It appears my dog is staggering, I just noticed and caught him lose balance twice. Should I be worried?
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It appears my dog is staggering, I just noticed and caught him lose balance twice. Should I be worried?
There few reasons why your dog could be staggering and unbalance… injury or damage to the inner ear can cause balance issues in dogs. It can be difficult to tell if a dog is injured because dogs tend to be very good at masking pain. Signs of loss of balance should not be ignored since they can indicate a serious medical emergency. Another very valid reason your dog could be staggering is if he has low blood sugar. If you added that he gets hunger, my immediate guess would be he could have had low blood sugar, that would explain the hunger and staggering around. You could try giving him a small amount of honey and try waking him up every once in a while to make sure he’s doing okay.
I’m sorry that this is happening to your dog. If it happens again, take a video of it and then show it to your vet. That would make it easier to diagnose. You are describing symptoms of ataxia, which has a variety of causes, but should be addressed if it recurs. It sounds like what my dog had vestibular disease. Look it up, but it’s usually temporary and affects the dog’s inner ear balance.