Say Some Prayers for Jewel... - Page 1

My mom called me today and woke me up, freaking out, saying I needed to get over there ASAP because something was not right with Jewel... she was stumbling and falling, could barely walk and when she did it was sideways... also said it looked like she was humping the grass or something? Just totally not acting right. When I got there they were standing about 10 feet from the door and said it had taken them about half an hour to get that far... mom was bawling, my half-sister was bawling, I started bawling. Jewel realized I was there (she is pretty well blind and deaf now, she completely relies on her nose) and came trotting over like nothing was wrong, happy, waggy puppygirl she's always been. Then mom's boyfriend got there and started petting her too... at that point she got super wobbly and laid down. They got on the phone with the vets, and Jewel got up, so I took her across the street to the field - she walked alright over there. When she started looking for a place to potty, she would attempt to squat, then get wobbly and stumble and change her mind. After a few tries she finally followed through with it and went... then just walked around and sniffed a bit, eating lots of grass.

A few minutes later, she turned and completely fell in the grass, and laid their shaking with her head spinning. It took two of us to get her back on her feet (to walk her to the car and take her to the vet), and when we finally got her up, she almost instantly hurled. The vet we took her to was just down the hill, so the ride was short, and we got her inside just fine... I walked around with her while they filled out the paperwork, and she did just fine, until the point that they called us back. She took a few steps, then stumbled, and started shaking and wobbling again, going down... so two techs came out and carried her to the back. They took us back to a room to wait, and at that point everyone started flipping out again. They finally brought her in with us, and she promptly had another fit and laid down again, looking very confused. The vet came in and suggested a blood panel, cleaned her ears out and checked for a tumor in there (found none). Blood panel looked normal, except for something was funny with her liver. He thinks it is that vestibular thing and that it will go away on it's own, but said if it doesn't within a week or two that he would refer them out to a specialist for an MRI. He suggested dramamine if it is bad tomorrow, and sent her home with an antibiotic. Her balance is totally out of whack, if she turns her head too far one way she goes down, shes walking in circles and holding her tail to the left.... her eyes get very jittery (which is something I hadn't noticed)... but he said physically she looks pretty good so that is something. I guess she has a lot of fluid build-up around her eyes, that he wanted to give her an injection for to help with her sight, but he said he'd rather wait until she was healthy to do that.

So, I guess say some prayers that all it is is that vestibular thing, and not something more serious like it *could* be. When she had her pyo bout last year, they had mentioned her liver was enlarged, so the funky number on that didn't surprise me. She also has tumors on her mammarys, and a few other random fatty lumps, so to be honest a brain tumor would not surprise me. Mom's boyfriend swears up and down she has cancer -eyeroll-.

....

Just got off the phone with mom and things are getting worse... they can't get her to take her medicine via the cheese method, she can't stand up at all, even to puke which she's done twice now since I left about 2 hrs ago. She tries to stand up on her own and just scooches/spins on the carpet, even rolled over a time or two... I think that is all normal with that vestibular thing, but it sure sucks to see her like that. So say some prayers that this passes quickly. :(

Dawulf, what you're describing is pretty much textbook for vestibular syndrome.  Not surprised that she doesn't want to eat--the vertigo she's experiencing will make her nauseous.  Best thing to do for her is to confine her to a a small area in a room that can be kept darkened and very, very quiet; set her up with very comfortable bedding so she can stay in one place, place a water bowl where she can reach it without having to get up from her resting place, and just give her time.  She'll need support for balance when she needs to empty her bladder and bowels; the tried-and-true bath towel under the belly works nicely for this. Bland food that she can lap up easily--scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, that sort of thing--will probably sit lighter in her stomach while things are settling down.  As long as her eyes are still ''jittery', her stomach isn't going to be up to handling regular food; that means your family is going to need to manually administer her meds until she's feeling well enough to take them in cheese.

Prayers definitely being sent for a quick and easy recovery from this episode.

I am so sorry to read that this poor girl is going through this. My friend's geriatric Wheaten Terrier mix had this issue twice and it was a heartbreaking and very scary ordeal, but the good news is that it did clear up after a couple weeks. I sure hope Jewel gets through this and totally recovers. Sending prayers for sweet Jewel and her family.

Sending positive thoughts your way, hope things improve soon, poor girl

Poor baby!  Hoping she will be ok.

As if she didn't already go through enough.  Poor ol' Jewel;
here's wishing this ghastly disorientating illness is quickly
sorted out for her, she'd been looking so well in your recent
photos.

Prayers coming her way, sweet ole girl!

Prayers ur way for Jewel n u n Mom
Hard to watch. I know very scary

yr

Sending you prayers & healing thoughts, for Jewel & her family. Getting old & the troubles aging brings along are not for the faint hearted! I'm pulling for you Jewel, you're a tough girl with a lot of folks that love you!  jackie harris