Shar Pei with suspected vestibular disease.

Hi, i'm new here, here's my story, about a year ago my Shar Pei had a complete senior blood test done and everything was normal except her T4 level was borderline low, and her free T4 was normal but also a bit low. He said we could start her on thyroxine but said since she was still in normal range and he would recommend waiting and doing another T4 test down the road.

Through 2005 I noticed she had hypothyroid like symptoms that got worse towards the end of the year. Symptoms included dry/dull coat, joint inflammation, pigmentation, lethargy, hair on her rear back fell out easily, odd smelling skin, and slight balance problems. I wasn't sure if this was old age or her thyroid.

She had an episode on the morning of December 24th 2005, she had head tilt on her left side, loss of balance and rolled on the floor. She went to the Vet that morning, we did a complete senior blood test, this time the T4 level came back below normal. What was odd is even though our vet mentioned putting her on thyroxine supplements a year earlier he didn't mention it this time, even though her T4 level had dropped and the clinical symptoms increased. Instead he recommended getting her looked at by a specialist and possibly doing a total ear ablation or a zep procedure(lateral ear resection). He suspected middle or inner ear infection although her canal was fine except for a small polyp. He gave her Prednisolone(six day supply) and the head tilt and balance problem went away....... temporarily. As soon as she was off the Pred she went downhill again. We placed her on Prednisolone two more times, same thing, while she was on it the head tilt and balance problems went away, when she came off the problems came back.

From reading up on hypothyroidism I know that it can cause vestibular disease, and not wanting to take my dogs ear canal out as the first step, a risky surgery that does not guarantee anything, we brought her to another vet.

I showed him the blood work from the first vets office and he didn't seem overally concerned about the low T4 level even though she was displaying about seven symptoms of a low thyroid which got worse over the last year along with her T4 level dropping. He wanted to test for allegies which he said weren't overally accurate in some cases. Instead he took an ear culture which came back fine, no infection. He agreed to start her on a trial of thyroxine 0.5mg, two a day twelve hours apart for the low T4.

She started the thyroxine last Friday 1/20 and by Sunday her coat was already looking better, and her joint swelling had went down a bit. Now she still has the head tilt and balance problems but they seem to be getting slightly better each day, although at times during the day she has a rough time.

Finally I would like to see if anybody here has had a dog with vestibular disease that was caused by a low thyroid and how long recovery took after being treated for low thyroid. I'm supecting she kept having relapses when she was on the Pred(before the thyroid medication was started) because her thyroid was the culprit and the Preds were only treating the symptoms and not the problem. From what I have read, which is alot, is that some cases of vestibular disease can last up to two months, especially if due to a low thyroid, some last 2-3 weeks. Also she doesn't have the rapid eye movement that is sometimes associated with vestibular disease but I was told by a specialist in Califonia, Dr. Jeann Dodds, that rapid eye movement doesn't always happen with Vestibular disease. She does have the head swaying, head tilt and balance problems as mentioned earlier in my post.

Any information or ideas on this would be great. I apologize for the verbose post but I wanted to include as much as I could.

Thank you.

I don;t know about the thyroid but have you ever read up on shar pei fever? It can encompass a lot of things from fever to hair loss and hock swelling. My grandparents ahve had problems with two of thiers and it just comes on occasionally with no warning,they both have horrible skin to. What do you feed?

Well, my vet now thinks it may be central vestibular disease(not good), lesion, tumor, or some neurological disorder. He said an infection or abnormality might cause the T4 to lower. Peripheral vestibular disease is being ruled out right now because it's been several weeks and there's been zero improvement, actually it's a little worse. For now we have her on a low dose or Pred which seems to help alot, get's her back to about 95%. We have to investigate further and see what the problem is.

Everything gives peis cancer,or at least tumors,have you had her on any other shots,does she get vaccinations every year? Tumor is probally a good possability. My bfs uncle had a boxer that started out with what they thought was an ear infection and ended up being a tumor.

I stopped giving her shots in 2002, I didn't like what I was reading about them.

