Wobbly puppy - Page 3

Hi Ann, Sorry for my assumptions, I do think you did the right thing. I have had some bad experiences with breeders & exhibitors in the past & tarred you with the same brush without getting the full picture. Also i was very upset & angry about my pup. Hope you accept my apolgy. News is not good after her tests, she may have some sort of auto-immune disease or strange infection, results still pending. She does not have HD, but her lameness is part of her illness all due to abnormal cell behaviour in her spine. Have to wait & see for now.

So sorry about your puppy, Lily. I hope it will all work out in the end. Keep the faith.

Hi Blitzen, thanks for your support. Puppy has had all her tests & as yet nothing showing up, back to Royal Vet College next week for check up & vets opinion. She has been doing really well though & seems much happier & full of beans lately, so maybe it was some sort of infection that has passed.

Many years ago I had a male who suffered a grand mal seizure, I rushed him to my vet (who was a police dog vet for a large force and therefore very knowledgable about GSD ailments)he had seen this early onset epilepsy before and advised me to log every food the dog ate or scavenged, it turned out he was allergic to fish, we made sure he never consumed it again and he never fitted again, he died a couple of years back from cancer, needless to say he was not bred from. Food intollerences are easily tracked and it is a worthwhile exercise to try out. (fish is contained in a good number of dry complete foods). Good luck with your puppy. Carol

Sometimes these puppies fool even the most experienced veterinarian. Years ago I had a litter of 7 and the dam was not a very good mother so I had to tube and bottle feed them. Several started to have fullblown seizures when they were around 3, 4 weeks of age. As it turned out they had low blood sugar levels and all it took was to allow them to free feed keeping their glucose levels within the normal range and the seizures stopped almost overnight. These pups both lived long healthy lives and never seizured again. I would have bet my last dollar they wouldn't have made it and would have had to be euthanized, but it all worked out in the end. After that, I never give up on most puppies; miracles can and do happen.

Your right Blitzen, miracles do happen. We have a few things to mention regarding possible causes when we return to see the specialist on monday. We are also keeping a diary to record any funny turns that our puppy has. The good news is that she has only had a split second of light head nodding once per day over the past few days, so she is definately much better. We found the main trigger to be stress, mostly as a result of separation anxiety, but she spent several days at the vet hospital without us being pulled about by everyone & didn't have any problems at all. So it's still a complete mystery!!I'm hoping we have seen the worst, but we will hopefully get a full report at our next appointment. As for food, I will include her meals in our diary, I haven't noticed a pattern so far and she has had various food types including all natural but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. Thanks for your help, i'll let you kinow how we get on.

I'll be keeping a positive thought for her, Lily. I have a feeling she's going to be just fine.

The vet said it was meningitis. She seems to be over the worst, and her symptoms seem to be lessening, if this continues then when she has been symptom free for 6-9mths she will get the all clear. As it is an inflammatory disease it may flare up again 7 if so, or if symptoms coninue then she will need to go on medication for one year. This is also the cause of her severe aggression when she was young, because she was in so much pain. I knew that it was abnormal, but my vet would not act on it & kept saying she was just headstrong. Even when she started to show actual nuerological symptoms he said it was teething fits. Luckily, she seems to have fought it off herself, so she must be tough. Poor thing. If only vets would listen more & not just put every incidence of aggression in a GSD down to incompetence on the owners part, and any GSD lameness down to HD. I have to keep a strict diary now & report back in 2 wks. Thanks for your concern & advice!

I don't think I've ever heard of a puppy with meningitis. Good information. Best wishes for her to remain a healthy dog for the rest of her life.

Ann, not sure if you will read this, I will try to email you direct but it would not go through last time. Although my puppy was diagnosed with a type of meningitis or rather inflammatory disease of the nervous system, we have been told that there is still a very small possibility that she could have normal GSd epilepsy & a 'dodgey backend'. The orthopaedic surgeon who checked out her hips said he did not need to xray them as they were ok, but I have reason to believe that she is exhibiting signs of HD & this would point her illness in the direction of epilepsy instead of meningitis (the vets say the prognosis is poor for this & want to put her on drastic medication) she is on Phenobarbital & doing better now, but we are concerned for the future & can't xray at this stage incase it is too much for her to cope with. If relatives can be identified as also being epileptic this would help with her diagnosis & future treatment. I know that you don't want to discuss your bitches breeding, but wonder instead if we could arrange to speak over the phone & I will tell you the name of her sire, grandsire & great grandsire, who I believe to be implicated & you could just give me a yes or no as to whether they are on your epileptic bitches pedigree. This way you are not betraying anyone, but it would be of immense help to me. Please email me back direct or post to the site.