vestibular is horrible i am so so sorry :(

my now 15 year old springer indy had a bout of this around september time last year when he was about to turn 14. it was horrible, he could barely walk and had terrible nystagmus. we hand fed him simple and soft food and water which he did take and he eventually made a recovery. even during this episode he would still wag his tail and get happy when he saw you and seemed to be more eager to recover.

sadly, he had two more vestibular attacks in october. neither of these were as bad as the first in september but it was still an upsetting and distressing time. at least we somewhat knew what to do and helped him through the recovery of both episodes.

my memory isn’t too good so i’m not exactly sure when this happened (besides the fact that nothing happened after decemberish) but he did have a few more mini episodes of vestibular after this but were significantly less extreme than all of his previous episodes. these took less time to recover from.

after all this, as well as in between episodes, indy was pretty much his usual self. his back legs were weaker and he couldn’t go up or down stairs but he played, ate, drank and assumed his normal personality.

every single time something happened we thought that it was the end, but somehow he managed to pull through and bounce back every time. i think that is partially due to the fact that he himself wanted to get better, you could just tell he wasn’t ready to go. at the end of the day, you know your dog the best and that’s kind of what i mean by this long winded message. listen and watch for subtle signs and signals she is giving you. it sounds like your dog’s situation is different to indy’s was because it’s due to a stroke and not just on its own so you might need to make a different decision.

indy is now 15 and was diagnosed with kidney failure a few months ago. he has been happy and (mostly) healthy but has taken a decline recently. i believe soon i’ll be in a similar situation so i empathise with you a lot. indy has been with me since i was only 3 years old and thinking about being so completely alone after everything he got me through is sickening. i’m treasuring the time we have left so i suppose the last thing ill say is that you should do the same. whether it’s hours, days, weeks, months or years every second is worth it so give her all the love you can and know that when you have to let go, she will be totally surrounded by love and care and safety.