Nothing in her senior blood test was out of order except her T4 and free T4, white and red blood cell counts were fine.

I can't help you , but do want to say that you've given very clear posts, and I wish you the best. Please continue to let us know.

Joce I noticed you have what seems to be a Goony dog on the left hand side of your photo. Just kidding, is that a Rottweiler? My girlfriend has one also and we call him Goony or Goon, a nickname I came up with, lol.

The vet can't even help us much right now so you're not alone. Thanks for the kind wishes, I hope she stays around for a while.

Thats my dobe baby I love rotts though!

Do you have pics of your peis?
Here are my grandmas three
http://www.dogster.com/?100859
http://www.dogster.com/?100860
http://www.dogster.com/?100861
The last one is the one with the most problems. her skin is just horrible
Here are a couple links on shar pei fever just in case you've never seen it,its deals a lot with swelling,its possible she could have swelling in her skull.
http://www.drjwv.com/article.php?view=0004.php
and hree was another list on problems they commonly have
http://www.drjwv.com/article.php?view=0003.php
And they even have a forum
http://www.sharpeiforums.com/cgi-bi...forum;f=4;hardset=0;start_point=0;DaysPrune=0

I posted a message on the shar pei forums about this situation over a week ago and got zero response.

The most informative site I have read about this subject is this:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...r+syndrome+medications&hl=en&client=firefox-a

I called my vet again and faxed him some information from that site in the hopes that he can come up with some antibiotics to knock out a inner ear infection if there is one. Also to knock out any infection with the central vestibular, which is hard but seems like it can possibly be done if you mix and choose what antibiotics you use. We tried Orbax a few weeks ago for two weeks and had her on a six dat does of low does preds. She did well, when she came off the pred and stayed on the antibiotics for the other 6 she was fine for about 4-5 days and the symptoms came back. I think we need to to a 6-8 week dose of the right antibiotics personally. Orbax is strong stuff, but not all antibiotics can reach the inner ear, if you read the info at that link you'll see what I mean. Also you have to do a long dosage of antibiotics intially because if you keep doing on/off doses the infection becomes immune to the antibiotic.

When we intially had her on just the Preds right after the first rolling incident 12/24/05 she did well but when we took her off she tanked within the first 2-3 days. After that is when I suggested we tried another does of preds along with the Orbax.

So far she has been on Pred on/off for a month, now we have her on a longer period of Pred. I'm not happy using Prednisone but I was told if used in small doses, we're using 5mg and start to space it out it's quite safe to use. I just want to exhaust all possibilities of knocking out an infection, if it exists, instead of relying 100% on Pred which is treating the swelling but I want to find what's causing the swelling and stop it that way. She's been fine since we got her back on Pred yesterday, I just got back from an hour walk with her. But it's bitter sweet because I know the Preds are what is keeping her going.

I know about Shar Pei fever, this definitely isn't that.

If you read the paragraph on that site I linked to and read this part:

"linically, idiopathic vestibular disease presents as an acute onset of vestibular signs with severe imbalance, due to its sudden onset and the severe nystagmus which is associated with the onset of the disorder. Since the eyes are unable to fix on the horizon and the vestibular mechanism is defective, there is severe vertigo. This often results in the rolling and rolling described by the owners. This can be mistaken for a seizure, which it is not. During the early phases of idiopathic vestibular disease, the patient often experiences nausea to the point of frequent vomiting and inappetence. The head tilt will be toward the side of dysfunction and the nystagmus will be horizontal or rotatory with the fast-phase away from the head tilt. If supported, there are no other neurologic deficits and proprioception is normal."

That exactly fits the bill to what happened to us on 12/24/05. What doesn't fit is that she doesn't get better on her own which she should with
Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. It should correct itself usually withing 2-3 weeks. That's why i'm personally leaning towards inner ear infection or central vestibular disease. Unless she got hit really hard and she need more time than usual to get over this......i'm really hoping. I've also been giving her Ester C and Pau D'Arco.