Has anyone ever known anything like this before...

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MizElz

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my aunt's german shepherd bitch, who is 7 years old, has been unwell for the last six weeks or so. apart from an op to remove a cancerous breast tumour a couple of years ago, she has been a completely healthy dog all her life. but one morning, she seemed disorientated, and ever since has been walking with her head very much to one side, as if suffering from a severe ear infection. this option was ruled out by several vets; they have carried out blood tests, xrayed her and she's had an MRI scan, but nothing has been found. they put her on very strong anti biotics as a precautionary measure, in case there was any infection that the scans had failed to find. this seemed to help her a little, and she improved steadily over the course of a week. but now, still on the anti biotics, she has taken a sharp turn for the worst; the tilt of her head has worsened, and she has very poor coordination. she is almost totally deaf - last week, the vet said the most she could hear was 20% in one ear, and this has since gotten worse - and whats more, we now think she has lost her sense of sight and smell. you can dangle a piece of chicken under her nose and until she feels it on her lips, she has no idea its there. bearing in mind she is the most vivacious dog i have ever known, she is a shadow of her former self. her personality has changed to the point that she doesnt recognise anyone anymore, and to anybody who knew the relationship between her and my aunt, this is simply tragic - Ava is like her child, her soulmate. also, she no longer tries to have a go at other dogs - she's never been the most sociable dog, but we no longer feel we have to keep her separate from our dogs, two of whom she has previously attacked. the only incident we can possibly think of where she banged her head is that when she jumps into my aunts car, she has been known to bash her head on the door in her hurry to get in. but this seems trivial when we think of the symptoms she is suffering now.
we are taking her up to Herts for an EEG on Thursday....but it doesnt look good; my aunt has already made the decision that if she IS deaf AND blind, there will no longer be any quality of life for her. i just wondered if anybody has ever heard of anything like this before....any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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no words of wisdom to add re. what may be wrong, but thought I would let you know that we have a very old, deaf dog who is almost completely blind (possibly totally) and he is still very happy. he sleeps in a lot and won't always come for a walk but he is content. he is also a far cry from the dog he was, but he is not unhappy or suffering at all. so there is a chance of having a good quality of life with these problems.
 
Does the dog spin round in circles,Does the dogs eyes flick from side to side whether it be slow or rapid flicking?.If yes to these your dog might be suffering from Vestibula syndrome.It is also known as old dog syndrome.My collie i have now who is 16 years old took a real bad turn for the worse last december,we thought he had had a stoke.His co-ordintation was very bad (like he was drunk),Eye flicking,Dident like bright lights,Spinning in circles and dident want anything to eat or drink.The vets gave him Anti-Inflams and he recovered well,Then has had a couple of smaller bouts since then but anti flams have sorted him out agasin and touch wood he is doing good at the moment.
 
we wondered about a stroke, too....the vet didnt seem to think she had, but we cant think of anything else that would show the same symptoms. because im sure a brain tumour or a clot would show up on the scans....

i know many animals can live happily being blind and deaf; good friends of ours had a little jack russell who went blind and deaf with old age, and he coped ok. but Ava is so depressed at not being able to see/hear/smell, and combine that with the fact that she can no longer distinguish her owner from a stranger...it just doesnt seem fair. i think her whole nervous system is slowly giving up on her
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and she's only seven, and a young seven at that. she's not ready to become an 'old' and dependent dog yet
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[ QUOTE ]
Does the dog spin round in circles,Does the dogs eyes flick from side to side whether it be slow or rapid flicking?.If yes to these your dog might be suffering from Vestibula syndrome.It is also known as old dog syndrome.My collie i have now who is 16 years old took a real bad turn for the worse last december,we thought he had had a stoke.His co-ordintation was very bad (like he was drunk),Eye flicking,Dident like bright lights,Spinning in circles and dident want anything to eat or drink.The vets gave him Anti-Inflams and he recovered well,Then has had a couple of smaller bouts since then but anti flams have sorted him out agasin and touch wood he is doing good at the moment.

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TBH, i havent seen her do this...she staggers and loses her balance, but doesnt seem to go in circles. her eyes dont seem to flicker either, though she does have trouble trying to focus them. iv never heard of this syndrome though...im glad your boy seems to be doing ok
 
thanks Rema - i will print off a copy and give it to my aunt....it does actually sound like a possibility, having read the article!
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Colu she have banged her head? my old staffie was doing the same as your aunts dog he was only six at the time there was no recognition of us and he even had to be helped to go out side. Vets did all tests and found nothing one of the vet nurses then suggested that he could have had an epileptic fit. vet put5 him on beta blockers for a few days an he slowly came round.He was on epilepsy medication for the rest of his life but he did live to be 15 vet thought he had either banged his head or the fire works that were going off at the time could have caused it.
Maybe your aunt could ask about it.
Hope things turn out ok.
 
Mort - she has banged her head (continually) trying to get in the boot of the car before it is fully opened. of course, you assume that if she carries on doing it, it cant hurt her much, but it is the only thing we can think of to link with a possible head injury. in a way, i hope it is down to this, but the vet said that there would be bruising/bleeding/swelling if it was due to a bang
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An old dog of mine had a sort of fit, or a stroke - not sure. Afterwards, she did the head on one side bit, but the worst was, she no longer recognised either us or her surroundings. She was completely disoriented and very distressed. If you took her out, and let her off the lead, she'd set off purposefully in one direction and I had to run after her to get her back. Regret she did not recover. However, she was old.
 
interesting post there is two things i can think of it being 1 is a stroke and 2 is a type of fit, my grandad has always rescued basenjis and 2 of them suffered from fits, one would just start to shake for a few seconds then would be fine but as he got older they would last longer and the last few he was completely disorientated and would fall over and the last one he would not come out of at all and was sadly put to sleep, the other dog used to have the same but on a lot larger scale and would froth and could not walk for about 5mins after without falling over all the time.but the vets couldn tell us what was causing it or how to stop it.
 
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