Head tilt to left, just happen suddenly sunday morning, Please help
Submitted by deanna2007 on April 18, 2011 - 12:22pmSunday morning I noticed my 5 yr old frenchie head tilting to the left, he walks normal, eat and drink fine. It doesn't seem like he can look up straight. I check his eye movements and they do follow my finger but just not straight up, he would walk with a tilt of his head. this morning he is reluctant to go downstairs but he did go down not as fast as before. I checked both of his ears and they are clean, no sign of ear infections. His face looks fine, no drooping so no paralysis and he is walking straight, not stumbling or circling. I checked up on Vestibular disease and besides the head tilting, he doesn't match any other symptoms. Do you know what could cause this, should I have an MRI done? Any help is greatly appreiciated.
Dee-
I would go back to the ears or...
He may ahave a crick in his neck like people get. But I would have a vet look deep into the ear canal and see if there is something there. Other than that, it could be a structural issue with a spine injury or similar. Not sure what else it could be! I know others here will have better answers...hang tight, they will be on throughout the day.
Amy and Sophia
i hope it's nothing serious
I checked his ears again, its not red and he's not scratching or shaking his head. I will check on him again when I get home from work and see how he's doing.
thank you for replying.
Dee
he's walking like he's drunk now
When I got home yesterday, he was walking like he's drunk, he seems restless, he can't lie down for more than 10 minutes, but he would get up and walk. When he walk, his back legs it seems one side is leaning on the other or both looks weak. Other than that he eats, drink and bark. Doesn't really play much but he does walk around and bark when the other dogs bark. He is afraid to go downstairs and when my aunt came home, he tried to go downstairs and tripped 3 steps, i was there to catch him from going any further. We were able to get an apptmt for tomorrow and will probably do an MRI scan. I just hope it's not a tumor or cancer, he's too young to leave me, he will turn 5 on 4/20.
I'm so sorry. I hope you get some idea of what is causing this.
Many thoughts and prayers for you guys. Let us know, ok? Either way, let us know.
Amy and Sophia
He's not on any medications is he?
I know flagyl (metrodonazole) can have an adverse reaction of drunk behavior. I'm sure there are other drugs that do that also. Prayers for your guy, hope they can get to the bottom of this.
not on any meds
I sometimes wonder if he hurt himself and mislocated a disc because he is always jumping down from the sofa instead of using his pet stairs. He's not crying in pain when I touch his back and he would lie flat on his stomach when I say the word massage and when I massage him he enjoys it as he normally does, so just have to wait until the vet do the tests tomorrow and know.
thank you for replying
Dee
went to see neurologist yesterday
He was improving after i gave him clindamycin Tues and wednesday. The head tilt is still there but his he is not walking like he's drunk. I still took him to see the neurologist which is a 4 year resisdent student at uc davis and they did a a range of neuro test to check his reflexes, which is all there and when they fold his back paw with him standing he was a bit slow to straighten it out and when they had him on his back, they said his eyes look verticle? His eyes blick and he had all the facial reflexes and bloodworks are normal. What is weird is that his head tilt to the left and he circles starting from the right and coming back to the left in a complete circle, they insist that he is circling to the left and said he was reluctant to circle to the right? That I don't know, seems to me he circles to the right if he is going clockwise. When I told them that he seems better with the clindamycin, except for the head tilt, she said that his brain adapt to the change so that is why his coordination is better, just doesn't make sense to me. I think the medication helped.
Anyway, she said they will do an MRI and a spinal tap today and let me know. I am worried and would much prefered a neurologist and not a student resident but hopefully he is in good hands.
Dee
update from vet called
the MRI shows several areas of lesions that is either inflammatory or infections. They will test the spinal fluid for infectious disease and see if that is the case and if it is treatable depends on what kind of infections. Now if its inflammatory he will be given steroids prednisone to suppress and prognosis is just a couple months.