Disorientation in Dogs

We have a 10 1/2 year old Bishon (Bella) We are missionaries and live on an island (which is very hard on dogs because of the heat). She has never been sick, but has been acting weird lately. I have seen her get off balance 3-4 times like she was tripping over her own legs. She also has days where she doesn't eat, but she does drink a lot. She has days where she seems very anxious and follows one of us everywhere we go and sits at our feet. She has episodes of extreme whining also. Some days when she is like this she also drools. We have a new puppy, now 10 months old (1/2 Rotty and 1/2 Doberman) who has way too much energy for Bella. We had blood work done recently thinking she had a urinary infection, but all test were normal. She snaps out of it usually in a day, but we are worried about her. Vets only come here occasionally and her care may be sub-par to what we are used to in the states.

Hi My 11 year old working cocker spaniel has started tilting his head (up and down) and staring at the ceiling and appers to be spooked, he has no other symptoms eats well loves going out on his walks he only does this indoors, he is and was always a very active dog (hill walking munro's etc ), vet suspects its neurological but why dosent he do this when he is out walking or outdoors .?
he has had ticks on him over the years and i always inspect him when we come off the hills or back from walks and remove any with the proper tools, could it be lyme's disease and is it treatable ......Thanks in advance

I have a 15 yr old Diabetic Chihuahua mix, she has had two episodes of head tremors that I thought might be a sugar drop so I gave her a few treats and she seemed to be fine after a few minutes. I spoke to the doctor and he said it could have been just what we thought. However, now its a few months later and for the last couple of days she has been having different episodes of head tilting, circling falling to the side and drooling a bit. The first couple of times this happened we gave her a treat and she popped out of it within a few minutes but today its happened and it's taking her much longer. Is this something that needs attention right away or as I have been reading about Vestibular disease will it go away itself? Should I panic and take her to the emergency vet or schedule a regular appointment?

I have a 10+ year old GSP mix. On a walk a few nights ago she seemed dizzy (walking in circles) and collapsed over the course of a minute. She laid down for about 15 seconds, seemed to clear her head and continued on our walk. A few nights late while walking she was off running at top speed chasing down deer and rabbits, no issues. Should I be concerned about the single issue and take her to the vet or wait till her normal appointment next month? I will monitor her closely for any additional symptoms.

about 1:30 this morning my puppy was on my bed and starting growling and barking at my almost 11 year old german shepherd. I called the shepherd a couple of times and she did not respond normally she would come right to me even in the middle of the night. I got up and went to her she was not moving her eyes were open but she looked confused or out of it or something. I started petting her and talking to her she finally moved to another position but not a lot of movement. this morning she seems fine. What happened?

Hi there,

Today in the morning my dog [1 year old pug] woke up fine but suddenly started to loose control of his body. He will stand with disoriented legs and will not be able to maintain the balance for a long time.There is so much sadness I feel on his face. He is hyperactive dog, always so energetic but right now he is just lying and can't even stand on his own without help.
He will not eat or drink anything.
But at the same time, for a moment he will somehow will gain his energy back and start to run here and there but still when try to walk will find hard to get his balance. He went for a walk, with little imbalance he walked nicely but the time he came back from walk he started showing the same symptoms.
I don't understand the situation, what is going with him. Please advise me, what to do?
Thank you!

My 11 year old sheltie was perfectly healthy until 2 weeks ago when (I think) he hopped or fell off a couch. When I saw him rounding the corner of the couch, he was stumbling and off balance, falling to the right. He was conscious and stopped squirming when I held him and calmed him down. After resting for 2-3 hours, he seemed mostly normal, except for being clumsy on stairs. Vet suggested vestibular or seizures and did a blood test for a thyroid condition that came back negative.

A week after that, he hopped on up one step and froze. He held his neck down and his body became stiff and he stiffly walked back down that step (instead of going up the last step into the house). Back to the vet and he gave us metacam for possible back pain (pressing on his spine in one spot made his back legs weak, so he thought maybe a slipped / herniated disc).

Our Sheltie continues to stumble after being on the metacam for 5 days, often falling to the left now instead of to the right, and sometimes has a slight head tilt, and started vomiting yesterday. He usually winces (facial expression like he's in pain), as if he got an electric shock before he falls down. Sometimes he stares into space and has a bit of a runny nose. Sometimes, he seems confused or a blind (e.g. can't find the carrot I'm holding, or waiting at the wrong side of the sliding door). He's eating, peeing, and pooping normally. We are waiting for yet another vet appointment.

Any advice / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My dog was fine a few hours ago. When I walked up on him, he acted surprised and confused about who I was. When I went to pet him, his face twitched and he acted disoriented. When I would run my hand over his eyes without touching him, he twitched or if anything got close to his face he would twitch. He acts tired and wants to sleep. He also has loss of balance when sitting, standing and walking.

I have an almost 2 year old rescue which we think is Yorkie cross Jack Russell. Two weeks ago he starting stooping backward and was unsteady on his feet. This has gotten progressively worse and he cannot stand still without leaning backwards or having to site involuntarily. Otherwise he's 100%, eating and drinking and playing as normal. Initially the vet gave him cortisone thinking that it was meningitis but he's not responded to the medication at all and is still exactly the same. Very unsteady on his feet whilst standing still. Now they are suspecting a liver shunt but I do not have the funds for the blood test so am hoping we can treat him with diet and meds and see if he improves then we know.

hello i have a teacher in my high school, who has a dog named Jessie her symptoms listed below, the vet doesn't know what it is, my class thinks its a brain tumor, please help us, we are in a tough decision, and we just found out she had a blood test and it came back completely fine. WE NEED YOUR HELP. plzzzzzzzz

Looking for answers for help with my 13yr old chocolate lab. Unsteady gait, will not move unless I help her. Very lethargic with heavy panting. Very heavy breathing. Will not eat or drink.
Help!!

