Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 12/22/2007

Question
we recently took our 13 1/2 year old german shepherd/doberman to the vet.  he said that our dog, rudy, most likely had vestibular syndrome.  he also said that rudy might have a bran tumor or a blood clot.  the vet said that he could not tell if he had central vestibular syndrome or peripheral.  he said that for peripheral he could recover, but for central there might not be much we could do.  the next day, I looked on the internet for anything that might help me help rudy recover.  i found that on all the websites i looked at said that for both peripheral and central they could make a recovery.  what are the chances of rudy recovering from central if he has it? also is there anything that i can do to try to help him recover?

thank you
-nathan

Answer
Peripheral vestibular disease indicates the ear or the 8th cranial nerve is affected.  Central vestibular disease means anything else.  There are certain brain and spinal problems that are treatable,. like meningitis or abscesses, but brain tumors in dogs, while very rare, are not usually treatable.

If your dog has never experienced this before, this is probably something we call "old dog vestibular syndrome."  It usually goes away in a week or so with steroids and a drug called meclizine.