What does a stroke look like in a dog?

[MadOldFeminist]

Our 6 year old poodle was eating her dinner tonight and it was as if her front legs just buckled underneath her all of a sudden. She got up and one just gave way again. I picked her up and checked her over and she seemed ok, just subdued. She def wasn't limping, more staggering if that difference makes sense. When I put her back down she didn't finish her dinner, and went and lay in her bed looking a bit dazed. I called the emergency vet service, and they said to 'keep an eye on her' and take her to our own vet on a monday if we were worried or it happened again. She's seemed ok all evening, was happy enough to go for her late night walk, gait seemed fine, but something about her just seems 'off' somehow. I've brought her bed upstairs so I'll hear her if she gets distressed but Im feeling stupidly worried about going to sleep :(. She's lying quite calmly in her bed but she is constantly smacking her lips and working her mouth. I'm sort of wishing there was an A&E service for dogs.

[TeamSouthfields]

Google it

[TeamSouthfields]

Google it

[MadOldFeminist]

I have :). It didn't really help. I suspect I am going to end up just dozing all night.

[Flapdoodles]

Our dog had a stroke (2 years ago) and we realised when she was staggering around, as if she was drunk. She was also slightly tilting her head to one side. I took her to the vets who pointed out her eyes were moving (sorry cannot think of the correct term for this) which was making her dizzy hence the staggering and diagnosed a stroke. She had some medication and whilst she is not 100% she is much better and, fingers crossed, has not had another stroke that we are aware of. HTH.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Eye movement called nystagmus either from side to side (most common) or up and down is most common sign. The eyes move slowly in one direction till gets to farthest direction flicks across in other direction and then starts again.
Head tilt is also common and then staggering ataxia.
I would see a patient with any of these symptoms out of hours.

[MadOldFeminist]

Thanks, now you've mentioned it, she has been tilting her head a lot the last day or so, as my daughter remarked 'she keeps looking like she wants to ask you a question'.

She's been fine overnight, the lip smacking stopped about 2am, and I think I fell asleep properly about 4am, and sometime after that she'd taken advantage of being upstairs and hopped on the bed, which is fairly high, so she must have managed a fair jump. She's been happy enough to go for her morning walk, though she stayed right beside me even off lead and didn't do her usual mad chase the seagulls thing. As soon as we came home she went straight into her crate after and hasn't mooched while Ive been getting breakfast.

Her eyes seem ok now, and I didn't notice anything about them yesterday, though they get lost a bit in face-fluff the week before she goes to the groomers. She does seem very tired and subdued though. I'm going to keep her by me all day today, and she'll be at the vet first thing tomorrow, or if I see anything odd like her eyes going today, I'll be straight back on to emergency vet.

Now I think about it, she had very similar symptoms on Xmas eve last year, accompanied by terrible vomiting. She'd recovered her gait by the time we got her to the vet - I think we had to wait about two hours before she was seen - and the vet just kept saying she clearly had no injury, and didn't seem to get what I meant when I said she wasn't limping, it was more her legs giving out on her. She (the vet) put the vomiting down to the Atopica she'd prescribed for her skin, so she changed that to meldrone, and she has half a tablet of that plus two piriton a day.

[MadOldFeminist]

Well, funnily enough when it happened my husband and I both happened to be in the kitchen and it was him that noticed it first, and said 'is she having a fit?' I had assumed not as she didn't fall over, Her back legs stayed stable) she wasn't incontinent, didn't make any odd noises - none of the things humans do, basically - but I guess that might be an option given how worn out she seems today. (I'm a human nurse, but of course everything looks a bit different in animals!)

[MadOldFeminist]

Thanks Sister, I'm sorry to hear about your old boy, but it's very hopeful to hear he made such a good recovery from his stroke.

[MadOldFeminist]

She is still very subdued, but has gone on all her walks willingly enough, and has eaten her 'sick dog diet' of poached chicken and rice quite happily. She is spending all her time in bed, and doing an awful lot of lip smacking, and standing with her head hanging almost to the floor, and doing a lot of head shaking, although she lifts it and comes as soon as I call her. I'm going to let her sleep upstairs in the bedroom with us tonight in case she needs us, and off to the vet as soon as it opens. I wondered if something is wrong with her ears that's affecting her balance, but she's got rubbing or scratching them. Argh, I hate not knowing how concerned I should be.
And why, like kids, do they wait till the weekend to get sick!

[MadOldFeminist]

Phew!!! so relieved. Nasty ear infection, her ear drum was apparently bulging, on antibiotics.