Initial symptoms started about 3 weeks ago in my mom's 5 year old Scottish terrier mix; lethargic, not wanting to eat or drink, unsteady gait. Seen the vet nearly 2 weeks ago and was dx with bronchitis started on steroids. Labs came back normal. Still lethargic, increased eating and drinking, appeared to have a seizure last week. Since, continuous crying, doesn't seem to see very well (which vet put eye cream when we were there and seems to have affected eye sight). Normal urine output, is stooling, at times normal, other times runny and smells really bad. Vet can't see him again for 3 more days. I am seriously concerned. Parents did pull a tick off him several weeks ago. If infected wouldn't the labs shown that?

My 2.5 year old 4lb. male pure bred Yorkie has been having episodes of disorientation. He will be asleep and all of a sudden wake up looking disoriented, eyes wide open and hind leg is up and not being able to really walk straight. He is also shaking at the time. He has had about 4 episodes in front of me, not sure if he has had more when he’s not in my presence. However, once I hold him and reassure him he is back to normal like it never happened. He is otherwise quite healthy and eats dry dog food and sometimes wet food all from the vet. If anyone has any knowledge with this please comment.

emory is an older family dog an has been having "episodes" for quite some time now they are usually 1min - 5min she will go into the episode and act like she does not know where she is and she will try and stand and stumble her head is slightly tilted she will urinate, her back legs act they completely have given out and she will shake, but once the episode is done she is fine.

One six years old dog was brought for treatment in the hospital. The pet was circling on left side for last seven days, some nasal discharge and salivation was noted. Eyes were congested, appetite is also less and showing the sign of depression. Vaccination and deworming was at regular interval but some external parasites were noted for few months. So, what might be the possible diagnosis and treatment?

My dog Max is 7, 6 months ago started having dizziness. Head shakes not tilt, no rapid eye movement just focus difficulties and difficulty walking standing, last less than five minutes. Have had about six of these attacks with them lasting a little longer with last two. Tonight had another but this time lasted 30 minutes with great difficulty using back legs. If u call him he's alert can come to u but after not being able to properly use back legs crawled to me. It seems not just dizzy spells now,
any suggestions? Thank you so much!

My dog who is 15 years old all of a sudden has some balance issues, he's eating and drinking, goes outside as usual but he's not steady, he walks up the stairs sideways, and when he's at a stand still he's has a slight rock.

Killian is a chihuahua who weighs 7 lbs. we got him from a humane society so we don't have any medical history previous to the point where we got him. Suddenly about a week ago he seemed very off balance. His head began to twirl in a circle when sitting down. The next day everything was fine. Well now his symptoms are back. They started yesterday and have continued through today.

I have a 5 year old 160lb English Mastiff and she has had symptoms of disorientation. The first time this happened was when she was sleeping in the sun, for a small amount of time maybe 15 minutes. When I woke her up to go in because it was too hot outside, her eyes were darting back and forth and she was almost in a panicked state. This happened again last night while she was sleeping under the covers, I assume she got over-heated again. Although this time she was in bed, but still had the same panicked reaction. The disorientation only lasted about 30 -40 seconds, and all I did was talk to her and pet her so she wasn't so panicked. Is this a normal reaction to being over-heated or is there something else going on?

My dog will randomly just fall, he will do it maybe once a week. He's 13 years old miniature schnauzer I've never had issues with him before. He still eats drinks plays everything but that episode every once in a while.

Our usual happy, bouncy dog has displayed the listed symptoms over the last week. We took him to the vet 30/03 - they sedated him, took xrays and blood and gave him a slow release pain patch as they said his stomach was very sore. They also prescribed him an antacid. We brought him home that night - he ate a small amount of food (usually he downs his dinner in 20 seconds flat), didn't drink any water (as hard as we tried), just laid there staring at nothing at times his eyes rolling back into his head (we didnt get much sleep that night). The next morning we took him back to the vet, his temperature was at 39.9. They gave him antibiotics and fluids via IV. We again picked him up that afternoon. Three days later, he has improved slightly, however still not wanting to get out of bed this morning. He is still clumsy and not willing to drink water (usually he'd down a large bowl every day). If he doesn't show improvements by tonight, we'll take him back to the vet. Very worried about him.

my dog, who was perfectly fine yesterday and earlier today suddenly became disoriented. she wouldn't come when called but would instead walk towards me before bolting a little then stopping completely. at first it seemed like she was paralyzed with fear but when we got her inside she started to stagger and walk in circles before laying down in areas she wouldn't before. she seems jumpy and confused. I had to hold her for a few minutes before she calmed down. is there something wrong with her or am I over reacting?

My dog had Vestibular syndrome last October due to an inner ear infection, he had his inner ear removed. The head tilt is still slightly there and he never 100% got his balance back but it has been most of the way there, however over the last two days his balance has been very bad, he's eating, drinking and happy other then that, his eyes aren't darting like last October and while he's unsteady on his feet he is able to walk. Could he just be having a bad few days and his balance will return?

Hi, My 7 year old rat terrier got diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago. I suspected he had something wrong for the past year but he's vet was not taking my concerns seriously, till I demand to get a blood work and check for diabetics . He's glucose was 460, and a week later after giving insulin I woke up and found him laying on the floor, he couldn't walk he was very disoriented. He had throw up everywhere. Took him to different vet, glucose was 650. They suggested two shots of insulin a day instead of one, same amount. For the past three days he's been drinking a lot of water again, this morning he woke up and he's beginning to loose he's balance. I'm afraid he'll have another episode. We spend almost $1,000 in two weeks already. We can't afford to keep taking him to vet when he gets disoriented. I'm giving him insulting every morning and every night, feeding him three small meals instead of one. What can I do ? Would this be cause by diabetics ? I don't understand how he seem to get worse when he started taking insulin instead of getting better.

My dog for the past two weeks,is unable to walk properly,she finds it difficult to get up from the place she is lying, seems disoriented,when disturbed in sleep, she urinates there itself,goes round in circles,finds ut difficult to go towards the doors,prefers to hide in dark places,eats when fed

When I got home from work, my dog greeted me but seemed very disoriented. He usually is super hyper and barks like crazy when I get home. Today, he greeted me at the door and went to lay on the couch. When he held his head up, it moved around as if he was dizzy. I checked his food bowl and it was all there. I walked around to see if he would follow me and didn't move from the couch. I noted this behavior for about two hours. I carried him outside to check his behavior. When standing, he would tilt to the side and end up laying down on the grass. He didn't seem in pain. He kept moving his head when held up and seems very disoriented, dizzy, and imbalanced. I finally got him to run around but when stopped he tilted to the side again and His head continued to slightly tremble.

