Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Signs, MRI results, and recovery in dogs with peripheral vestibular
By Orlandi, Rocio et al.·Published in BMC veterinary research·2020·Department of Small Animal Clinical Science, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Clinical signs, MRI findings and outcome in dogs with peripheral vestibular disease: a retrospective study.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 6.9-year-old dog was brought in with symptoms of head tilt, unsteady walking (ataxia), and facial paralysis, which are signs of vestibular disease affecting balance. After conducting MRI scans, the vet found that the most common cause was idiopathic vestibular disease, meaning the exact cause was unknown, although some cases were linked to ear infections. While many dogs showed improvement, some continued to have lingering symptoms like head tilt and facial weakness. Dogs with a history of previous vestibular episodes were more likely to recover fully.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Vestibular dysfunction is relatively common in dogs, with a prevalence of 0.08% reported in primary veterinary care in the UK. There are several studies investigating how to differentiate between peripheral and central vestibular disease but only limited information regarding the possible underlying causes for peripheral vestibular dysfunction in dogs. This study therefore aimed to describe the clinical signs, magnetic resonance imaging findings (MRI), underlying causes and outcome in a large population of dogs diagnosed with peripheral vestibular disease. RESULTS: One hundred eighty-eight patients were included in the study with a median age of 6.9 years (range 3 months to 14.6 years). Neurological abnormalities included head tilt (n = 185), ataxia (n = 123), facial paralysis (n = 103), nystagmus (n = 97), positional strabismus (n = 93) and Horner syndrome (n = 7). The most prevalent diagnosis was idiopathic vestibular disease (n = 128), followed by otitis media and/or interna (n = 49), hypothyroidism (n = 7), suspected congenital vestibular disease (n = 2), neoplasia (n = 1) and cholesteatoma (n = 1). Long-term follow-up revealed persistence of head tilt (n = 50), facial paresis (n = 41) and ataxia (n = 6) in some cases. Recurrence of clinical signs was observed in 26 dogs. Increasing age was associated with a mild increased chance of diagnosis of idiopathic vestibular syndrome rather than otitis media and/or interna (P = 0.022, OR = 0.866; CI 0.765-0.980). History of previous vestibular episodes (P = 0.017, OR = 3.533; CI 1.251-9.981) was associated with an increased likelihood of resolution of the clinical signs whilst contrast enhancement of cranial nerves VII and/or VIII on MRI (P = 0.018, OR = 0.432; CI 0.251-0.868) was associated with a decreased chance of resolution of the clinical signs. CONCLUSIONS: Idiopathic vestibular disease is the most common cause of peripheral vestibular dysfunction in dogs and it is associated with advanced age. Incomplete recovery from peripheral vestibular disease is common, especially in dogs presenting with cranial nerve enhancement on MRI but less so if there is previous history of vestibular episodes.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32450859/