PSA: vestibular disease in dogs, a cautionary tale for those with aging dogs

[Major Nikon]

I thought I'd relate my experience with this condition in hopes that it may help others. Out of 7 or so dogs I've had that have lived to an advanced age, two of them have had it. So it's relatively common, especially in older dogs. I'm sure others here have experienced it. With our first dog that got vestibular disease, it was a very scary experience. We thought for sure it was the end for our dog. She was approximately 12 at the time. You can go to youtube for a much better description of what it looks like, but basically your dog loses all sense of balance and can barely if at all stand and walking is almost impossible. The eyes will roll uncontrollably and constantly to the side. The head will tilt to one side. The dog may have nausea and throw up.

The first thing you should do is take your dog to the vet ASAP. There are multiple causes of the condition and some will require treatment before the pet can recover. However, sometimes and in both of our pets it is just caused because they are old dogs and there isn't much in the way of treatment other than to support the dog until they recover. The first dog we had that got it went on to live 4 more years and nearly completely recovered after a few weeks. We are now into a few weeks with the second dog and she has nearly fully recovered. They will never recover completely. Their head will always have a tilt to it and they will never be completely back to normal, but they can recover to the point at which nearly all activity is restored. They just can't run as fast or play as hard as they used to.

In the first stages the dog will require lots of help. They may not be able to eat or drink by themselves and you may need to give them food and drink by hand. Going pee or poop will be very difficult for them as it's hard for them to stand in a stable position. They will probably just want to lay in one place most of the time and it's best to keep them in a dark environment as the room will be spinning which is why they can get nausea. There are OTC meds which can help with this which your vet can recommend.

One thing that helps is to get a harness, especially one that has a handle on the top you can use to stabilize them and help with their walking. Eventually they will get better with their balance and you can just hold them steady with a leash. After about two weeks we were able to remove the harness.