I have an 8 month old blue nose pit and we think he was either born blind or there was a head trauma. We took him to the vet the first day I think he was 4 or5 weeks old because he had a huge soft lump on his head. The vet said it was brain fluid and pulled some out with a syringe. His lump went down but his "knot" on his head is now to the left and should be in the middle. He has some balance issues and will not stop circling our legs, just my husband and I. He tilts his head to the right but I'm thinking that is because he is blind. Please help[ the internet is scaring me!!

Mercury is blue healer mix with husky I think. She is usually playful, strong, and energetic. But since yesterday she's been calm and seems tiring for no reason. Today she is just not eating the snack nor dog food, but she does drink water. She tried to vomit, but only clear saliva comes out. Usually she would bark loud and constantly, but today she doesn't bark as loud nor as much. What is wrong with my dog?

Dog is dizzy, lethargic (very slow blinks and heavy eyelids), vomited, weak (can't stand without falling)..?

No, she hasn't eaten anything strange.
She had breakfast at 9am, no dinner yet as this started and I'm unsure if I should give her dinner (it's 630pm).
This has happened quite a number of times to her now. Vets keep saying she's ingested marijuana (no she hasn't.. and certainly not 6+ times in varying circumstances). Haven't taken her this time.. monitoring currently. Seems to be getting worse each time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Our six-month old Bloodhound, Beatrix, has appeared disoriented and dizzy on two separate occasions in the past two weeks. She looks like she is dancing with her head, but her balance is clearly off. She does not have a temperature, in fact, it was a bit low... She did vomit once this week, but we had a number of guests at the house for the holiday, perhaps stress? Dizziness occurred two days later. Wondering if you have any advice?

My husband and I have a Min-Pin who is approximately 13-15 years old (he was a rescue, and they weren't sure about his age.

In the last month, or so, he's been having more and more problems with his balance. His ears are clear, no irritation, and he has no head tilt, nor does he seem to have any problems with his eyes.

He eats and drinks VERY WELL, is not obese in any way however. Our main concern is his balance.

He does vomit from time to time, however, my husband and I have noticed that this usually happens after he has eatten grass.

The ONLY other symptoms that are abnormal with him is that he has SEVERE separation anxiety whenever my husband leaves the house. May it be a simple trip like to take out the garbage or to get the mail. His other abnormal symptom is that at times he has VERY LOUD gurgling sounds coming from his digestive tract. Our last vet said that it was simply gas, but after the "gurgling" stops, there is no "release" of this gas in any normal way that we can detect. Because, when he DOES release, the whole household is made aware of it. No matter what room they may be in!!! LOL!!!

We love our dog very much, and will do everything in our power to keep him as comfortable as possible. His demeanor has NOT changed with his loss of balance.

His gums have always been the bright pink of good health. And to our knowledge, he has NOT been bitten by any ticks. I always make a very thorough inspection when we bring him in after his daily walks. And, never once did I ever find any ticks on him!!!

It's almost as if he were drunk, or drugged. Both of which I can assure you is NOT the case!!!

Thank you in advance for your quick and timely response to this matter.

Lisa and Mark Howard

Our 9 week old puppy had a very scary "episode" last night...he was completely fine, then suddenly he began to tremor and became very lethargic with dizziness and disorientation. He was unable to stand and when he tried to walk, he fell over. Almost like he was intoxicated or drugged. He would not eat or drink, but we were able to give him water via syringe and this seemed to bring him around. Now he's back to being the playful happy puppy he was with no signs or symptoms of anything. Could he be diabetic or possible epileptic?

Our 7 month old labradoodle has been having disorientation issues lately. These episodes always take place in the morning when he wakes up. He is disoriented, unsteady on his feet (walks with heavy paws) no eye darting but I am not sure his vision is good, doesn't want to manage the stairs. This lasts for 30-45 minutes and then the rest of the day he is fine. This has happened once a week for the last 3 weeks. We have seen our local vet , he thinks it is something neurological. He put him on phenobarbital for 10 days but that was not effective.

My male pet Pluto - a Spitz is 16 Year sold. He was in good health bud suddenly got up with a unsteady gait and his head slightly tilted to the left and he was also as if falling on his left side.He had been disoriented for a few weeks previous to this.
He is not eating at all since 2 days though drinking water.
He had a ear infection a month ago but was cleared off 2 weeks ago with antibiotics.
Please advice.

On Thursday we picked up our dog from my grandma's place and she seemed fine. Friday morning she started vomiting uncontrollably, refused food, vomited whenever she drank. We took her to the vet's office and she concluded that grandma seemed to feed the dog way too much and thus made her sick. She was given antibiotics, had an enema, a complete blood work and was given medication to stop the vomiting. She did not get any better, continued to vomit and felt extremely weak. She could not stand properly anymore, her hind legs shook, refused food and began feeling extremely thirsty. We took her to the vet today again and she seemed to have a fever so she was given more antibiotics and another set of anti vomiting meds. We were also given homeopathic medication to help with the vomiting. She stopped vomiting, but continued being depressed and weak. After a few hours she stood up and started walking but kept stumbling, was very disoriented, her eyes kept twitching and she seemed to have no idea where she was. Because I live in a country where we have very few emergency vets I decided to turn to you. What could be causing this and do we need to get her to the vet again? Is she having a stroke?

