Possible vision or neuro problem?

[EchoInterrupted]

Vet appointment is scheduled for Monday, but we've been investigating various things for a while now that could potentially be linked so I wanted to see if anyone else has seen anything similar. I'm worried there is something underlying all of these issues and we aren't putting it together.

Over the past several months, my dog (6.5 year old medium sized mixed breed) has started going up stairs much more slowly, slowing down generally, and stumbling more. At one point she started limping on a hind leg, at which point we had all her limbs x-rayed and they found no arthritis, hip dysplasia, etc but did say she has very mild joint effusion in her hind legs. However, the leg that has the worse joint effusion (very mild anyways) was the one she wasn't limping on, so they established the limping was likely an unrelated strain, pulling something, etc as she had done quite a bit of intense physical exercise in the days leading up to it. After an exam and the xrays they felt she was not in pain.

Something still isn't quite sitting right with me as she is really slow going up stairs, seems uncoordinated sometimes when going to squat to pee, and just generally seems really slow.

The last two weeks we have noticed she seems to have trouble seeing my hand when I reach out to hand her treats and she has run/walked straight into various objects and is tripping quite a bit. I noticed the occasional tripping already a couple months ago, but figured it was linked to whatever musculoskeletal thing was going on. A friend who has watched her recently said he felt that her front legs also seemed a bit uncoordinated. We thought the walking into things issue might have been a temporary issue because she had to wear a cone recently due to an anal gland rupture/infection and the lack of coordination seemed a lot worse after the cone came off, but it's been two weeks and it's not decreasing in frequency. Her eyes were already examined late last year (maybe November or December) because she had an episode of conjunctivitis. They put stain in her eyes and examined them and she was given an all clear besides the infection and it resolved with a couple days of medication.

I'm sure they'll examine her eyes again, but does anyone else think there could be something underlying all the issues more generally? I keep feeling like I'm just reading into things and being a dog-hypochondriac, but after a walk with two friends today they both noticed that she seemed to be struggling with coordination/sight. She's turning seven in September and I just can't figure out if this is a normal part of aging, or if there is something more ominous underlying all these things.

Anyone know what they might check further re vision or neuro problems? All of the things seem relatively minor/possibly just aging, but it just seems like a lot is happening at once (since November we have been to the vet for eye infection, limping, anal gland rupture with vomiting, and now this) when previously we had never in six years needed to go to the vet for anything but annual vaccines.

Appreciate any thoughts

 

[Jenko109]

I would want to see a proper ophthalmologist rather than just a pet vet. Also an MRI of spine and brain.

Absolutely not normal and you are not over thinking.

 

[EchoInterrupted]

Thank you! I think the difficult part is that at this point it is all so subtle - when she trips it's small and she always catches herself. She doesn't always miss it when I give her a treat from the left, but she does regularly enough (along with trying to "eat the air" when she misjudges where my hand is). She'll walk straight into a rubbish bin or telephone pole, but then recovery immediately (and it's only happened maybe 4 times). Things are rare enough that they're difficult to catch on camera, but big enough that I feel like something is wrong and a couple friends have picked up on small changes as well. We'll see what the vet says on Monday and if there is anywhere in the area that does scans/if the vet would recommend that. I definitely feel like something is at minimum up with her vision... Fingers crossed we start to know more soon so I can at least stop worrying. Ah how nice it would be to roll back 2 years in time to when she was a spry 4 year old in fantastic physical shape. For some reason I hadn't thought that would change until she was at least 8 or 9, 6 still feels so young to start really acting like an "old dog"

 

[Clodagh]

Not the same symptoms but Tawny saw a neurologist last year and he did a full eye exam on her. Took her off to a dark room and was gone ages.
I hope you soon get to the bottom of it.

 

[Flyermc]

have you had ago at a hind knuckling test? i believe its one of many tests that a vet might try for coordination problems

 

[EchoInterrupted]

have you had ago at a hind knuckling test? i believe its one of many tests that a vet might try for coordination problems

I've tried a knuckling test and she puts her feet back immediately. I've also tried to do the hopping test where you hold up a front leg and she is able to hop in both directions, but seems (to me) worse on one side than the other. Not sure if it's just that being her non-dominant side though.

I've been trying to figure out if there is a difference in her eyesight right vs left and it does seem to me like there is. I've tried to add a video here - will see if it works.

Do others feel like she struggled to see the treat when it was put to the right of her face, compared to the left? Would just be good to see if others are seeing what I'm seeing. She seems to have seen some of the movement, but not be looking at the right spot, then smelled it and tried to find it by scent. This is replicable and happens over and over again. If I ask her to high-five on the left (which we used to do very regularly) she is also ignoring it or kind of flailing rather than the target high five she gives on the right (both high fives are with both paws, so it's not that she's more coordinated with one paw than the other). Next steps are vet appointment tomorrow and then see if we get a referral.

edited for typo

 

[Jenko109]

We are absolutely seeing what you're seeing.

