Dogs sways, acts disoriented?
 

Hello everyone!

When I came downstairs this morning, my 8 month old puppy was uncharacteristically calm. He usually runs up and starts jumping around, but he stayed in bed and just watched me for a while before he got up to get water. When he sat down, his entire body was rocking back and forth, as though he couldn't control it. It wasn't really shaking, it was more gentle but a wider motion, if that makes any sense!

His hind legs also just kind of crumple to the side, when he sits, they don't fold under him like normal. His eyes also looked kind of unfocused, and seemed kind of out of it.

I took him to the vet right away, but they just prescribed anti-inflammatories and told me he probably hurt his leg a bit, but he'd be alright. I came home reassured, but when I described the symptoms to my roommate, she told me he did something similar a few weeks ago. The fact that it's a returning issue has me worried.

He was trying to get me to chase him around today (which he does often, by picking up things he know I'll want back), and his running was much slower than usually. He's usually a little hurricane but today he was running at about the same pace as my 8 year old Dane, at about 25% of his normal speed. No swaying since noon, but definitely still weak-looking.

Do you guys have any experience with something like this? What should I keep an eye out for?

If possible the next time it happens see if you can record it - on your phone if nothing else. Then let the vet see what is happening when it happens. What you are describing [I]could be[/I] seizures but the only one who could tell you for sure is the vet. Just keep an eye on him and treat him the same as normal.

I would see the vet it may be an ear infection

14+kitties, I'll definitely remember to do that if it happens again.

mastifflover, I did take him to the vet, they took his stats and the best they could think of was a leg injury, they didn't suspect an ear infection. I'm always torn between trusting vets and wishing they wouldn't be so blasé sometimes!


Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

follow up?
 

Hi, mirtilo
I know you posted this two years ago. Hope your dog has gotten better by now. My dog (JRT x Chihuahua mix, 11 mo old) is just having a very similar symptom. I'm so worried. I took him to a vet earlier today and they are doing some checkups at this moment, including some x-ray and maybe blood work. My dog does not seem to have any ear infection so far.

I wonder how your dog is doing since then. Did you find anything after all? If you could respond to this post, it would be highly appreciated.

Thank you,
-goldiesplash

goldiesplash, do an internet search for Vestibular Disease, or as it is sometimes erroneously called, Geriatric Vestibular Disease. It is not confined to old dogs. The symptoms are similar, see if any match what your dog is showing. My sister's dog had it when he was 12. Apparently onset is typically very sudden and so is recovery. TRue to what Sis's Vet said, it might last a month to 6 or so weeks, bang on a month Laddie just stood up and walked again. Laddie recovered fully except for a bit of heat tilt which diminished in his remaining four years of life, yes, he lived well past 16.

This is often confused with ear infections and epilepsy so you might want to search up information on them too.

In a young dog, I would be worried about some sort of infection (even a UTI will cause similar symptoms). Tick disease, low thyroid would be on the list too.

Thank you for the comments
 

Longblades, MaxaLisa,
Thank you so much for your quick response and info. I'll check on these diseases.

Yesterday, the vet did x-ray and general blood work but basically he found nothing suspicious. He thinks my dog possibly ate something toxic. He orally gave the dog some liquid (?) charcoal in case it would help to get rid of some of the toxins in his system. But by then, his condition was getting a little bit better anyway, so I'm not sure what helped or caused this problem after all.

Next day (which is today), he is no longer swaying like he did, but he is still very weak. I'm very worried especially because I don't know what the problem is.

I actually filmed a little bit when my dog was swaying his head/body yesterday. Here is the link.
[url]http://youtu.be/Tsz5s-rPDnI[/url]

Very worrying. One striking symptom of Vestibular Disease is rapid eye movement. The eyes go zinging left to right like the dog is watching a high speed tennis match. They sort of roll around too, a bit like the guy in a cartoon who is drunk. Head tlit is also a striking symptom. But of course not all dogs show all the same symptoms. Also, VD generally comes on quickly, lasts for several weeks THEN disappears quickly.

If he is better that's good but you want to know what it was, the how, what, why, when so you can ensure no repeats. Sometimes we just don't get that. Good luck.