Hello I have a Rottweiler 6 years old. He is been unwell since last Saturday. He had eye congestion initially , and we thought it was due to the hot weather. However, he started to lose his appetite, and vomited after each meal. His vomitus is very thick yellowish in colour. Associated with eye congestion as well. We brought him to the vet on Monday, did full biochemistry tests and X-ray, everything was normal except for slightly raised total white count. However, since Monday, he seems to be disorientated with head tilt, stumbles whenever he walks, circling and has excessive salivation with some weird mouth movements. Whenever that happens, he would not even look at us. He appears very lethargic as well as he doesn't want to eat anything. We brought him to the vet again today, but we were told to complete the course of antibiotics for 5 days with some anti emetics. I am very worried. What should I do? Thank you .Kindly advise

I have an eight-year-old Maltese Yorky who has been shaking and disorientated and unsteady on his feet for10 or 15 minutes .... then he snaps out of it and seems fine but these are occurring more often often what does this mean ???

My dog has vestibular disease and we started noticing symptoms a little over a week ago. We took her to the vet and everything checked out as being vestibular disease. It has been roughly 9 days and her symptoms have gotten much better. She still has a head tilt and walks a little funny but overall she was getting better. Today when we let her walk around the backyard we noticed that she was circling, which she hadn't done in about 3 days. Is this normal? I feel as though she has taken a step backwards and don't know if I should be worried.

I have a 3 year old Siberian Husky and she just had worms in her stool which my boyfriend and I cured. During this time, as well as now, we've noticed that she'll stumble down the stairs, run into doors or if she jumps off the bed, she'll lose her balance and hit the wall. We also noticed that her eyes were heavily dilated and we figured it's because she was indoors but I couldn't really even see her blue eyes which was concerning and I've never seen them that dilated before. She has not drank any water but she'll eat. We take her for walks and she is ok. My boyfriend and I started to get concerned that it's heart worms or some sort of disorientation. She also threw up in the early morning which she only had her dog food the night before and she never throws that up. Her stool is not liquidy at all. She also sleeps a lot and for a 3 year old Siberian Husky, that's not normal. Please help.

Our 15 year old lab/pit mix has had short episodes (usually under a minute) of disorientation, rapid eye darting and unbalanced (looks like he's trying to brace himself, but waivers side to side) It doesn't happen often, but happened twice this morning, within about 5 minutes of each other. He is fairly deaf (unless someone is opening a bag of chips :)), and does have poor eyesight. In the past year, it's probably happened about 5-6 times. He has been treated previously for lyme disease and has been diagnosed with a substantial heart murmur.

My 9 month old Chihuahua "Buck" recently started bumping into stuff. The first time was a pretty hard header into a desk. Now he is miss judging his jump. At first it was funny when he tripped up the stairs or fell off the couch after trying to hop up. He is still spunky, eats and drinks but he slips slightly when he is standing on his back legs or when he navigates opsticals. He is super fast and agile. For the last few hours he has been putzy. I am worried about him. We live in the country and he is allowed to run around in the yard with our other pets. I can't afford to bring him to the vet for every scare. What do you think I should do?

Our dog Marley has been diagnosed with "old dog syndrome". He is 14 years old and over the past week seems to be "absent" often paces around the house getting stuck in corners, has had issues with balance (has often fallen over) and decreased usage of his hind legs (especially after waking). He still eats/drinks although often need assistance to balance. We have seen no improvements of these conditions over the past 6 days, how long is it typically before we will see improvements if it is vestibular disease. Unfortunately I am not sure we can afford MRI or too much additional testing but we want to give him the best chance to recover if the impact to quality of life is only temporary. Any insight would be appreciated.

My Dog Gypsy is a German Shepard, Pit-bull, Lab mix, and she is barely 10 months old. Yesterday she was acting her usual self. She ate food just fine, drank water just fine, and she was the same this morning, when my mom and I left for work. When we came home from work 7 hours later, however; she ran to the truck and immediately attempted to jump in, never done before, and when I got out of the vehicle, she was unalbe to stand straight, hips and back feet in a splayed position, front feet shoulder width apart. Whenever she turned she fell down, rear first, and when she walked, it was with a awkward lurching gait. When she would go to move around objects, it seemed like she had a delayed response, running head first, side-first, or even being unable to move her hind end around the object successfully. Now I own a horse, and so thinking she got kicked, checked for broken bones, swelling, and dilation of eyes, finding none. We also had just brought home a puppy, but she acted like that when approaching the truck. She does have a problem with eating anything she can get her paws on, plastic, metal, rubber, and even tore up her bed to get to the stuffing, Could it be something she ate? I went and checked her water, found it empty, and immediately filled it, it was full this morning with about 6 cups of water, and when I gave her more, she drank nearly 8-10 cups in 8 minutes. could dehydration have played a role? she continues now, even at 10:16 PM, but it seems slightly better, but she still hits objects, and hits the slider and screen constantly. She also lives outside, what could be wrong.

I have a 9 year old terrier mix who is diabetic. She started acting a bit strange tonight and stumbling when she walks. She has had her insulin shots and had had no trauma. She feels warm to the touch and her breathing is a bit heavy.

I have a two year old dog named Lucy. Usually she’s the happiest most energetic dog. But today out of nowhere she started having head tremors, shaking from side to side. Then when she tried to jump on the couch her legs slipped out from underneath her. Usually when she goes outside she barks when she wants in, and today she has not barked one time. I also noticed she hasn’t touched her food or water. I’m super worried. I hope I can get some comforting advice.

I have an almost 11 yr old Golden Retriever. A few months ago I noticed that when she stands up and begins to walk, her front legs go out from under her. I thought it was due to the hair between her pads that was causing her to slip on the kitchen floor so I trimmed the hair. She was fine for a few days then back to slipping. Yesterday morning, I got up to put both dogs outside and she hesitated. She stood up, shook her head like she was dizzy, started to walk and her front legs gave out. She did the same thing this morning. The shaking of the head doesn't happen frequently but the balance in her front legs is getting more apparent.

She was just at the vet for her shots and had an office exam. Dr checked her ears but didn't say anything about an ear infection. She doesn't walk in circles, has a normal appetite for water, food and treats. When she's outside, she still chases squirrels and lets the neighbors know she's out there.

