# Strokes in dogs



## FEWill (Sep 2, 2009)

Strokes in dogs are not common, but contrary to a lot of misconception, they can and do occur. However, they are much different than in humans in several ways. In humans, one side of the face will suddenly start to droop, or one side of the body becomes partially or totally paralyzed.

This does not happen with dogs; instead they will develop a very sudden head tilt, start to circle and than fall, or lose control of their legs.

In some cases they may also go temporarily blind or show very frightening eye problems. Another major difference with strokes in dogs is that in numerous cases they may recover partially, if not fully, over time. However, there are all occasions where they will suffer permanent neurologic damage.

But there are more differences with stokes in dogs. With people, a stroke is the very sudden death of brain cells in a localized area as the result of a loss of blood flow to that area. When the supply of oxygen and nutrients that are carries by the blood supply is slowed or stopped, the brain cells die very quickly.

This can happen to your dog, but it is extremely rare. What occurs in your dog is much different.

Causes:

Strokes in dogs have two major causes: FCE, which is called fiberocartilagenous emboli myelopathy, and Old Dog vestibular disease.

FCE is a condition that will strike your dog very suddenly and you will have almost no warning at all until it hits and you start to see the symptoms. It is a condition that involves necrosis, which is the death of cells, but it affects a region of their spinal cord in the neck as well as their front and back legs that are secondary to the actual obstruction.

The obstruction itself is the result of fibro-cartilages that come loose from the inter-vertebral disk. The fibro-cartilage is the material located between the bones in the spinal column that act as shock absorbing agents. The exact cause of FCE is still virtually unknown in the medical community, as it is not fully understood exactly how this material gets in to your dogs bloodstream.

But what is known, is how it affects your dog. If the obstructed portion of the spinal cord is in your dogs neck, it will affect both the front as well the hind legs. If the obstruction is in the spinal cord that is behind their front legs, it then affects only the rear legs. It is very similar to human strokes in the sense that if may affect one side of their body more severely than the other side, but the difference is that it affects both sides to some degree.

This form of a stroke affects primarily giant and large breeds, but is also affects Shetland sheepdogs, Miniature Schnauzers and Labrador retrievers. It also seems to attack dogs between the ages of 3 to 6 years old the hardest, and does favor males slightly more than females.

Old dog vestibular disease gets its name because it primarily affects older dogs over 10 years of age, but with this condition, there is no breed preference.

There are two causes of this condition; central vestibular disease and peripheral vestibular disease.

The vestibular system in your dog has the major responsibility of keeping their head and body in correct balance and as a result keeps your dog orientated in respect to gravity. This system alerts their brain when they are sitting in place, lying down, falling, or spinning, and this action keeps them balanced. It is comprised of nerves that start in the brain and continue into their ears.

The major cause of a stroke is usually a tumor in the brain or a severe inflammation of the vestibular nerves. Central vestibular strokes occur as the result an abnormality in the brain due to a tumor, which is what usually stops the flow of blood. Peripheral vestibular strokes occur with the inflammation of the nerves in the inner ear.

Symptoms:

Strokes in dogs will have very distinctive symptoms depending of which type has occurred. With FCE, the symptoms and the degree of neurologic damage can range from mild to severe and may include a complete paralysis of one or more of your pets legs.

The first symptom will be a sudden lack of coordination that is very quickly followed by either lameness or a complete dragging of the legs. As it increases in severity, your dog may lose their ability to walk at all as they are becoming paralyzed. The symptoms may increase over the first 18 to 24 hours, but after that time frame it usually does not get any worse.

Old dog vestibular disease will show you an entire different set of symptoms that will all have to do with gravity in some way. The first signs will be a very sudden loss of balance and your dog will usually fall to the side that has been hit the hardest. They may also start to roll or circle to one side until they fall down.

But there is one symptom that you will never forget when you first see it in your dog; nystagmus, which is a very sudden and abnormal, set of eye movements.