I would get a copy of the blood results and look at them closely, for anything near the edges of the normal ranges. I have seen abnormal results that the vet has dismissed, many times on the forums and with my dogs :(

I would consider a tick panel, IFA titers, through protatek, but might be more interested in that having looked at the bloodwork.

My GSD used to shake his head like that. I am not sure what got rid of it, but I think that regular chiropractic care was one of the reasons that it went away: [url]www.avcadoctors.com[/url] Note that the dog's right eye does not appear to open as wide as the other.

After my experience with my boy, who had lifelong neck issues, and initially had that neck sway, I would start with a chiropractor and follow up with acupuncture.

[QUOTE=Longblades;1054210]Very worrying. One striking symptom of Vestibular Disease is rapid eye movement. The eyes go zinging left to right like the dog is watching a high speed tennis match. They sort of roll around too, a bit like the guy in a cartoon who is drunk. Head tlit is also a striking symptom. But of course not all dogs show all the same symptoms. Also, VD generally comes on quickly, lasts for several weeks THEN disappears quickly.

If he is better that's good but you want to know what it was, the how, what, why, when so you can ensure no repeats. Sometimes we just don't get that. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

I was going to say vertigo as I did not know Vestibular Disease is another name for it until I looked it up. I meet a woman who dog was acting like the OP dog and that woman dog did have vertigo and it was a young dog. The dog was put on some med and got better.

Do you live near any landfills that giving off hydrogen sulfide ? I lives near a landfill that was giving hydrogen sulfide and I called the ER vet to found out how the toxic gas would affect my Standard Poodle and I was told it would made my dog act 'drunk' and confuse.

[QUOTE=Longblades;1054210]Very worrying. One striking symptom of Vestibular Disease is rapid eye movement. The eyes go zinging left to right like the dog is watching a high speed tennis match. They sort of roll around too, a bit like the guy in a cartoon who is drunk. Head tlit is also a striking symptom. But of course not all dogs show all the same symptoms. Also, VD generally comes on quickly, lasts for several weeks THEN disappears quickly.

If he is better that's good but you want to know what it was, the how, what, why, when so you can ensure no repeats. Sometimes we just don't get that. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

Longblades, Thank you for your comment again. I've checked a few of YouTube videos that show Vestibular Disease, so now I know what you mean by the rapid eye movement. I don't think my dog had that symptom, but I'll be more careful. He is getting better everyday, so I'm hopeful.

[QUOTE=MaxaLisa;1054250]I would get a copy of the blood results and look at them closely, for anything near the edges of the normal ranges. I have seen abnormal results that the vet has dismissed, many times on the forums and with my dogs :(
[/QUOTE]

MaxaLisa, Thank you for your comment again. I got a copy of the blood results and it seems to be in the normal range as long as I can tell.

I never knew there are chiropractic care for dogs. Very interesting. My dog probably has an internal issue since his stool are still loose with some bloody mucus. I'll do more research on a tick panel too.

[QUOTE=Barkingdog;1054255]Do you live near any landfills that giving off hydrogen sulfide ? I lives near a landfill that was giving hydrogen sulfide and I called the ER vet to found out how the toxic gas would affect my Standard Poodle and I was told it would made my dog act 'drunk' and confuse.[/QUOTE]

Barkingdog, Thank you for your interesting comment. It scares me. I don't live near by a landfill, however, I actually drive by one on the way to my dog's agility school, which is Thursday evening. The symptom of my dog started Friday afternoon. Do you think the toxic gas might have affected my dog? He seemed fine on Thursday evening after school, so I don't know if it could have anything to do with it. Does your dog constantly act strange because of the gas?

goldiesplash.. same problem any word yet?
 

Goldiesplash, I am curious, by any chance is your dog food Blue Buffalo? I'm not out to scare, I have no evidence, just curious, as our dog is having the same symptoms.. our vet tried to tell us it was pot as in marijuanna, but neither of us in the home have any such "hobby." The vet said she could have found it outside on a walk. hm. I just seem to suspect the food as our other dog has diarrhea. But one has swaying, lost far away gaze, slightly off balance, vomiting, very similar to symptoms mentioned on this thread. And since I noticed you registered in Feb, I'm wondering if maybe there isn't something else at work here. Like a common link?