My dog is a German shepher/husky/lab mix and is almost 3 years old. We live in Florida so it is pretty hot for him down here. I only take him out early in the morning and late in the afternoon so he is not in direct sunlight. Lately, when I take him out he fetches the ball about 5 times and then starts to get dizzy and stumbles (kind of looks like he's drunk). At first I thought it was because he was overheating, but it has happened almost every time we go out now even if its not hot out.

Hi,
My three year old chihuahua Darcie has developed some very strange episodes that normally last about 10 minutes. She acts as though she’s drunk or on some sort of hallucinogenic. When you call her name out she will turn her whole body to try and find where you are calling from but when she looks at you she looks as though she’s looking straight through you. She can’t walk and will tip either way. She tries to hold her front paws up to her face and her rear left leg she will try and keep close to her body when she tries to walk too. Normally she will come back around after 5/10 mins if we call her name, stroke her and let her lick us. The first time she did this she did it two days in a row just the one time each. We took her to the vet and she gave darcie a lower back scan as we had recorded a video and shown it to her. She prescribed painkillers incase she was in pain and the results came back with nothing. Since then Darcie has been perfectly fine except for last night she had another episode but this time twice in a row, both lasting 5/10 mins with about a 5/10 min gap inbetween. Apparently the night before she was sick and then last night after her episodes she was sick again. She is now resuming her normal life as though nothing has happened. Any ideas,

Many thanks!

Jack

My 4 year old female pug has started doing this strange thing. She stared at the floor and her head starts twitching. She doesn't do it all the time. I can yell her name and it takes a minutes but she will snap out of it. Any idea what could be causing this? Thank You

My dog has recently had watery eyes and has become disoriented when walking. He trembles a lot also and his head bobbles from side to side when he walks as well. He's eating okay, but not drinking water (as far as I know). What does this sound like to you?

I have a 5 year old 3lb male tea cup yorkie. He has been stumbling, having a hard time balancing and he has a hard time focusing, constantly his eyes move from side to side. I noticed it a few days ago but it seems to be getting worse. He never has been a big eater, his appetite seems to be the same. Is there anything I can do to help him feel more comfortable. I have read that fish oils may help with brain development. What do you suggest.

I have an older Papillon (10+ years) that has recently starting having brief episodes of disorientation. Usually after waking up in the AM. She will suddenly have some trouble walking, then lays down on the ground and is clearly disoriented for 30 seconds to a minute. While this is happening, she will sometimes also urinate.

She will then regain her balance, stand up, and is fine – going about her day like nothing happened. Her appetite is good, and she's eating normally. There's no signs of any injuries, strange growths, etc.

On a side note: Recently, she did develop a lump under her right eye that appeared to be from an insect bite or sting. It eventually ruptured and drained fluid, and a little puss. I cleaned it up and applied some antibiotic ointment.

It would be healing well, when she would scratch at it and reopen the wound. This continued for a few weeks, but it has now finally healed. Could this be related in way to the disorientation she's now experiencing?

I have a six year old dog that over the past couple of weeks has acted a bit confused/disoriented. At first I thought she was having issues seeing, but she seems to look right at me and even come right up to me when I call her. Other times she bumps right into things. My friend came over and she ran out and nose dived right into her. Once she heard her voice and smelled her, she was fine. Her eyes have been "darted". She looks worried/nervous at times. She head bumps into things and other times seems like she gets around fine. It's almost more like her perception is off. At about the age of two she experienced a seizure like episode and came right out of it like nothing happened. She has had a few over the years that didn't last longer than maybe a couple, maybe three minutes or so and again it was like nothing happened. During the episodes, she becomes unstable on her feet. She will be wobbly and attempts to walk but I comfort her in a still position. She will clinch her teeth and drool a bit. Her eyes are wide and she seems aware of me with her. She will actually come to me as if for comfort. I sit with her and know she is fine when she licks my face. She hasn't had one in quite some time now, but over the past couple of weeks she has started with the disorientation. I'm truly worried as my pets are my family. I'm also scared to death of a vet bill I cannot afford. She is my little girl though. Any suggestions?

Something is wrong with my dog. Sadie has been acting strange for about 16 hours now. I walked outside to go put her away, and I found throw up everywhere. I noticed that when she had gotten up, she was shaking and just fell. She is very dizzy, and drank a lot of water. She can't keep the water down, and refuses to eat food. Her head tilts to the right, and her eyes move rapidly, unable to focus on one thing. She lays, and sleeps. She doesn't go pee, unless I slowly walk her to the dirt area or just somewhere in general. She can't squat, and when she does use the bathroom, she goes a lot. I need help, because it's breaking my heart.

Hello,

I have a 9 year old black lab/boxer mix. She has pretty bad arthritis that the vet discovered a few months ago. On top of that, she also had yeast infections in both of her ears a couple of weeks ago. However, she has had trouble walking straight as well as laying down or getting up after laying down. She sometimes falls while she is trying to walk and runs into things quite a lot. She will not eat or drink on her own. She tries to get certain food from her bowl when I hold it up for her but she acts as though she is unable to pick up the food on her own so I have to feed it directly to her. I also have to give her her water with a bottle and force it through her barred teeth as she does not like me giving her water this way.

I have talked to the vet multiple times and had many scans done as well as blood work but she is unable to find anything wrong other than the arthritis and ear infections. I am very concerned as she was a completely different dog in the summer and has been like this ever since. I don't see how arthritis can cause a dog to change so drastically in such a short time. We have also stopped giving her any medications until the ear infections clear up.

I am not sure what to do and have another appointment at the vet Wednesday but it seems like the vet really does not know what is wrong with her since she keeps telling me it is just the arthritis and ear infections.

Could there be something else that she is not finding?

