i am very worried about my lurcher dog billy who seems to have some sort of balance problem.he as now not eaten or drunk anything for nearly three days now.he seems to be holding his head to the left and this seems to be affecting his balance.i had him to the vets yesterday(4th oct)she give him some antibiotics(synulox),steroids and some rehydration powder,but this morning he seems worse,the vet checked his ears which she said can affect his balance but they seemed ok although his temperature was slightly high.has anybody come across this before any advice would be appreciated thanks.
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Balance sickness
- Thread starter ahornsby
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Hi, and welcome to DogForum 
It sounds very much like an inner ear infection, otherwise known as labyrinthitis. Your dog effectively has sea sickness, which happens when the cochlear in the inner ear disagrees with your eyes as to which way up you are or whether you're moving.
Labyrinthitis is normally a viral infection which is self limiting within a couple of weeks, so I think that your vet has covered all of the bases with steroids to help with any inflammation, Synulox in case it's bacterial and rehydration salts to prevent dehydration. If his outer and middle ear, which are as far as you can see by looking down his ears, are looking fine then it's probably far enough inside that it can't be seen.
There are some other conditions which can rarely cause this sort of loss of balance, like neurological conditions, but the investigations for these conditions are expensive and invasive, so much better not started until at least a couple of weeks have passed, to be sure that it's not the more common viral labyrinthitis.
I hope that your little one starts to improve quickly
It sounds very much like an inner ear infection, otherwise known as labyrinthitis. Your dog effectively has sea sickness, which happens when the cochlear in the inner ear disagrees with your eyes as to which way up you are or whether you're moving.
Labyrinthitis is normally a viral infection which is self limiting within a couple of weeks, so I think that your vet has covered all of the bases with steroids to help with any inflammation, Synulox in case it's bacterial and rehydration salts to prevent dehydration. If his outer and middle ear, which are as far as you can see by looking down his ears, are looking fine then it's probably far enough inside that it can't be seen.
There are some other conditions which can rarely cause this sort of loss of balance, like neurological conditions, but the investigations for these conditions are expensive and invasive, so much better not started until at least a couple of weeks have passed, to be sure that it's not the more common viral labyrinthitis.
I hope that your little one starts to improve quickly
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