Thursday, December 16, 2010

My poor doggy-

After I posted the other day about my dogs getting old, I had the point further driven home. My thirteen year old dog (who could be older, anywhere from 13-15 actually) almost gave me a heart attack. He was laying down, when he suddenly got up and started spinning in circles and tripping over his feet. His head was wobbling, and his eyes were roving. I ran to him and held him until his head stopped flipping side to side.

We decided to wait and see what happened after that. So the next day he had another episode. It lasted a minute or so, then stopped. Five minutes later he had another episode. It lasted over fifteen minutes. I got him on his dog bed and started petting him, I wasn't about to let him go running around like that. He stopped shaking but his eyes were still roving and his eyebrows were twitching really bad. At some point he wet himself.

It was really scary.

I got him to the veterinarian, and the vet thinks he has vestibular disease. Apparently this is common in older dogs. Sometimes it can be treated with medication, sometimes it can't. The vet told me his 14 year old dog had it, but did not respond to medication. Great.

While at the vets my dogs eyes started roving, and by the time we got home he started having a full blown episode on the way out of the car. He fell on the floor in the house a couple of times while we were putting our coats away. I gave him his first dose of meds, and now I just hope they work. I am terrified he'll have an episode on the stairs and fall down them.

So now I have my hands full with that. Thankfully he's sleeping now. I really hope he doesn't have any more episodes tonight... poor old man.

8 comments:

kkasun said...

Aww, that must be so sad to see. I really hope he responds to the meds.

Melis.sa said...

:( I get that sick to my stomach feeling when I think about my dog or cats being sick. I really hope the meds help stop the episodes and your dog turns back to how he used to be. ((HUGS))

Kelly said...

I hate feeling so powerless when a dog is sick or hurting. I hope he responds well to the medication.

rebecca said...

Oh, how terrifying!!! I'm so sorry, hoping so much that he responds to the medications well and doesn't have any more scary episodes!

Momasita said...

that's horrible. when my pups are sick I feel completely useless, so I can understand how you're feeling.

unaffected said...

Aw, I'm so sorry about your dog's diagnosis. I hope he responds to the medicine! :hugs:

Anonymous said...

Oh, poor baby. I'm so sorry you and he are going through this! I'll be keepin' my fingers crossed that the meds are the answer and they make all the difference!

..al said...

OMG...I hope he does not have to bear this again.

I went through your previous post...'it could be worse'. How flimsy!

My cake burnt!
It could be worse! There could have been a short circuit and your house could have burned down.

Ooh, I lost one breast to cancer!
It could be worse! They could have taken the other one too...and your kidneys!

I lost a baby!
It could be worse! You still have a uterus.

My wallet got stolen!
It could be worse! They could have kidnapped you and sent you to Mars!

Pathetic. A hug, an empathetic look is a better balm than taking the aggrieved to a even worse state of mind! Seriously.