At first it will look like your dog is almost drunk in appearance, but it can also look like they are possessed as this is a very scary situation the first time you witness it. But there is some good news with this form of stroke in your dog, and that is most all of these symptoms will dissipate within 2 to 3 days and most dogs will showed remarkable improvements.

However, if it is a tumor and the blood supply has been restricted, they may never return to normal.

Diagnosis and treatment;

Strokes in dogs can be very difficult to actually diagnose. Your veterinarian will most likely want to complete a complete physical of your dog and then follow this with a CT scan or an MRI. CT scans, which are computed technology, as well as an MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, will help them view your pets brain as well as their spinal cord to look for possible obstructions as they seldom will show up on an x-ray.

A sample of spinal fluid may also be taken from your dog to test for any infections that may cause inflammation and are simulating stroke conditions. Blood tests will also be done to test for disease such as diabetes.

Summary:

Strokes in dogs can and do occur, and there are no known treatments other than nursing your dog back very slowly. However, there are some herbal treatments that can help in possibly preventing any future strokes, especially if your dog falls into the grouping of potential candidates.

Passionflower is a natural herb that is very effective in helping your dogs nervous system and adding a teaspoon in powder form into your dogs food may help prevent any future attacks. It has been used extensively for years in both the United States as well as Europe in calming the nervous system of dogs, and it may prevent strokes from reoccurring.

Liquid Vitamins for Humans Cats and Dogs


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## sequeena (Apr 30, 2009)

Great thread 

My late dog Rex suffered a minor stroke. Things went so downhill after that we had to have him PTS


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## CarolineH (Aug 4, 2009)

Thanks for putting this on. I had to have my first collie, Jasper pts after a severe stroke. It happened so fast and affected him so badly unfortunately that there was no other choice. It's hard but it's a fact of life. They can and do happen, though fortunately not all are as severe as Jaspers' was.


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## Bobbie (May 3, 2008)

Yes my first sheltie had a stroke and did recover slightly her bark was never the same but she then slowly started to go down hill and get mini fits aswell so she was pts


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## alysonandhedley (Oct 29, 2009)

Thank you, very informative.


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## Colsy (Oct 3, 2008)

My old Border Collie Colsy had 3 stokes in 4 weeks.
In the end we had to have her PTS..it was the most painful decision we had to make.
He heart could not cope with it anymore.


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## FEWill (Sep 2, 2009)

Thank you for your replies,

My best friend lost his dog to a stroke last week, totally unexpected and out of the blue. Most people think that strokes do not affect dogs. All of you just reiterated the fact that this can and does happen in dogs. 

For every one person that we can help with knowledge, that is one more dog we may save. One dog at a time somewhere in the world. Nothing is more precious to most people than their pets.

Thanks,
Frank


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## Blitz (Feb 12, 2009)

I understand that although the lay person calls them strokes they are not actually strokes as humans know it. More usual than seeing all those symptoms is that the dog just goes a bit wobbly and with a bit of a head tilt and either recovers totally over 2 or 3 days or doesnt and has to be put down. I really dont think many vets would bother scanning etc for it, the head tilt is a fairly good giveaway. I have had a couple of dogs that have had 'strokes'. I never actually saw much happen but both eventually had to be pts. My collie cross had a few over about a year but the final one was too severe for it to be fair to keep her or treat her.


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## JSR (Jan 2, 2009)

My old boy has had 3 strokes this last year. My vet said they are not the same as human ones but it's easier for people to call them strokes because it's something we can then understand. Cromwell did suffer quiet badly especially from the first one which took him 3 weeks to recover sufficiantly enough for me to stop thinking he was on deaths door!! Each one is horrific to experience and I cannot begin to tell you how distressing it is for the dog but thankfully due to him already being on steriods for his blood disorder the vet thinks this is what saved the first one from killing him and the subsequent one's from being as strong. 

