Silaria]

Her symptoms were, rapid eye movment, stumbling, falling on the floor, wobbly, unable to pick herself up, panting heavily, running into things, moving her head around alot very quickly.

I really hope it turns out to be just a lot of gunk in her ears. When I read this description my very first thought was "Vestibular Disease", http://www.petplace.com/dogs/vestibular-disease-in-dogs/page1.aspx because what you wrote accurately describes what we saw in our Finnish Spitz. The symptoms look VERY much like a stroke and it is VERY scary to watch. Many vets actually mis-diagnose this because it is so rare and looks so much like a stroke or other ailments. (I got VERY lucky. My vet had actually seen it before.) The "rapid eye movement" is one of the PRIMARY indicators of Vestibular.

Vestibular disease typically affects older dogs with an average age of 12 to 13 years.

Animal afflicted with vestibular disease become suddenly very dizzy and the symptoms can be very drastic and frightening to the owner.

What to Watch For

# Falling
# Incoordination
# Head tilt to one side or another
# Circling
# Rolling
# Eyes continually drifting side to side or up and down
# Stumbling or drunken walking.

Vestibular disease can affect an animal very suddenly. Due to the signs of head tilt, circling and staggering, many owners feel their pet has had a stroke. Fortunately, strokes are rare in animals.

Veterinary care should include diagnostic tests and subsequent treatment recommendations. Other disorders that result in signs similar to vestibular disease include:

# Inner ear infections
# Thiamine deficiency
# Head trauma
# Metronidazole (antibiotic) toxicity
# Middle ear polyps
# Middle ear cancer

My Finnkie got hit with Vestibular at 16. They don't know exactly what triggers it and why it only effects some dogs but, according to my vet, sever atmospheric changes can trigger it. (It's most common around the two Equinoxes.)

Please let us know how your little girl is doing.

 

[Smudge]

When you say "inner ear" do you mean the part deep down inside where the vet would have to look down it? If so, how would a person go about cleaning it or making sure that it stayed clean?

I've never heard of this before! Then again, there's lots of things I don't know. I'm not a very medical wise person at all - dogwise or humanwise!

 

[Noneeds4me]

Her symptoms were, rapid eye movment, stumbling, falling on the floor, wobbly, unable to pick herself up, panting heavily, running into things, moving her head around alot very quickly.

I dont know what dogs do when they have a stroke but i remember my grandmothers cat stumbling on herself and would always lean to a certain side or walk sideways.

i took her to the vet and the he found a ton of wax build up and hair in her ears. Nikki was just very very dizzy. who knew that gunk in the ears could cause her to react that way.

The vet is going to keep her there and do a pre anistetic to make sure her liver and kidneys could handle it, hopefully she can handle it, than he'll give her the anistetic and clean out her ears and see if there is an ear infection on her ear drumbs. if so he'll give her some antibiotics for it

She'll be 15 in 2 months, i was so not ready to lose her. man what a rough morning.

The exact same thing happened to our senior girl on Christmas Day last year...just this last Christmas. She was diagnosed with Ideopathic Vestibular Disease. We were told it is rare for a dog to actually have a "stroke." We were ready, and thought we would need to put her down. Instead, the doc convinced us to give her some time. We quickly took his advice, and hand fed her....held the water dish up to her so she wouldn't have to lean down......guided her while outside so she wouldn't fall over..., and whatever else she needed help with. She was put on prednisone, and anti-nausea meds.....and recovered 90% with improvement noted almost on a daily basis. Our girl ended up living almost 6 months more...feeling very good except for the normal things that go along with being a "senior." We were grateful for the extra 6 months with her.

So...don't be afraid of a diagnosis of IVD.. Please give it time.. It will make a difference..

Our girl was almost 14 years old when we lost her...

PS....I write this assuming your girl will have the same diagnosis... Also should mention we put ourselves on a week to week basis with her... Quality of life was 1st and foremost of importance..and if we did not see improvement...we would have had to reconsider our options. Lucky for us...we DID see improvement just as the doc predicted ;-).

