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Old dog vestibular disease

Basenji Health Issues & Questions
  • Our dog Rascal is 14 years old. He was recently diagnosed with idiopathic old dog vestibular disease. The vet prescribed 10days of antibiotics and 14 days of Prednisone. At first he improved from unable to walk to having a head tilt and being slightly unsteady on his feet. The antibiotics were completed 2 days ago and we are tappering the prednisone. His symptoms are getting worse. I haven't noted any facial paralysis. The vet didn't see any signs of ear infection. He mention a visit to a specialist as the next step. Any similar experiences or advice?

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    MDSPHOTOM
    We had a Dalmatian that started having these issues at the same age as your B. Vestibular disease got worse causing her to lose her balance and fall when walking, loss of strength in her hindquarters and incontinence. I am not aware of any treatments for the VD, but there are a number of human treatments for strokes that might be able to be used in dogs.
  • Trouble Dog

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    Buddys PalB
    @Moth: Have you ever tried an obedience class? It might be a great place to start. It sounds like your dog is space guarding. http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/resource-guarding/ was just going through some old threads, and came across this one-Moth, I like your style and advice-esp this link!
  • Old Dog, New Food ?

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    tanzaT
    @Schouiffy: Hey Tanza, No she hasn't had much of anything done as of recent. My parents have had a really wild last 2 years so I think thats contributed to the lack of vet work. Happily, and thanks to Dan, we have an appointment set up for tomorrow morning with the vet. yay. And I'll restrain on the food front. I mean its not awful food, but there are a lot of grains… hmm. It's really kinda difficult to see them at this age, I think this last year as been a hard one for her too... Again.. at her age.. I go back to "if it ain't broke" don't try to fix it… I can tell you that is exactly what I would do... period.... and yes, there might be better.. but at her age... it is not going to make a difference.. again IMO
  • Vestibular Syndrome

    Basenji Health Issues & Questions
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    tanzaT
    @Craigh: Pat - I had an off-topic question since you've got so many older dogs. I know you're usually against free-feeding, but how do you feel about this with older dogs? If Alex (15 years 6 months) eats too much at a time he usually ends up throwing up. Therefore I feed him two small portions twice a day. However, during the day he gets hungry (it's impossible to put/keep weight on him) and I've been keeping a small bowl of dry food around for him to pick at. He'll usually go by every 3-4 hours and eat a couple bites between meals. Do you see a problem with this? It's so hard to get him to eat and keep his food down that this is the only thing that seems to work longterm. The way he's been acting the past few months I doubt he'll see another birthday so I try and indulge him any way that I can. Since you only feeding one dog, I certainly would do whatever works for him… and at his age... if he were mine, I would do exactly like you and indulge him totally
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    Ninabeana26N
    Yea my vet told me that during our last appointment. He said not to let Dallas sniff other dogs poop no matter where we are because the poop can contain diseases. I see poop all around our community because people don't pick it up after their dogs but Dallas [so far] never really gets too near ti that I have to pull him away.
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    tanzaT
    @sharronhurlbut: As the test is easy and doesn't hurt the dog, why not test them all? Exactly… and hopefully before the end of the summer we will have a test for Fanconi....