I went to bed Thursday night saying to my husband, “I hope she doesn’t get Vestibular.” Friday morning we woke up to Elsa stumbling out of control; with what we assumed was Vestibular. My husband picked her up and lay her on our bed. At that point I thought that she was having another seizure; but it seemed different. Even though she was sort of falling everywhere; she calmed quickly and wanted her morning snack. She was not having a seizure.
I quickly turned the light on to check her eyes and there was no flashing of her eyes. I already knew that a dog can have Vestibular without flashing eyes, but I wasn’t sure. We had to wait, I had to see what she was going to be exhibiting in a couple of hours. Was she going to be back to normal? Was this just an episode like the others she’d had? Nope.
A couple of hours later we tried to get her outside. Not an easy task at 55lbs and 25” tall at the shoulders. But we did and she couldn’t walk. She did manage to pee, while on her sling and then we head right back in the house. I still wasn’t sure but was now suspecting Vestibular. How could this be? I actually said the night before “I hope she doesn’t get Vestibular.” So why did I say this and how did I know?
First I’m sort off I’m sort of psychic (not joking), but I don’t often talk about it. I had a strong feeling that I wanted to ignore. Second, she’d had a few staggering episodes that should typically be hindsight but I’d had those hindsights before; making these foresights.
Foresight - the ability to predict or the action owf predicting hat will happen or be needed in the future.
So here we are, day 3 of Vestibular. We are actually headed to the Vet. today; which was already planned to check on Miss Elsa’s blood pressure. It is not going to be easy to get her there but I’ll figure it out. I do know that there is nothing that will help or cure Vestibular, except for time. Time will give us the information that we are longing for.
How much improvement is there going to be? Elsa is not a spring chicken; this will affect her more than a younger dog that is inflicted. Tilley was 13 when she got hit with Vestibular Disease and she lived almost 3 years with it. Elsa just turned 14 on July 14th and she’s got a lot of other stuff going on. She had a spinal stroke over 5 years ago; which she overcame pretty amazingly. But she already lives in a sort of not so steady world, this is going to be tough for her.
I am hoping that she improves quickly for her sake and ours. Right now she is mad and if anything is not to her liking, she is letting us know. It is not easy to know what she wants all the time but we are trying. Agitation is a common symptom with Vestibular Disease and I’d probably be like Elsa. I hate to be down for anything.
The point of this blog is to share with you all of the foresight moment. If you have an older dog and they have a very short moment of staggering, don’t ignore it. Twice now, this staggering moment has predicted Vestibular Disease shortly after.