Hello, I have a 9 year old male boxer. This last year I noticed a lot of changes on him. He was having trouble with his 2 back legs and he was also a bit overweight. I took him to our vet and he advised for me to give him glucosamine because he might have arthritis and to put him on a diet for some weight loss. He seemed to be doing a lot better but recently I started noticing some new symptoms. Lately he seems dizzy and not as aware. He seems disoriented and has been tripping or falling a lot. Every time he gets down from the couch he doesn't land correctly. He is still joining me on our daily walks but seems sideways in some way. Usually he's very playful and likes to bite the leash and pull it from me every time we walk and tonight I was encouraging for him to grab the leash I'd put it in front of his face and he didn't seem to acknowledge it. He also has this bump that to me looks like a mosquito bite around his side. Grew to the size of a dime and wont grow hair on it. Sort of soft. Doesn't seem to itch or bother him unless I touch it. Dont know if he is allergic, I'm really worried. He is still eating everyday and going out for walks its been about a week of these symptoms. Pls help. I love him :(

I have three female peranise puppys, 9 weeks old. they were born with shakes. difficult walking.The mother stop feeding at for weeks. had on milk replacer until 8 wks then on puppy food. they eat good

Hi there. We have a 10 week old puppy that we have had at home for approx 2.5wks. We noticed he wouldn’t sit / lie down a couple of weeks ago and seemed a bit out of sorts so took him to the vets. No high temperature and normal heart rate but she thought his anal glands were swollen so drained them. He was then fine for a few days, but then we took him to puppy class and he seemed anxious and didn’t want to play with the other dogs / do any training. The class is at the vets so a vet saw him and was worried there could be a neurological problem but looked in his eyes / did some tests and couldn’t see anything that jumped out. We went home and had an appointment to go back in the morning. When we did, Oscar seemed fine and the vet (a different person) wasn’t worried at all and thought he must have been having an off day. A few days later (23rd Dec) he seemed off again in the morning and had his tail between his legs. He didn’t want to eat or play and was more lathargic than usual. I took him back to the vets and they took some blood that they sent off. They also took temperature, heart rate etc all of which were normal. They said to go home and bring him back if he deteriorated and they would have the blood results in a few days. He perked up that night. Then on the next morning he didn’t want to get out of bed at all. Didn’t want any food again and seemed really down. We took him back and they did some blood tests on site. He had a high level of white blood cells and high calcium in his blood. They still weren’t sure what was actually wrong with him but thought it was possibly an infection. They have him an antibiotic injection and he was on a drip for a few hours. They sent us to the animal hospital where he was admitted and on a drip for the night. We took him home the next day (24th) with some oral antibiotics (Synulox) and he seemed full of beans. Very playful and huge appetite on 24th / 25th / 26th. However, this morning he seems to have reverted back and didn’t want his food again. He seemed disoriented and wobbly. When we were holding him saying his name his eyes looked glassy and as though he wasn’t really there. We took him back to the vets and they have admitted him again but nobody seems to be able to figure out what is actually wrong with him. He was supposed to have his second set of shots today but that is on hold whilst they investigate the issues. As an aside, he was sneezing quite a lot yesterday. He is also the runt of the litter and small for his age (sorry, he is a golden retriever). He also hasn’t really got puppy fur - his fur is much shorter and he is quite skinny (you can feel his ribs quite easily when you pick him up) even though we have been trying to encourage him to eat as much as possible to help him grow. We are so worried about him and any help or any idea of what you think the problem could be would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Cameron

Our 12yo Australian Shepherd has had several bouts of Vestibular Disease over the past year. Sh'e been through the whole diagnostic screening - blood, full x-rays, ultrasound, spinal tap, and brain MRI. Nothing abnormal or definitive was found to cause her bouts, with the possible exception of some mini-strokes seen in the brain for the MRI. She is under treatment for HPB. She gets a relatively minor bout every few months and recovers in 2-3 days with the head tilt lasting a little longer and always a little present. My questions are: 1) Is this common to go on like this in her older years, and 2) we get conflicting advice over whether to give her Meclizione during these bouts to help her get over it. She's only thrown up once in one episode (and we gave her a few days of Meclizine that time), but the other times we can't tell if it helps. Thank you.

My dog miki was experiencing the usual symptoms of vestibular diseases head tilt loss of balance etc. he had this going on for about 2-3 weeks than he recovered and was fine for about 3 months yesterday we took him outside and he did a lot more running around and walking than usual also the temp was about 70 outside we came home and he went to sleep but he woke up an hour later and was experiencing the same symptoms I was wondering what it could possibly be?

Romeo is an 11 pound 13 year old dog with kidney disease. Last week he had a blood test and his numbers were best they have been and fairly stable . At that time last week we noticed he was unbalanced but not horribly just a little wobbly. Vet started him in broad spectrum antibiotic. A few days later he must of fell of bed and hit his head. Huge swollen eye was bruising . Vet examined and gave drops w steroid and also prednisone for any head swelling . He was very lathargic and didn’t do much but sleep that day. Yesterday was day two and he slept a lot during saybbut wanted out a few times. W assistance Bc he does fall over easily or will even tip over head first sometimes . Last night he wouldn’t cry frequently and be panicked and you couldn’t not hold him to calm him. Just seems panicked .Doesn’t appear to acknowledge me and I’m normally not his world. Seemed to have nothing but a miserable two days. If he continues we will have to put him down Bc his quality of life just dropped so bad . He’s done so goodnfibhting the kidney disease now this just won’t go away. Today is day three (his fall was Sunday night I think) and day three on prednisone. Don’t see any improvement re balance at all. He’s so wobbly he hasn’t ate one drank on his own but Bc kidney dies raw he gets subq fluids twice a day anyways and we did spoon feed him his kd diet.

My dog is older minitcure schnauzer. This past Saturday he started to shake with tilted head as well as loss of balance with excessive panting! He seemed fine the fallowing day was just a little off I come home from work today and he’s barley got balance his head is super tilted and he just looks so confused! What do I do!?!?!?!?

My bearded collie, 14yrs, has disorientation problems. At times cannot balance. Sleeps a lot and when she wakes from a deep sleep is disorientated. She knows when she needs to relieve herself and goes to the back door to be let out. She sometimes ends up in a corner after waking. However, when it's walk time, I put her in the car and she is excited to go and just before she arrives she is barking with excitement. She has her walk without any balance problems and can walk a good hour, though of course at her age she is not bounding about, but has the odd sniff here and there. She has had all the blood tests at the vet and all is perfect, like internal organs,etc. and no ear infections. Yes, she could have an MRI, but whatever they find would you personally go further with operations etc. now that she's 14.5yrs?

