hi there. just after some advice about my little boy! he's an 11 year old springer who was diagnosed as having a 'stroke' in march. he was given a steroid injection and anti-biotics. the vet said it was probably brought on by an inner or middle ear infection. (he does suffer quite regular with ear infections being a springer!!). within 2 hours of his stroke he was able to walk straight and the flickering eyes had stopped. lately though he has had a couple of minor strokes...ie. wobbling over to one side as if he's fainted. then he gets up straight away and off he trots as though nothing's happened! i took him to the vets last week because his head tilt had become quite severe, and the left side of his face had become more paralysed, but was also twitching like mad,  and he had a tender ear...again! the vet wanted to x-ray, or MRI him. i said no purely because of his age and also the expense, so she gave him anti-biotics again and steriods, and took an ear swab. i took  him back to the vets on friday for the results of the swab. they hadnt been returned! it was another vet who saw my boy and he said his ear infection was clearing up nicely. so he prescribed another course of ear drops, which the vet the previous week had been reluctant to give him as she said he had a damaged ear drum! then he said did i want to try a course of vivitonin on my boy. i am a bit reluctant because he has not lost any of his vitality, or lost his appetite, and still loves his walks as much as ever. the vet suggested i give him lucozade for his twitching face! or he could give beta-blockers. i suppose my question is....has anyone tried vivitonin? am i depriving my boy of a drug that could possibly stop future strokes? i really dont want to pump him full of drugs if i can help it...but at the same time i want to do the best i can for him! HELP!!

Hi Pollyanna,

This sounds exactly like my ferrets symptoms in January. I know ferrets are a lot smaller but he did all the thingks you've discribed.
The vet insisted it was ear mites but that's because not many vets know much about ferrets.
He was prescribed steroids, anti-biotics and metacam for the pain. He had a tilted head and appeared not to be able to see. After a couple of days my vet advised me to have him PTS. He said that Rabbit could never recover and was in terrible pain. I refused and carried on with the medication. I could see slight progree.
Vestibular was mentioned but the vet said ferrets can't get it. How did he know he'd already told me he was no expert with ferrets.
I changed my vet and the new vet also advised me to to PTS. He said Rabbit had had a number of strokes. Basically because Rabbit was not a young ferret (6-7yrs old). I think some vets are of the opinion that ferrets are disposible. His attitude was I had 20 others so I wouldn't miss this one.
Push comes to shove I refused and Rabbit was on his meds for about 4 months. I then stopped them as there was no further progress. He still had a tilted head, fell over on occassion and was blind and deaf.
It's now Ocotber and he is living happily with his friends, who seem to look after him.
I was offered other drugs, can't remember if it was vivitonin, but as he wasn't getting any worse I refused them.
In the latter years of any animals life it can sometimes be too much for their systems to be n these kind of drugs and so long as they are 'happy' with what they have I feel it is often kinder to them to allow them to live their lives out in peace. Rather than having tablets rammed down their necks every day.

hi D4wn,

thanks very much for your reply. i feel very much like you do about medication and age unless absolutely necessary. i feel that maybe it would be the slippery-slope downwards if i start ramming all sorts of medication down his neck. his behaviour is as its always been, just looks a bit odd with the head tilt. also he's probably about 80% deaf! bless him! hope your little one stays well....

I tried vivitonin on one of my old girls who had heart problems & was becoming a little "peculiar" in her behaviour. I was told that it increased the blood supply to the brain, so I don't see how it could help prevent strokes. It didn't make any difference to her at all, we just put up with her peculiarities until we had to have her PTS about 18months later when her heart became too weak.  I've also had 2 dogs suffer "strokes" at about 13yrs. My first recovered almost completely, with no veterinary intervention, just had a slight head tilt for her remaining 5 yrs. The other, sadly had to be PTS as she had a series of strokes within a week & couldn't walk unless leaning against a wall.

Hi Polly-Anna,

My golden oldie had what to all intents and purposes a stroke overnight.  We rushed her to the vet and he insisted it was vestibular disease - a couple of years back now and when some of the vet profession were buying into the "dogs don't have strokes" theory :rolleyes:   Anyway, ABs and drops allegedly cured it BUT, no surprise to us at the time, she began showing other problems such as coughing, and also the head tilt and slightly crooked smile reduced but never disappeared.  We changed vets.

She was soon diagnosed as having a heart problem and given a low dose daily of frusemide as she had fluid retention in her chest and her blood pressure wasn't good.   On the plus side, she lived a happy, normal but slightly more sedate life for another 18 months or so but succumbed to a further more severe stroke one month after her fourteenth birthday.  It was then obviously time to let her go as she was clearly distressed and so deserved better than that :(

Hopefully your dear boy will have a good quality of life without the need for strong meds - a tiny water pill daily did it for our girl ;)

Good luck, and God bless Teri x

pollyanna,

The vets are still at the 'don't have strokes' stage with ferrets.

both the vets I went to first told me tht they 'didi't think' a ferret could have a stroke. My thughts are that if it has a brain it can have a stroke. Don't know if I'm right but that's what I told the vet.
In the end, after failing to find any other possibility, they decided it was probably a stroke.

Rabbit it getting around very well. I don't know if I would allow a larger animal to continue as he is but at the moment he has his friends who help him and seems as happy as ever. If he can't find the food bowl I've seen one of the little Jills take food to him as if he was a kit. He has a really marked head tilt and is almost definately totally blind and deaf. I'll be very surprised if he survives through the Winter this year but at least he has had a good few months more than the vet was prepared to give him.