 

[Silaria]

Noneeds4me, that is EXACTLY what we had with our Finnkie, see my post above. Hers was so bad her body was nearly folded in half and her head 90 degrees to that. We had to carry her outside for the first few days and feed/water her with a syringe.

We had her for almost another year before she actually did have a stroke. We never noticed because the remnants from the stroke blended right in with what remained from the vestibular (slight head tilt and a little unsteady from the awkward head angle).

 

[BlueBandit]

It was just so scary, it happend around 4:15 am today,
It was like all the symptoms came all at once so suddenly.

My dad wakes up early to go to work, and he feeds the dogs and lets them outside to do there duty, he said she was fine when he left at 4:00

its just her symptoms were at its worse when it started happening, and than her symptoms were slowly going away till around 8am.
when she walked right into the building at the vet, her coordination was alot better. Than when the vet got her on the table and looked at her eyes, thats when we discovered her rapid eye movement.

It was definetly her inner ear. when the vet looked at her ear she yelped, and i think i even saw blood on the vets thumb.

i also noticed her tongue was very red.

im almost positive thats what her diagnosis will be, i'll have to wait an hear from the vet

 

[Noneeds4me]

When you say "inner ear" do you mean the part deep down inside where the vet would have to look down it? If so, how would a person go about cleaning it or making sure that it stayed clean?

I've never heard of this before! Then again, there's lots of things I don't know. I'm not a very medical wise person at all - dogwise or humanwise!

There are ear cleansers that you use... I use it every time I give a bath. You put a little in the ear, and massage to get it down the canal. I pull the tip of the ear straight up to give it a clear shoot downward ;-).. Then...it is self-drying. What I use smells really nice, and has aloe in it.

I use VET Solutions... I soak a cotton ball and squeeze it into their ears...otherwise..they kind of go nutty on me! ;-) Then, they like the massage part ;-)..little stinkers!

 

[Noneeds4me]

Noneeds4me, that is EXACTLY what we had with our Finnkie, see my post above. Hers was so bad her body was nearly folded in half and her head 90 degrees to that. We had to carry her outside for the first few days and feed/water her with a syringe.

We had her for almost another year before she actually did have a stroke. We never noticed because the remnants from the stroke blended right in with what remained from the vestibular (slight head tilt and a little unsteady from the awkward head angle).

It's a very scarey thing to watch happen! With our girl Samantha...just as you said...she was absolutely FINE...and then all of a sudden wasn't. She even threw up. All this happening on Christmas Day while we've got a house full of people.. We put her in a quiet place in our bedroom...dimmed the lights, and gave her a sedative to keep her calm. We figured the Christmas festivities would just have to wait..but our special girl could not. Lucky for us...my nieces husband is our vet and I was able to call him at home...in a panic. He calmed us down and immediately knew what it was. We didn't do any testing...just went with the liklihood that this was the culprit. lol...after she recovered to the extent she was going to...she still had a little head tilt which we now think of as endearing ;-).

 

[Noneeds4me]

I really hope it turns out to be just a lot of gunk in her ears. When I read this description my very first thought was "Vestibular Disease", http://www.petplace.com/dogs/vestibular-disease-in-dogs/page1.aspx because what you wrote accurately describes what we saw in our Finnish Spitz. The symptoms look VERY much like a stroke and it is VERY scary to watch. Many vets actually mis-diagnose this because it is so rare and looks so much like a stroke or other ailments. (I got VERY lucky. My vet had actually seen it before.) The "rapid eye movement" is one of the PRIMARY indicators of Vestibular.



My Finnkie got hit with Vestibular at 16. They don't know exactly what triggers it and why it only effects some dogs but, according to my vet, sever atmospheric changes can trigger it. (It's most common around the two Equinoxes.)

Please let us know how your little girl is doing.

Ahh...these older babes...I've never been blessed to see a furchild make it to that age.. Our shelties have lived to be between 10 and 12...until the last two. They both made it to ONE month SHORT of their 14th birthdays ;-(.. You are very blessed ;-).