 

[splashgirl45]

Yes seeing what you are. I assume she is a collie cross and from what I can remember collies can suffer with eye problems. Lovely looking dog BTW

 

[EchoInterrupted]

Yes seeing what you are. I assume she is a collie cross and from what I can remember collies can suffer with eye problems. Lovely looking dog BTW

Thanks She's a mix of a lot of things, but according to the DNA test the biggest bits are Australian Cattle Dog (3/8) and husky (1/4), with supposedly no GSD or collie to be found

 

[splashgirl45]

She looks very collie like to me, Australian cattle dog would be unusual here, are you in Australia ?

 

[EchoInterrupted]

She looks very collie like to me, Australian cattle dog would be unusual here, are you in Australia ?

I live in the UK but brought her over from the US where I lived previously. I lived in a city that is very tied to rural farming communities and has loads of ACDs, so it wouldn't be surprising for her to be part cattle dog. People also love to have huskies out there so it's a mix that makes a lot of sense given her origin. I see ACDs so rarely in the UK though, most people think I mean Australian shepherd when I say cattle dog!

 

[EchoInterrupted]

Update for those curious: we've been referred to an ophthalmologist though they were very undecided about that vs neuro and the referral practice also has a neurologist so they said it's very possible we will get swapped back and forth.

 

[Jenko109]

Sorry if I have missed it on another thread. Any update on how your dog is getting on?

 

[EchoInterrupted]

Sorry if I have missed it on another thread. Any update on how your dog is getting on?

TLDR: SARDS diagnosis but now other neuro symptoms appearing.

Ahh funny timing. Went to an opth. originally, they found no physical issues with the eye but did not do an electroretinography, so referred to a neurologist. Neurologist did a neurological exam but found no neurological symptoms so suggested it could be SARDS and referred to their own opth. She was then diagnosed with SARDS after an electroretinography exam and with the assumption that maybe the stumbling may have just been because she was going blind. She has adjusted super well and you hardly notice she is blind (until you forget to tell her about the stairs and it becomes glaringly obvious).

However, just this week she had a full day of really weird, very sudden proprioceptive ataxia. We nearly went to the emergency vet when I got home in the evening, but after chatting with them (and given the emerency vet doesn't have a neurologist on staff and would have been a 45 minute taxi drive away that would have stressed her out massively) we decided she was stable enough to wait until the morning when we had booked an appointment with our regular vet. Next morning she was completely normal. Went to the vet, they're at a loss. Unsure if it is related to the blindness, said it could also be something like a ruptured disc that was temporarily putting pressure on her spinal cord. They have now said that the second it happens again to call and they will immediately refer as an emergency to RVC neurology - doesn't make sense to do it now since she presents completely normally.

I don't know what else could be going on. We did a tox screen when the blindness first started and didn't find anything, but she did eat some feces on a walk this week about five hours before the ataxia started, and who knows what they were from or what could have been in it. But the dog walker said she immediately stopped her from eating it, so surely she can't have ingested enough (if it was human feces with drug remnants let's say) to have caused what was going on. Especially with this happening within 2 months of the blindness I feel like it must be related... Vets had also done a CT scan after the SARDS diagnosis to check for underlying cancers but didn't spot anything, which makes things more confusing. Fingers crossed the ataxia was a one time thing but I have a feeling it will be coming back...

 

[Clodagh]

TLDR: SARDS diagnosis but now other neuro symptoms appearing.

Ahh funny timing. Went to an opth. originally, they found no physical issues with the eye but did not do an electroretinography, so referred to a neurologist. Neurologist did a neurological exam but found no neurological symptoms so suggested it could be SARDS and referred to their own opth. She was then diagnosed with SARDS after an electroretinography exam and with the assumption that maybe the stumbling may have just been because she was going blind. She has adjusted super well and you hardly notice she is blind (until you forget to tell her about the stairs and it becomes glaringly obvious).

However, just this week she had a full day of really weird, very sudden proprioceptive ataxia. We nearly went to the emergency vet when I got home in the evening, but after chatting with them (and given the emerency vet doesn't have a neurologist on staff and would have been a 45 minute taxi drive away that would have stressed her out massively) we decided she was stable enough to wait until the morning when we had booked an appointment with our regular vet. Next morning she was completely normal. Went to the vet, they're at a loss. Unsure if it is related to the blindness, said it could also be something like a ruptured disc that was temporarily putting pressure on her spinal cord. They have now said that the second it happens again to call and they will immediately refer as an emergency to RVC neurology - doesn't make sense to do it now since she presents completely normally.

I don't know what else could be going on. We did a tox screen when the blindness first started and didn't find anything, but she did eat some feces on a walk this week about five hours before the ataxia started, and who knows what they were from or what could have been in it. But the dog walker said she immediately stopped her from eating it, so surely she can't have ingested enough (if it was human feces with drug remnants let's say) to have caused what was going on. Especially with this happening within 2 months of the blindness I feel like it must be related... Vets had also done a CT scan after the SARDS diagnosis to check for underlying cancers but didn't spot anything, which makes things more confusing. Fingers crossed the ataxia was a one time thing but I have a feeling it will be coming back...

Nothing to add but how worrying.
If it’s any help at all my 10 year old lab was sort of fitting last year, specialist found nothing wrong, and she’s pretty well ok now. I wish you and her all the best.