Dog might have had a stroke?

Hi all,

My sister has a 14 week old cav. He started acting strange yesterday morning, his head was all to one side and he was falling around the place.

They rang the vet and she thought it might be epilsepsy, then they brought him out to the vet and she said it might have been a stroke but she wasn't sure (He was fine once he was out there).


Has this ever happenned to anyone else? My lil sis is very worried, she was crying yesterday over it.

that's so scary i have never seen this before in a dog hopefully someone else will have some advice. No wonder your sister been crying where's the pup now at home or at the vets?

He's at home now. The vet just said to bring him back in if anything happens again and she would do blood tests etc. on him.

It's pretty scary alright, especially when he's so young.

i don't know what to suggest could you contact breeder and see if there's any family background of episeply or something that may help the vet with the findings. Also does your sister have some pet insurnace tests can be costly?

No, she doesn't have any. I should probably tell her to get some.

I'm hoping it was just a once off and won't happen again :?

I am no expert i don't know if this would be a recurring problem or a one off maybe others can help. I would suggest that she try and get some insurance with as much cover as possible if your in the uk pet plan are very good as are marks and spencer. She may struggle as this stroke/ epiepsy will be on the vets records and could cause problems with insurance.

how recently has the pup had his jabs ?

He had them when he was 8 weeks.

You might want to visit this site
http://cavalierepisodicfalling.com/first.html

I have a 2 year old tri that has EFS. She did have in the past seizure type episodes...but has not had any episodes now for about a year. It is not actually a seizure but a myoclonic episode. The muscles tighten and the dog falls over in a seizure like episode. Severity of seizure and amount of episodes vary greatly dog to dog.

I'm sorry your sister has had such a scary experience with her new puppy.

Definitely have your vet -- or specialist, if your vet cannot do this -- do the bloodwork and testing for epilepsy and look into episodic falling syndrome. To me this sounds like an EFS session as the dog typically recovers a short time after. Please check out the website link that Mary posted and be sure your vet looks at this as well.

Syringomyelia can also be associated with seizures so be sure your vets are also familar with that. There's information you can download and print out here: www.sm.cavaliertalk.com.

I wouldn't think this is a stroke; to me it sounds like a seizure/fit associated with one of the above conditions, probably epilepsy or EFS.

Please inform the dog's breeder as well that the puppy has had this episode and immediately inform them of any diagnosis. The breeder needs this information to make future breeding decisions.

Please let us know if you get a diagnosis and hopefully it will be something you can easily manage. :flwr:

If you are based in Ireland let me know as I can perhaps recommend a vet in your area.

Thanks for the info guys. Will pass it on to my sister.

He's doing fine today anyway, except not eating much (he doesn't eat much anyway), hopefully it won't happen again or very often :xfngr:

Karlin, she's based in Galway.

I was watching Animal Planet last week and there was a weimaraner that had a stroke. She couldn't stand up at all. Her head was swaying back and forth, it was heartbreaking. It took her many weeks to get over it, so it doesn't sound as if your sisters dog had a stroke.

If it is any of these conditions, it will likely happen again, unfortunately. If it happens, let me know and I will try to get a vet who is aware of how to check for these things if you'd like. Her vet *definitely* should be informed about the fact that episodic falling syndrome, syringomyelia, and epilepsy are all known breed health issues in cavaliers. I believe the current copy of the Irish Vet Journal has an article on syringomyelia in cavaliers, as well.

Please have her inform the breeder as well about this initial incident and check back to inform him/her if this is diagnosed in future. The parents should NOT BE BRED if it is any of these things so it is very impirtant for the breeder to know there's been a suspicious incident like this. A stroke in a puppy especially in winter would be extremely unlikely (heat might cause probems if it were very hot but heat stroke is also unlikely in Ireland).