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Question

My dog, a maltese is 7 years old. As of August 09 he has started to have minor seizures. This morning for instance, we walked a couple of blocks came home and immediately went in and lied down. Calling him for breakfast, he walked and listed to his left side. Then lied down again when I called his name. He splays his front paws, almost going rigid. He's calm, no heavy panting but has a look of what's going on in his eyes? Took him to vet yesterday again to run liver panels. I was told to check for liver shunt or hepatic microvascular dysplasia. By checking dog's bile acids and ALT. Is this all I can do? Are seizures endemic to the breed? Should I change his diet to a vegetarian diet? His diet was changed in August to 2 different dry foods. I would appreciate any insight or perhaps a maltese specialist in Los Angeles area. Thank you.

Submitted: 154 days and 10 hours ago.
Category: Dog
Value: $9
Status: CLOSED
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Optional Information

Pet's Sex: Male
Pet's Age: 7

Already Tried:
Less rigorous walks.

Accepted Answer

Dogs really do not do well with a vegetarian diet so I'd not do that unless directed to do so by your vet.

This sounds like there may be a neurological issue going on which could be due to a liver problem or might have its source in the brain, the inner ear, or the spine too.

Disc problems in the spine are seen in this breed. You can read about disc disease here

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2373

He may be showing vestibular disease due to inner ear infection which you can read about here

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_vestibular_disease.html

You can read about liver shunts in this breed here

http://www.bhejei.com/health-pss.htm

If blood work doesn't find the problem for you then you may want to consider neurological issues as a next step to investigate.

As this might be a neck problem you might try going to a harness for walks if you use a collar now. Might be pressure on the collar is putting pressure on a disc in the neck resulting in what you see.

Hope this helps you!

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Expert: NancyH
Pos. Feedback: 99.5 %
Accepts: 20952
Answered: 10/15/2009

Dog Expert:Rescue, Train,Breed,Care

30+ yrs dog home vet care & nursing, rescue, behavior&training, responsible show breeding, genetics

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