I got this message from a good friend and it is so unusual I wanted to know whether anybody out there has experienced a similar situation – a dog who loses neurological function on one side of the head? As you can see from my reply, I’m not convinced it was a head injury, but rather incur the astronomical expenses of an MRI or CAT scans, I suggested an immediate visit for an evaluation by a chiropractor/acupuncturist (many vets who are certified in one modality are also practitioners of the other).
Here’s the story:
Our dog Sadie (purebred Golden Retriever) started drooling a week or two ago. We called the vet, who thought Sadie might have something stuck in her teeth or have an infected tooth. But it turns out that the right side of Sadie’s face is paralyzed! She wasn’t blinking when the vet put her hand near her right eye (we have seen her blink since then).
She asked if Sadie had banged her head. We don’t recall any collision. She hurtles down the stairs full speed and she races around the yard so I suppose she could have banged into something. We don’t know. The vet gave us steroids and antibiotics for her. She says if that doesn’t fix it, then she’ll probably have this the rest of her life. Now we’re really worried about her. She’s only about 4 or 5 years old.
-Jack
I replied: It sounds like an unusual situation but waste no time having her system evaluated by an alternative practitioner of chiropractic ( at www.animalchiropractic.org/) as soon as humanly possible. There’s a chance something is impinging on vertebrae or otherwise causing this neurological response. If that is the case, then it needs to get sorted out immediately which might prevent permanent impairment. While second-guessing is a tricky proposition, I’d certainly like to know what antibiotics are intended to do here? What is the vet surmising is infected? How would she know what antibiotic to give for that? Or is she guessing it is a tick-borne disease (did she test for that?) I’d like to know for my own education. When you have a young healthy dog who develops such a radical symptom, I’d certainly rather look for a cause than to throw some blanket medications at it – but perhaps there is more information than you’ve passed along?
I hope to heaven you took the advice I give ALL listeners about getting Pets Best insurance – it is for exactly a scenario like this that pet insurance can save the day – it allows you to pursue all medical options without having to forgeo them because you cannot afford them, or to undertake them and go into debt (which with the cost of medical testing today for pets, you absolutely would). Pets Best is a company that covers all modalities, so acupuncture and chiropractic are reimbursed right along with Western medicine techniques.
Please let me know what you find out.
Tracie
Very useful post. where can i find more articles about this issue?
This was the first I had ever heard of it, so I cannot guide you. I suppose you can do what everybody else in the world does, which is Google it! Alternately, there is the Veterinary Information News website, but on some topics they may not be any more reliable than wikipedia or Google.