Page 1 of 1

One-eyed dog with neck issue

Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:03 pm
by billyboy
Hello
I adopted a lovely 4-year-old french bulldog with one eye three weeks ago. Two days after his desexing surgery I noticed him get this weird neck spasm/seizure type thing where he tilted his head up to one side and almost collapsed on to the ground. It happened while he was eating dinner. I have since raised his bowl up and that helps but he is now also getting them when he plays with a ball or his dog sister. My vet considered vestibular syndrome but he didn't have all the signs so we tried a course of pain meds and anti-inflammatory medicine. That didn't help. I took him to another vet who is going to be operating on his soft palate and he thinks that it might be caused by his epigolottis getting caught on his palate. He thinks he is trying to get it clear. The vet suggested that this might have been triggered by the tube down his throat during surgery.

Billy usually has a bit of a head tilt due to his missing eye but nothing like he gets with this bouts. They only last from about 10s or up to a minute but it's awful and the poor thing looks frightened. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

He is due for his soft palate surgery in three weeks and the surgical vet will take extra x-rays. Any advice would be wonderful.
Thanks

Re: One-eyed dog with neck issue

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:24 pm
by CarolC
billyboy wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:03 pm Hello

:banner: Replying in blue.

I adopted a lovely 4-year-old french bulldog with one eye three weeks ago. Congratulations! Two days after his desexing surgery I noticed him get this weird neck spasm/seizure type thing where he tilted his head up to one side and almost collapsed on to the ground. It happened while he was eating dinner. I have since raised his bowl up and that helps but he is now also getting them when he plays with a ball or his dog sister. My vet considered vestibular syndrome but he didn't have all the signs so we tried a course of pain meds and anti-inflammatory medicine. That didn't help. I took him to another vet who is going to be operating on his soft palate and he thinks that it might be caused by his epigolottis getting caught on his palate. He thinks he is trying to get it clear. The vet suggested that this might have been triggered by the tube down his throat during surgery.

The palate and epiglottis is something I have no experience with. I have a partially paralyzed 8-lb dog who developed a painful neck problem after being laid on her side by the groomer to have her nails done. She does not like having her nails done or being held down, she is scared, and I wasn't there but I suspect she strained her neck trying to get up from lying on her side while being held down. She developed a very stiff sore neck and was crying constantly. If I remember correctly, she did not develop it right after the groomer, it was a couple of days later after she also strained herself going up a ramp she had been up many times before. I think her neck was already a little out of whack and bouncing up the ramp made it worse.

I described it here. She was put on Robaxin, Tramadol, Rimadyl, and diazepam. Robaxin is a muscle relaxer. Rimadyl and Tramadol are for pain/inflammation. They were not working, she was still crying. He added diazepam (Valium) and that finally did the trick to get her to stop crying, and she started getting better. Like you, I raised her dish and I also crated her a long time. Now I always remind the groomer not to put her on her side. It's been over a year since there has been a recurrence, but it was miserable for her the times it happened.


Billy usually has a bit of a head tilt due to his missing eye but nothing like he gets with this bouts.

I have never heard of a one-eyed animal having a head tilt as a result, maybe someone else will know something about that.

They only last from about 10s or up to a minute but it's awful and the poor thing looks frightened. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

I'm glad it's transient. What my dog had did not go away until she was fully medicated including the Valium. I have no idea what is going on with your frenchie, but I have seen a couple of cases here where dogs were actually paralyzed after routine surgery, apparently due to laying a creaky older body on the table. I know they pad the dogs, so I'm not sure why it happens, but the dogs are also handled before and after surgery. I would think if he seems to get "kinked up" and it doesn't go away, then it might be some kind of spasm in his neck. However, I hope the vet was right and it's not his neck.

He is due for his soft palate surgery in three weeks and the surgical vet will take extra x-rays. Any advice would be wonderful.

I really don't know what is going on, but I wonder if exercise restriction might be in order, for example no playing ball or jumping off of furniture, etc., until you figure it out...but I don't know.

I am wondering how the eye was lost. If it was lost in an accident, then possibly there was some head/neck trauma at the time and you are seeing legacy effects, but again I don't know, I'm sorry.


Thanks