I never thought I'd thank the day he was on life long steriods but they have actually extended his life and saved it!! Cromwell is 16 years old now and I suspect his legs will give out long before anything else will because he's struggling to walk properly now. BUT for as long as he woofs at me when his lead comes out and he pushes his way through the pack to be front of the dinner queue then I'll fight for him to live.

Thank you for posting the thread it's extreamly interesting, sadly I've seen it all but it most certainly would have helped me to panic less if I'd read this before having first hand experience.


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## mollythecollie (Aug 29, 2009)

Blitz said:


> I understand that although the lay person calls them strokes they are not actually strokes as humans know it. More usual than seeing all those symptoms is that the dog just goes a bit wobbly and with a bit of a head tilt and either recovers totally over 2 or 3 days or doesnt and has to be put down. I really dont think many vets would bother scanning etc for it, the head tilt is a fairly good giveaway. I have had a couple of dogs that have had 'strokes'. I never actually saw much happen but both eventually had to be pts. My collie cross had a few over about a year but the final one was too severe for it to be fair to keep her or treat her.


Agreed- neither vestibular syndrome or FCE are strokes and its misleading to refer to them as such as they are both completely different problems


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## waterlilyold (Aug 28, 2009)

I really enjoy your posts they are very informative and interesting


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## dizzyknits (May 12, 2009)

Our beloved Dexter (x breed 11 years old) had a "funny" turn just over two weeks ago.Falling over,was sick once, seemed really weak, and Paul nearly had to carry him home from walk. The next day he seemed fine, then the following day he was back to being really wobbly and was sick again, so I took him to the vets.

He already had an ongoing problem, of a lump behind his eye pushing it forward, (August 2008) but as it was not growing very fast the vet said to monitor the situation.

The lady vet we saw recommended booking him in on Monday to have eye/lump removed as she seemed to think this was the cause of his problem...he had no temperature, heart lungs all sounding okay etc.

The vet who origionally did ultrasound on dexter's eye, phoned me up on the monday and looking back I think he was reluctant to do the operation, but did not say so in so many words........I wish he had because of the state of my poor dog.
They kept him in for an extra night because the eye socket was bleeding, it was a fatty lump that was removed.
Dexter came home on Tue 22nd Dec and has been steadily going downhill since.
I had to take him back to vets Mon 28th December and they gave him painkillers and more antibiotics.
I took him back following day for more injections, and he seemed to perk up a bit.

We've been feeding him Chicken, turkey, beef infact anything to get him to eat, the last two days we have been hand feeding him, he seems unable to keep anything in his mouth (it just falls out the side)
Today he has refused to eat his chicken and rice and when he's not sleeping he wanders about like he doesn't know where he is, if he comes up against anything he just stands there, like he can't work out how to back up.
We are having to lift him up and down the back stairs to the garden and he's only been on one small walk in 2 weeks

I know he can hear me, but I think he's only got limited sight in his remaining eye (on subsequent visit to vet they find he has a small tumor in that one!!)

We have to go back to vets Tuesday for the stitches out and hopefully results of blood tests, but on last visit they were saying that it looks like he has a neurilogical problem.
I keep hoping he'll perk up, I just wondered if anyone on the forum has had any similar experience, I guess also I am asking just how long I can keep him like this before having to make the decision
Thank for listening


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## CarrieH (Mar 25, 2011)

Interesting topic. We lost our old Sheltie to a stroke about 6 years ago. Found this topic this evening as it's suspected Ben had a 'mini stroke' this afternoon, so had a trip to the vets and have a very agitated dog this evening, looks like we'll be back at the vets tomorrow


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## Twiggy (Jun 24, 2010)

FEWill said:


> Thank you for your replies,
> 
> *My best friend lost his dog to a stroke last week, totally unexpected and out of the blue. Most people think that strokes do not affect dogs. All of you just reiterated the fact that this can and does happen in dogs. *
> 
> ...


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