Problem with Winston

This morning after a normal wake up,eat, go with me to the studio.Winston went to meet someone at the door as they came in,his back legs spread to keep his balance,and he fell over on to his right side,he got up real wobbly and could not stand,always falling to his right like he was dizzy.I grabbed him up and took him to the Vet.The Vets were all in surgery,after a while he started getting better,about an hour later he was normal.The whole time he acted dizzy he would look around wag his tail like nothing was wrong.He just couldn't stand up.Why I didn't leave him with the receptionist is a story for another time.Any clues?

I am not an expert and I have never seen this condition, but you might want to make certain your Vet knows about Episodic Falling Syndrome. Here is a brief description from the CKCSC website with a link to a website devoted to this disease:

"Cavalier Episodic Falling or Falling Cavaliers Episodic Falling (EF) is a syndrome of muscle stiffness and collapse . Episodes are induced by exercise or excitement and can manifest themselves as simply rigidity in the hindquarters, falling, or in seizure-like events lasting from minutes to hours. During events the dogs are conscious and aware. Although symptoms almost always arise by five months of age, there is no pattern of progression and episodes can be less or more severe over time. EF is often misdiagnosed as epilepsy as it is relatively unknown, but drugs are available to treat Episodic Falling that are not used in epilepsy, so the correct diagnosis is critical. Direct observation, or a video or description of symptoms reviewed by a veterinarian are the only way to diagnose Episodic Falling. There are no other tests. For purposes of the research, a description of symptoms is adequate. Test breeding results along with pedigree analysis indicate that EF is a recessive genetic disorder.

Genetic research is underway by Dr. Jacques Penderis at the University of Glasgow and he is in need of blood samples from affected dogs together with samples from their unaffected littermates, sire and/or dam.

For more information about Episodic Falling, or if you know of a dog who may have Episodic Falling and want to participate in the research, please see the Episodic Falling web site.

CKCSC Health Registry, 5+ Year Clear Heart
CKCSC Open Health Registry

http://www.episodicfalling.com/

Hope Winston's condition is something much simpler than this.

I don't have advice, just wanted to say that I'm thinking about Winston, hoping he will be 100%.

Is there another vet in your area that you could take him to? He needs to be seen by one for sure. If it happens again, try to get it on video, even with just a cell phone, anything will help a vet see what is going on with him.

How has he been today?

How is Winston today?

Winston was perfectly fine today,it is like nothing ever happened.I need to find a good vet who knows Cavaliers.My two are the first Cavs they have ever seen.I live in a town with two veterinarians.I think it's the episodic falling thing.That link described it perfectly.

He sounds like me, I have Menniers which is constant vertigo. I hope everything turns out OK.:xfngr:

I know what you mean about finding a vet who knows Cavaliers. I just switched vets from a practice that has one other Cavalier, to a new vet who also only has only one other Cavalier as a patient. I switched from the first guy due to the fact that he really is a large animal vet who was kind of forced to do lots of small animals now that our area is becoming less farmland. He is super-nice and goes to our church, but I just didn't have the confidence that I needed to keep going to him.


I really hope Winston turns out to be completely OK. I know that must have been very scary to you (and probably him). Best wishes and prayers to you both!

Thank you all for your concern and help.Three day's since the incident Winston seems like his happy self.

That must have been very distressing to have your dog in this state and not be able to get a vet to give him immediate attention. Yes, I'd be looking around for another vet that is more easily accessible. I can't offer any advice as nothing like that has happened to my guys (touch wood 3 times), but there is a lot of wisdom & experience on this forum so I am sure some suggestions will be forthcoming.

Glad Winston is doing OK.

I'll give a slightly different perspective, as someone with at least one one and probably two cavaliers with SM. I don't think travelling to find other vets is necessarily (or probably) helpful. To be fair, most vets would have no idea about episodic falling, even those very familiar with cavaliers. The folks of the EFS board will confirm this is usually the case -- just as with syringomyelia (SM). Both are specialist conditions; vets are generalist seeing hundreds of breeds and mixes and types of animal. Even in countries like the UK or Ireland where cavaliers are the single most common toy breed and every vet would have plenty in the surgery, most would know very little if anything about wither condition. I am the source of most of what my vets know on SM and they are big -- they have four vet centres in Dublin and one of the most modern vet hospitals.

The best approach is probably to take all the info on EFS to your vets and to consider whether to see a neurologist about the condition if another session happens, rather than a different vet who won't be able to give you any more definitive answer. As you will have read from the website if you are dealing with EFSa dog might only ever have a single episode or might have many; it can be minor or it can be very serious. The EFS site discussion board is very good for more information.

So little is known on the condition that most vets will be going by what Dr Penderis is currently recommending for treatment.

Vets would also probably want to be considering epilepsy as well. Seizures are known with SM too. But it sounds more likely to be EFS. You should definitely inform the breeder as breeders will need to know this may be present in that particular breeding or in their lines.

Also: I have a bit more info here in the Library section, in addition to links to the EFS website:

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=8883