Is my German Shepard dying - Page 2

What a sad story, I cannot offer anything more than the other posters have already offered, but I will send you & your poor dog my prayers. Please let us know the outcome. jh

Canine vestibular syndrome is most often seen in elderly dogs. The signs seen would not abate and the dog get better and then worse again. The dog has some sort of neurological problem of unknown origin. It is important to get the dog to someplace that can diagnose the problem if the dog has any chance at all of a positive outcome. 

Good luck.

I hope he feels better! Its always heart breaking to see a loved one suffering. My prayers are with you!

Hi, this is Suerte's dad checking in. First of all, we truly appreciate everyone's input and kind words and thoughts. Today, we went back to the vet, day 7. Bear in mind we are gringos living outside a small city in Patagonia, Argentina, so things are a bit different here, not to mention a bit of a language issue. Anyways, they told us the blood work actually hadn't come back normal, as we previously had thought. But that it had come back at all. The results should be in Monday.

Today's vet Florencia was on top of things, asked lots of questions, etc.

Here's what we know, etc: New blood work will be done first thing Monday morning. Suerte had a really bad night of shakes/mini siezures last night.  However, by clapping our hands or calling his name loud, he would snap out of it. For that reason, one might think it isn't epilepsy, but rather a central nervous system issue.

Florencia gave us 2 injections of tranquilizer/muscle relaxant to be adminstered through his rear if the siezures/twitching comes back. A few hours later, they began and my wife gave him an injection, which mellowed him out.

Florencia's plan of attack is to identify what exactly it is through the blood paneling, and then prescribe the proper drugs/herbs to combat it.  In true Argentinine fashion, this is what we first asked for last week.

She thinks it is either parvovirus, distember, toxoplasmosis, or partial epilesy.  Suerte is current on all his shots. We rescued another dog 3 years ago, that had Parvovirus and survived. One idea might be that it was passed onto Suerte, though 3 years would appear to be a long time before the virus to show itself.

One interesting observation is Suerte's temples, where the twitching has been going on, are now more concaved if that makes sense.

Suerte doesn't seem to be in pain, just scared and confused about what is going on. When the episodes are not going on he, for small bits of time, returns to old Suerte and becomes interested in what the other dogs are doing, runs down to the gate with them and is interested in the neighborhood dogs barking.

Ok, that's up to the minute. Thanks again for your expertise!

It is probably too late to suggest that until you know what the problem is, the dog should be isolated from the others. All of the conditions you mention are a possibility, including an encephalitis or meningitis. For that reason alone, a broad-spectrum moderately high dose of antibiotics would be in order while the blood tests are taken etc. If there is nothing suggestive of infection one way or the other in the bloodwork, then pursue some brain issue such as a tumor or idiopathic epilepsy. But the fact that this started so suddenly and has continued with small periods of the dog being more normal is very worrisome.

In the meantime, a good idea is also to minimize the stimulation the dog receives from people and other animals. Keeping him quiet might help.

Keep us posted. 

Hodie, thanks for the feedback. He is so out of it, that nothing is really stimulating him, he looks like he is lost. This is especially true now that we gave him the injection to combat the twitching.

Hello Oso,

How is the young female doing?

Enlosandes, the medication probably sedated the dog a bit so that is probably a good thing until you can get to some definitive care. Try to have him eat small meals, more frequently, and try to get him to drink while waiting for Monday and blood work. That will help answer some of the questions.