Vestibular Idiopathic Disease- More Like "24 Hour Panic Attack and Nonstop Tears"

This is my girl Zoey.  She came into my life as a tiny fluffy butterball when I was 13, about 15 years ago.  She has always been rambunctious and energetic and a little bit wacky.  She's gotten a lot older now, and has some hip issues and she moves more slowly, but she's always been the happiest dog I've ever encountered.  She always has this doofy grin on her face.  

See that grin?  It's 24/7.  I love this nugget, she's the best.  

The other night, my dad texted me at 9:45 and asked "Are you awake?"  That's never good news.  He called, and said something along the lines of "we think Zoey had a stroke" and "can't walk."  One of the nice things about living less than three miles away from my parents' house is that I was there in five minutes.

My dad found her in the house on a mat, and she had... er, peed, pooped, and vomited in the middle of the floor.  She was stuck on the mat and couldn't move her back legs.  Her head tilted at a weird angle.  But she was grinning her stupid grin and didn't seem to be in any pain.  We thought of a few billion things that could have happened... stroke, heart attack, a fall... we found a lump on her belly/ribs and that brought about ideas of cancer, snake bite, etc.  She couldn't keep any food or water down.  My dad carried her outside to use the bathroom, and she tried walking and couldn't.  She just kept looking at us, then looking back at her legs, with this confused smile on her face.  When she was able to get her hips up, she'd take half a step and then topple sideways.  It was horrible and painful to watch.  I went home that night thinking that if she made it through the evening, the vet would surely say we had to put her down the next day.  That morning, I stopped by their house on the way to work.  She was loaded up in the van, and I sat and petted her for fifteen minutes while talking with my mom.  She had been able to walk some in the morning, but still couldn't keep food or water down.  As we sat int he van with her, I noticed her eye was twitching and rolling around while she looked at us.  I thought that it had to be something in her brain.  Again, in my heart, I knew my mom would be calling me in a few hours to join her at the vet so Zoey could be put down.  I knew it without a doubt.

Around 9, my mom texted me.  "Diagnosed with vestibular idiopathic disease.  Comes on fast.  Takes a few days to recover.  Can be reoccurring.  Tilt of head may be permanent."   I had to clarify.  She said... recover?  Zoey wasn't dying?

Turns out, this is a fairly common (I guess?????) disease in older dogs.  From what I read online, it's basically like she's on a very unsteady boat with no sea legs, or super duper drunk.  She's dizzy.  Which explains why she wouldn't walk- she didn't have her balance.  And when she did walk, she fell over and stumbled sideways- just like college!  And the eye movements?  Nystagmus.  Which, according to my retired police office dad, is something cops look for in sobriety tests.  And the part where she threw up all the time?  Yea.  The spins will do that to you.  

So basically, it should take a few days before she will be able to walk again.  She is taking, basically, Dramamine for the nausea and dizziness.  

In summary, my dog started acting like a drink drank drunkard and scared us all into thinking she was going to die within hours, when really she has this pretty common and recoverable WITHOUT INTERVENTION AT ALL!  disease.  What a brat.

Young Zoey with her doofus grin.