Canine Stroke

[trixie775]

My staffordshire x is narly 13 yrs old and over the last 6 months he has been getting recurrent kennell cough / infections and has been given antibiotics and he seemed to be improving. Now only 3 days ago he seemed to suffer from a stroke, he was sick, his head tilts to the left, he is very wobbly and keeps falling to the left, (legs were fine before the stroke) The vet prescribed vivtonin and said he was sure it was a stroke. So far he has just slept a lot as movement is uncoordinated but this morning he was very sick and eating lots of grass in the garden, I dont know if I should encourage this behaviour to help him be sick or stop him from eating the grass, does anyone know if this is a side effect from either the vivtonin or stroke and if anyone has gone through this did their pet recover with his movement, he seems fine with sight, bowels, bladder etc, any news from other dog owners re strokes will be a help, I am worried out of my mind and dont know if this is the beginning of the end for him.

[Noweia]

Did your vet also rule out middle ear disease? This would also cause a head tilt, nausea (hence doggy being sick) and falling or circling to one side.

Recovery from a stroke will depend on how serious the stroke was, but dogs can recover in weeks. Your staffie may always have a head tilt though, but most other signs seem to clear up.

[YvonneM]

Our old bitch had similar symptoms and was diagnosed with Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) we were told by our vet it is a common problem with older dogs she was 12 at the time she had 2 further occurances one after a year and then 6 weeks after that she lived unil nearly 15 yrs When she first became ill I suspected a stroke she seemed to fit and lost control of her bowels but the vet was adamant she would recover We were warned that the following morning she would hold her head on one side (this lasted about 1 week) and would be wobbly on her legs after a course of steroids and antibiotics all returned to normal Subsequent attacks were lest severe Do mention this to your vet as I know of a lady who was advised to have her dog put down and I am convinved it had Encephalitis

[Lil'Lucy]

My dog had this a few year ago. I think is was called Vestibuler disease. Found this for you. I can't seem to be able to paste the link. Look in the advice bit - it is there.

www.biltonvets.co.uk

[garner]

Hi trixie...Hate to give you a downer but you know 13 is a very good age for a staffie and its awful when they start with these things at that age.Good luck with your old pal hope all goes well with him.g.

[trixie775]

Thank you for these, have been back to the vets this morning as he has been sick again and the vet said he basically doesnt know whats up but has given him some tablets to calm his stomach, but after reading lots of websites now on the vestibular syndrome as mentioned in the replies he is displaying all of the classic symptons even down to shaking of the ears, the outlook is a bit more positve after reading this. He was going slightly deaf which we put down to old age whereas now he seems completely deaf which would link in with the vestibular syndrome, now if I need to go back to the vets I can raise this if they need to carry out tests to make sure this isnt overlooked, thank you all for your comments they have been a huge help to me.

[Lucy Thomas]

My advice would be to place a small bit of lead in his left ear.

[DotH]

My staffy has been poorly since the weekend and i posted about it then, he is lethargic, only eating small light meals and just sleeping all the time, the vet says it is a virus and is certain it is not his heart, but he isn;t really improving much, I am going to take him to the vet again in a few days if he still is not getting any better. i did think it could have been a stroke, but his head is fine, though he isn;'t moving about as much as he would normally do.

[trixie775]

Not sure what Lucy means by placing lead in his ears??? is this for real or are you trying to be funny ? In this case I dont find it amusing ??? Just over a week on now and my dog seems to be picking up with regards to food, he wont eat his usual dry food so I have replaced his diet with chicken and cereals and he seems to clearing his bowl in seconds so his appetite is ok, he is still wobbly more so when he has gotten up from being asleep sometimes even stumbling over if trying to get round an obstacle, his head is still tilted which I think he may be stuck with this from now on which is a small price to pay for him keeping well, he seems otherwise well, he gets excited like before when we return from work etc Thank you all for the comments and please keep posting them as they are all very useful and if anyone out there has a dog suffering the same worrying symptoms as my dog I hope these answers here bring hope to you as well, I think my dog picked up on me being upset and crying all the time, once I read about the above for vestibular I had hope and decided to pull myself together, my dog seemed to improve at the same time.

[infosquid]

I would like everyone including vets to know not jump to an easily made misdiagnosis.
I took my dog to the vet several times after suffering all of these symptoms on at least 12 occasions in the last year.
I found it strange that it would happen every 10 days on the dot!
I decided to investigate the pattern and it turned out that neighbours had been using Jeyes fluid for disenfecting their drive/path every 10 days!!!
Ive kept her away from there and she has had zero episodes since.
Jeyes is supposed to be diluted 50/1
Im not convinced the neighbours were aware of the environmental hazards to the drains/rivers/wildlife ect.
Apparently it seeps through the dogs paws affecting their neurological system.
Scary times..! so glad I found an answer to her health problem. (vets were good but could only quess at too many possibilties)
Please be careful & vigilant for all pets and where their little paws may wander