My 12 year old Manchester Terrier is having symptoms like a stroke. He is droopy, has trouble walking, back legs wide, holding right front paw up. His appetite is normal and there is no vomiting. The first time it happened several weeks ago, he recovered to normal in 24hrs. I took him to the vet and had a full blood workup done. All was normal. My Vet says no stroke but he may be having some type of seizures. It has happened a few time since then and again this morning.

Worried after my dog had dizzy episode on a walk. The episode lasted of short duration ,but was very worrying. The weather very warm today 30*c
She was wormed yesterday with Advacate drops
She seems ok now ,but I’m worried please advise.

My one year old shiba Inu puppy was running around and playing with his siblings. And all of a sudden completely lost balance, tipped over and when it was unable to get up. His head was bobbing and he looked almost like a drunk person staggering. He then lay down closed his eyes in stayed still for a few minutes. Then he got up and was able to walk and jumped up on the couch and is now asleep next to me.

My girl is 17 years old and my best friend and shadow. She has been having mild seizure for approx 5 months. Over the last month, they are more regular. Today she is unsteady on her feet. But, alert, happy, eating and drinking and knows her surrounding's and who we all are in her family.

She doesn't appear to be in any discomfort or pain. It will shatter me, when I lose her. But, I would hate myself if she is in any pain.

Please give your advice.

We have a older King Charles Cavalier who has been having regular grande mal seizures approx every 6-8 weeks for the last 4 years. She also developed diabetes 2-3 years ago. Since diagnosis of epilepsy, she has had tremors but over the last few weeks, she is losing her balance and on occasions finds it difficult to walk around without stopping to get her balance. She paces around a lot and barks constantly in the evenings for no apparent reason. She is eating ok but drinks excessively even though her diabetes appears to be reasonably well controlled. Could this be a brain tumour ?

I noticed this morning when my Puggle woke that he was unable to get up on all 4 legs. With a little help I was able to get him to stand. He stood very wobbly and slightly confused. I have tile floors in my house which I know is not good for his balance. He is able to get around a little, and now he continues to go in and out the dog door constantly. He has been able to eat and drink normally. I don't know what to do and the vet can't see us until Monday. I just had to put another senior rescue down in January and my heart is breaking for my buddy. :( Last night I noticed a slight wobble when I woke him up to come to bed, I thought at that point he might have just been disoriented for being woken up but it has seemed to have gotten worse. He doesn't seem to be in any pain.

my dog sonny has episodeswhere he seems disoriented and cowers to the ground,shakes and trembles alittle,cant stay still , seems to go in what I call circles.these happen about 3 to 5 times a month,hell be laying comfortably down or sleeping and suddenly get up cowerand walk around in circular patterns. any comments

My English bulldog is approaching 5 years old. The last few months he has not been doing well. He’s had severe disorientation, head tilt, lethargic, trouble walking, trouble standing, etc. We’ve had multiple trips to the local vet and have done blood tests, urine test and multiple physical exams. After mentioning recurring ear infections the vet finally looked at his ears. I mentioned that I think it could be some sort of deep in infection causing the imbalance. We’ve had multiple attempts of steroid/antibiotic combinations and no luck. At this point he’s not getting better and it’s hard to watch. Chips doesn’t get excited when people come over, he takes a while to get up in the morning and seems to be a shell of himself. I’m at a point where I don’t know what to do and I am concerned he isn’t living an enjoyable life.

I have a small 18 pound mixed femail, I noticed about 3 days ago she was acting different when ever I would go to pet her back she would cry out in pain.
She has never done this before, and hade not had anything happen to her for her to have this pain. Later not that same knight I noticed she was shaking uncontrollably so the very next day i took her to the vet. Unfortunately they we not able to tell me what was wrong with her all the did was give her pills for the pain she was having (gabapentin, carprofen) witch did help for that day. But the very next day she was worse she did not want to eat at all nor drink water, she even seems to have trouble walking. She walks at an extremely slow pace and even has a sway to her walk with she has never had before. She is also having trouble jumping on to thing, can you please help me I don't know what is wrong with her or what yo do!

Hi my 3 year old female miniture pincher pommerainian had puppies a few weeks ago and is at the moment panting excesivley and cant walk straight wont eat or drink and seems very taxed almost the puppies are all fine it seem and havent been dewormed yet

My female German Shepherd, 2 1/2 yrs old, has an unstable gate. She acts depressed, hind legs seem weak and getting crossed when walking. She wags her tale, which at times crosses into her hind legs, she is however eating and drinking fine and comes when called or follows me around. She doesn't pant fast all the time but occasionally. No vomiting or diarrhea and is UTD on vaccines. I haven't noticed any head tilting, scratching of ears, shaking of her head,whining, ect. really her only symptoms seem to be possible depression, weak, and unstable gate. She also had a litter of pups May 16th 2018, all were very healthy. I thought she was just depressed as all her puppies were leaving until i saw the unstable gate.

I have a 14 week old great dane puppy yesterday we rushed him to er vet with symptoms of vestibular disease... extreme head tilt ...crooked walk... difficulty standing.. balling up to the left... and rapid eye movements... the vet ran a panel and everything was normal.. reffered us to a neurologist... within a few hours the symptoms completely went away. what the heck is going on?

Our dog has had funny turn s for the last three nights. He has 'awakened' from sleep,seemed confused, roamed around, bashed into things, lip smacking, only partial awareness that we are there. The first time I thought he had got a fright. It lasted for 4 hrs, 2 nd night lasted an hour, and again he was in the same confused state, and the last time it lasted half an hour. All awakened from sleep. I am a doc, and in a human I'd be asking myself about a parasomnia, or temporal lobe epilepsy/ fugue state. What do you think

My dog is a Shiba Inu and is 5 yrs old. about 6 months ago he got all his routine vaccine shots from a new vet and after a couple of days i noticed that for the 1st time he got off balance, tremble, disoriented and unable to stand. He wouldn't stand up normally but would tremble and sort of try to lie on the floor but would tilt/roll over sideways almost like loosing control of body. To date he has had 3 such episodes each has lasted for a minute or two and he was fine right after in a matter of minutes. I am not sure what this is? and how to cure it? Could this be due to the vaccines given by the new vet? This never happened before the vaccines and now he has had 3 episodes. Please advise, its such a scary thing to see my dog have to go through this.

