I have a very beautiful old girl (ESS) who 3 months ago at 13 1/2 had a 'stroke', old dog vestibular disease, from which she recovered really well..  Certainly slower, needy and intent on as much sleep a day as possible, but still loving her walks, food and family.  I awoke yesterday to a repeat of the 'stroke' symptoms, she is a real mess all over the place.  The vet has advised that they only have one 'stroke' as this cuts the link to the vestibular (balance control) and that the reason she is all over the place is she is unwell for a different reason and her brain is not correcting her balance issues because she is unwell.  The vet diagnosed kennel cough (she has a raised temperature).  This definately reassured me.  She is still all over the place today, but eating well and able to get in the garden when necessary, but.....she hasnt drunk anything since Thursday (yesterday) morning, and this is worrying me to death.  Can anyone advise?

Make her food really sloppy and get the liquid into her that way.

Is she snow eating or licking ice it may be that is why she is not drinking although I would try to stop it as I have found with the older dogs it can make them unwell - sort of hypothermia. Can you encourage drinking by perhaps adding a little milk to the water or making a chicken soup.

Thanks for the advise, I have tried to make her very soft food (she wont go near dry food) very wet by mixing it with water - she turned her nose up and wouldnt touch it - but went to the food on its on later when I gave in.

She isnt outside long enough at the moment to lick snow, but I will definately give the chicken soup and milk a go - thank you.

You could try putting some water in a plastic syringe and syringing it into her mouth, every now and then to keep her hydrated?

Has she actually been coughing if she has KC?

My old girl had a vestibular episode a few months back scared the life out of us we honestly thought we were going to loose her..but our vet also has an elderly lurcher and said that his dog has had this a couple of times now, its apparently very common in old dogs and although the symptoms are alarming he reasured us that in most cases they make a full recovery sometimes it can take a few days which it did with our old girl but she is fine now and brighter than she ever was.  

Sometimes with vestibular disease the dog cannot balance well enough to approach its water bowl at the right level and for this reason may be wary of drinking. As advised above I would definitely syringe water into the dog's mouth to keep her hydrated.

Thanks to Moomins and dogsbody100.  I feel reassured by your experience of vestibular episodes - it is really scarey seeing her wobbling all over the place and rolling her eyes.  I will buy a syringe today and try this for her.

She is definately having trouble with eating, the food is going everywhere and she is better if I hand it to her, but that means I cant wet it at all.

Thanks to all

Did you have vivitonin prescribed for the vestibular episode - Carly is taking vivitonin, which I thought would stop future episodes.  I hope your  dog is well now.

I really am surprised at the KC diagnosis.  She had a temperature and when she was being examined by the vet she coughed a couple of times - which was the first time I had heard her cough, and I havent heard it since, but the Vet said that it must be KC!  She was clipped a couple of weeks ago so I guess she could have picked it up there.

Will she chew ice cubes or ice lollies if you hold them. They will stop her getting dehydrated. If she has a cough give her childrens  cough mixture with expectorant to break up any congestion "sudafed" do one from 2yrs old.
 

My old dog has had two vestibular incidents so am not sure why your vet says that cannot happen? Anyway, it's just awful to see them post incident. Just do what you can and try everything you can think of to increase fluids. My dog would be encouraged to drink by natural yoghurt in water. At his worst, even that didn't work - I used ice cream melted down!! Not ideal I know but I was desperate. Eating was a nightmare. I found small but very frequent meals worked best. Every hour to two hours. I used to wrap kibble inside small pieces of fresh turkey to try and get as many calories as possible into him!! He wouldn't look at it in a bowl but ate from my hand. My situation was more complicated as he is on a prescription diet.

It is a dreadful thing to see and I feared my dog wouldn't recover after the 2nd episode. Walking was a nightmare as he was veering off to one side. Eyes flicking everywhere. He must have felt so nauseous.

Keep at it - I would say it was a good ten days before my dog started to show improvements. I jumped for joy when he woofed for the first time!!