The incontinence pads are a good idea, we use them at work and had 1 in the RV. Charmin was disoriented enough that he wouldn't stay in one spot and the pad was too small. We ended up using an old comforter we had spread on the floor.
I tried a towel sling and he just fought it (like a drunk bucking bronco) so that didn't work. When Megan had this several years ago, she adapted to the sling immediately and was so easily managed. Her personality was so different, She always was saying - I'll try to do anything you say.
Doug
Doug & Sandy
Jill (11yr old Golden)& Charmin (16 yr old something)
Henry NOW a camping cat
2008 Southwind
2009 Honda CRV
I am glad things are better and that you were able to work through this bump in the road. It is always helpful when the person involved is a Vet instead of a lay person without knowing what to do.
Back in 2007 at the Old Fella Rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado Rally Levi got sick and couldn't keep anything on his stomach as it was coming out both ends. By the time we got him to a Vet all of us were worn out. Like you said things like this get pretty bad in the close confines of a camper. We had guest come over for a visit from RV.Net so we shut Levi up in the bedroom area and you could hear him blowing out his rear as well as smell him, embarrassing to say the least.
But the Vet was able to diagnois the problem and within a couple of days Levi was well.
2012 Ford King Ranch F-350 Crew Cab Diesel
2011 Montana 3580RL
Wife Sue
Pets: Rainbow Bridge: Old Fella, Levi, Charlie. Others Suzie, Peaches, Hobo, Mama, Izzie
DOTLDaddy wrote: As bad as all that was for Charmin and you guys, it was fortunate that "Mom and Dad" knew what the heck was going on, and what to do about it.
No kidding!! Never having gone through something like that (but filing all this good info away, just in case) - I would have been freaking out for certain!!
And Thank God for the Rug Doctors (rent-a-steam-vacs)
We came back to the motorhome a few weeks ago and Willow had gotten the jar of Glycoflex 3 and finished them off. Wish we had thought to put something down on the floor!!! Have a tarp now.
I wonder if it would be worth getting him a pet assist type harness and putting it on him for a while in case he needs help in the future.... then he wouldn't find it so unfamiliar and threatening.
susan
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a wabbit, Fuzzy Wuzzy had a dandelion habit! RIP little Wuz... don't go far.
He had acute onset of old dog Vestibular disease..
I had to Google this. Is this something the dog is born with? Boy Charmin really lucked out when he became your kid!!! So happy to hear everything is okay.
He had acute onset of old dog Vestibular disease..
I had to Google this. Is this something the dog is born with? Boy Charmin really lucked out when he became your kid!!! So happy to hear everything is okay.
I'm sure Doug can explain this better than me, but thought if I share my experience, it might help someone else if it happens to them down the line.
Vestibular disease can come from a variety of things. Chronic or acute inner ear infections, brain tumor, old age, something similar to Bell's palsy in people, and idiopathic (unknown cause) -- and I'm sure I'm missing some things.
I've had a couple of older dogs get it -- 13 -14 and older. The initial onset they stagger around, may vomit and have nystagmus, which is when the eyes flicker back and forth from side to side, very fast. I was told the quicker you get them to the vet and get meds, the better your chances are for no lasting effects.
After the fact, they can get like a paralysis of one side of the face -- drooping eye lid, mouth kind of droopy on one side, and the tongue may hang out one side of the mouth. One of my cocker's ear set was never the same on the one side of the head afterwards. They can also have a permanent head tilt to one side.
Back in early spring, my 7 yr old boy went down one day. At first he seemed to miss a step with his back leg. I gave him a second look, and got up to investigate. By this time, he was staggering. The way he was acting, I thought he injured a disc in his back. He was shaking all over, acting very much like Flash did when he was first paralyzed. I picked him up and laid him on the sofa to look at him. I asked DH to help me stand him up - I wanted to check the reflexes in his back feet and he couldn't even stand up without someone holding him up. The next thing he lost control of his bowels.
DH carried him outside to the deck. I followed. DH was having a fit of his own - he's not real good in emergencies like this. He's yelling at me, look at his eyes,look at his eyes. I finally had to tell him to be quiet. We had to get the dog to the vet. What he was yelling about is that Cowboy's eyes were flickering up and down, but the eyes were moving opposite of each other. they were not synchronized, moving in one direction together.
He was flailing around so violently, we put him on the back seat for the trip to the vet. I sat back there with him, and I leaned down with my chest over the dog, to try to keep him still. At this point, I thought the thrashing was pain from a back injury and I didn't want him to do further injury the way he was flopping and twisting around.
Neither of us saw anything like this before.
We got him down to the Emergency Animal Hospital. They said it was all dizziness. They kept him a few hours and we brought him home with Meclizine. At this point, he had lost control of bowels but no vomitting. They wanted to keep him there for 18 hours at $16.50 per hour. We had the testing done to rule out Lyme disease, and check kidney and liver function. That stuff all came out good. We figured he could lay here in a crate as good as he could there for $16.50 an hour. We did the testing and cut it off at over $500. If they had him on iv's or were doing something to help him, I would have let him stay - but they weren't doing anything.
I looked up a few things on line. I guess part of it was my/our fault. When he started in, I had picked him up and moved him, and then DH carried him to the deck. By picking him up and moving him, that just made the dizziness all the much worse. But we didn't know and were trying to figure out what was wrong.
I also read on line that there can be a brain lesion - if the lesion is on the outer edge of the brain, the eyes go sideways. If the lesion is more central in the brain, it'm more serious, and the eyes go up and down.
He did fine the rest of the weekend. Monday evening, he started another episode. We took him up to our vet. He admitted him, and kept him sedated so he could "sleep it off". He came home the next morning with antibiotics and valium. He told me to use the valium if he got wound up, to keep him quiet, or if I saw another episode starting.
The following week, he started and I gave him a valium and crated him right away. I threw a towel over his crate to keep it darker.
Nipped that one in the bud and he's been okay ever since.
Basically wait and see - if it's idiopathic it probably won't happen again. If it does, we have bigger problems.
Like I said, maybe this will help someone else if it happens to them down the line. I hope it doesn't happen to anyone.
Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.
I see these very frequently in older dogs. The current thinking is that most of these are idiopathic - we don't know the cause. If this is what is happening, treatment by a vet really does not make any difference in outcome, they get better (or not) regardless of what we do or give them. We DO make a difference in how they handle the symptoms (address vomiting and anxiety).
Most people who have never been exposed to this believe their dog or cat has had a stroke.
The most important thing is to make sure (as best we can) that this is idiopathic vestibular disease and not one of the other causes that may need more extensive treatment and/or has a worse prognosis.
One of the worst case I've seen were where the animal would continuously roll because he could not orient himself. That one we sedated for 24 hrs. in hospital until he was able to keep himself upright. Sometimes the vomiting and diarrhea (due to stress like Charmin) needs injections to control, but most get better within 72 hours and don't require hospitalization IMO.
Charmin finally ate last night and he is able to do steps and walk outside on his own. He has a left head tilt (very minor) and leans his left side against the wall when going up and down steps. It's really amazing how fast these guys learn how to manage. He still looses balance when he has to turn right, but rarely falls now.
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Boy Charmin really lucked out when he became your kid!!! So happy to hear everything is okay. 