[QUOTE=katieandspencer;1054984]Goldiesplash, I am curious, by any chance is your dog food Blue Buffalo? I'm not out to scare, I have no evidence, just curious, as our dog is having the same symptoms.. our vet tried to tell us it was pot as in marijuanna, but neither of us in the home have any such "hobby." The vet said she could have found it outside on a walk. hm. I just seem to suspect the food as our other dog has diarrhea. But one has swaying, lost far away gaze, slightly off balance, vomiting, very similar to symptoms mentioned on this thread. And since I noticed you registered in Feb, I'm wondering if maybe there isn't something else at work here. Like a common link?[/QUOTE]

katieandspencer, Sorry to hear about your dog having a similar problem. No. Mine is Natural balance. hmmm, I doubt my dog somehow got some pot during the walk though... But he did picked up and swallowed a straw off the ground a day before it happened. Even though it came out later (from his bottom), I'm now wondering if that might have released some toxin in his system.

How long is your dog swaying? hours? days? Did you watch my video? Does it look similar? My dog was swaying only several hours, and he was weak and his stool was soft with some bloody mucus for many days. He finally got better after two weeks or so. I still have no clue about what caused it. X(

Goldiesplash! Thank You so much for replying so speedily, I wanted to reply sooner myself, but couldn't remember password! Yes, I watched your video, and our dog Katie was doing the exact same thing. She did this for one full day where it was very scary, the next day only seemed slightly "off," and seemed to be much better after that. Now, being a week later, she appears fine. Never found out what exactly was the cause. Don't think it was our food afterall, as we re-introduced it again and with no problems. Interestingly, our vet had told us "pot".. we did put together that we have new neighbors downstairs (college party boys) where we could smell it wafting up in our windows the other day. So maybe they could have dropped some and Katie ate it? Who knows! But again, thank you for your input.

[QUOTE=goldiesplash;1054326]Barkingdog, Thank you for your interesting comment. It scares me. I don't live near by a landfill, however, I actually drive by one on the way to my dog's agility school, which is Thursday evening. The symptom of my dog started Friday afternoon. Do you think the toxic gas might have affected my dog? He seemed fine on Thursday evening after school, so I don't know if it could have anything to do with it. Does your dog constantly act strange because of the gas?[/QUOTE]

the only symptom mylast dog show from the landfill was that he started to vomit from the smell and I almost did myself. I called the ER vet to find out what symptoms I should be looking for as the landfill is very close to my house and the hydrogen sulfide was getting into my home a lot. My new dog will cough when the landfill act up. Does the landfill smell like rotten eggs a lot?
I just read your comment about the 'pot' I hope the guys did not give your dog some pot as some of it mixed with other drugs .
I really do not see how a dog eyes can look out of focus by hurting it leg. I would look for another vet.

Hope this helps
 

Hello we have a 9 month old toy Pomeranian and from the looks of your video had the same issue we did the same things took her to the vet and nothing was resolved but we were not satisfied so we took her to a neurologist and after extensive testing we found out that her spinal cord was producing to much fluid in her brain causing pressure that caused her to sway like this it has a name but cannot remember what this is called he put her on 2 different medicines which she took for about 6 months and said she should grow out of it as her skull grows bigger. I guess this is very common in small breed pups but is misdiagnosed quite often. So far there have been no other issues with this and she is doing great I sure hope this at least leads you in the right direction and good luck to you.

A fall?
 

Did either of your puppies have a fall just before the symptoms started? My kids took our 12 week old puppy outside to play, it was dark and she was running around with our other puppy. She either jumped off a small wall (2ft or so) or fell. Neither kid said she looked hurt or anything other than muddy and she continued to run and play. But 10 mins later inside and she looked EXACTLY like the video you posted. Off balance and swaying. I'm very worried but the vet is not open until morning. If both your dogs were okay afterwards it makes me feel a lot better.