My dog is twelve years old, he started to feel weird this morning and seems to have all the symptoms of vestibular disease. He is disoriented, can't walk properly in a straight line, doesn't want to lay down and he struggles to look at me correctly, even though his sight is not the best.
However, he has no vomite and eats and drinks as usually. What can I do? I know he's old but he's my baby, I want him to get better.

Came home from work today and puppy(10 weeks) I just roll around on her head, not able to get up on front legs at all. She feels warm, I have been giving her drinks of water with a syringe. She had her 1st puppy shots on Friday. She was acting normal this morning before I left, not sure what has happened.

Hello my 15 year old Australian Shepherd Roxy has not been doing well the last week. One day she is her spunky self, awaiting for her next walk. The next day she cant move from her bed and seems to be disorientated. When she tries to walk, she fall side to side. On these days she is unresponsive, lays in one spot, and doesn't lift her head. On these bad days she wont eat but she will drink multiple bowls of water, when I bring them to her.

Do you think she is having seizures when i am not around? Is this just her old age?

I took her to the vet and got full blood work done. They said everything was normal.

My vet did find a tick on her. She precsibed Roxy 100mg Doxycycline every 12 hours. I am scared the medication can be threating if she is having seizures. I live in south florida and tick diseases are not common here.

Please if you can, get back to me with some advice / help. This is not her normal behavior, I dont want her to be in pain, this whole thing is heart breaking. Thank you in advance for your time.

Alexa Rose

My 15 year old Havanese suddenly started being unable to walk without spinning in circles, today. He seems very anxious, and is panting and whining like he does during thunderstorms and car rides. He is eating, and seems to be very thirsty. He is also being very aggressive, (more than usual...he is prone to fear based aggression, but this is more noticeable than usual) and has nearly bitten me a couple of times when I've taken him outside. He doesn't seem to be able to pinpoint our location by sound, looking off to the side of where we are when we are talking to him, but doesn't seem to be having a problem with his vision.

Normally, I'd have already taken him to the vet, but this being a holiday weekend, and living in a rural area, the nearest emergency vet is over an hour's drive and as he does not do well in the car under the best of times, I'm hesitant to subject him to a car ride, further, he would have to be sedated because he has to be muzzled and sedated when he goes for normal vet check ups as he is prone to biting.

I have an 8 week old puppy I got him at a very young age of about maybe 5 weeks or younger. Once a day maybe he will not be able to move when he wakes up. He will just lay there and cry. I never thought anything of it I just thought he was tired. But now it has been happening for sometime. It will only last about a minute long or shorter then he's back to playing. Even when he's playing he is constantly crying still. He has randomly puked a few times and some days he just won't eat. He was at the vet a few weeks ago and they said he was a healthy puppy.

Our 6 year old beagle got up from his bed last night and vomited. I then noticed he had nystagmus and a slight head tilt. We took him to the ER, the symptoms stopped and then returned in the car. Symptoms stopped again when we got to ER but returned again. He seemed his happy self in between episodes. His ears are squeaky clean and blood work was perfect. They had us take him home and watch him. He was worse when we got home, with more rapid eye movement and unable to control his head movement. He was drooling and breathing very fast. Gave him the meclizine and watched him all night. MRI was recommended if he doesn't improve. Wanted to see what you thought. The symptoms came and went so quickly, but stuck around later in the night. He is normally a happy healthy beagle.

My 13+ year old Lab mix has had trouble walking, keeping her balance the last few days. She's had vestibular disease in the past so we sort of knew how to handle things. Along with the disorientation, she is experiencing loss of appetite so we have tried to supplement with some canned dog food. She has lost so much weight, her ribs are protruding. Her episodes seem to worsen immediately after eating, she can barely walk, she lays down and grunts, tonight she started foaming at the mouth. She does this for about 5 minutes until she can get to sleep.

Please help:

My dog suffered from a seizure and from there deteriorated quickly. She became very confused and did not eat/drink. She would over sleep, constant trembling and when I would touch her she would have head tremors. She would bump into everything in her way and at times was unable to find her way out it. I switched her to canned food because she was swallowing her dry food whole without biting. I had lab work done which showed elevated WBCs and liver enzymes. Vet prescribed medications which I've listed and she was able to regain her strength and walk. Day 4 of her TX she wagged her tail and greeted the other dogs but afterwards she went back to her disoriented stage. With canned food she would eat very quickly but her water intake has gone down. I cannot keep her with the other dogs because she will pace herself tired and is unable to find her food/water bowl. What else can I do for her? What is her prognosis?

I have a 4 yr old chihuahua { tink } that is for the most part very healthy,except for bad teeth. i think its gingivitis,cause her teeth are green. this morning she lost control of her moter skills,she could not stand up and kept rolling over on her side,pee ed all over self and her little front legs were kinda stiff. I picked her up and that seemed to bring her out of it a little and layed in bed with me. I just rubed her gently and told her it was ok and she calmed down,fell right to sleep for about 5 min and then throw up very little yellow liquid. she slept again for 10 min and then appears to be fine..walking ok like nothing happen..she is now sleeping,with no more vomiting. could this be her teeth causing this or poisoning or toxic some thing ????? any info would help

thank you very much
sammie

I have a 8 year old chihuahua/shitzu and a month ago got a 4 month old Maltese/havenese., which has all his shots. The last couple day our 8 year old is having a hard time focusing.when you call him he looks to the side and seems to try and find you. Within a couple days they have both developed diarrhea, which I have read to be what sounds like the squirts? We r in Arizona on vacation from California and in the morning looking for a vet. I am worried Parvovirus , any thoughts?