Horner's Syndrome?

[jajacobsen]

My male 9 month old weimaraner, Samson, was diagnosed with Horner's Syndrome on Saturday. It is where the eye becomes red and droopy, with the third eyelid showing. He had no symptons when he was put to bed on Fri night but was like this Sat morning, so we took him to the vet right away.

Our vet saw him, diagnosed Horner's Syndrome, and prescribed a general antibiotic (pills), ear drops, and eye salve. He was referred to a vet opthamologist, with whom we will call tomorrow morning and make a follow-up appointment (they were closed on Sat).

Apparently the cause can be from trauma or from an infection. Also, it can idiopathically occur and re-occur. I am sure the specialist can provide more info after examining Samson. Has anyone else ever had any experience with this?

And yes, this is the same dog that 9 weeks ago broke his hip. (He's doing much better now) My poor puppy! My poor checkbook!

[jesvet]

Sounds like you've had an eventful few months- my goodness! Sounds like the ophthalmologist will give you a good idea what's going on.

I'll fix your title too. :D

[greenbunny]

Is that the same thing as "cherry eye"?

I'd Google it, but eyes freak me out and I don't want to stumble across a picture of the surgery or something. :o

[jesvet]

greenbunny- nope. cherry eye is a prolapsed nictitans due to a weakening of the structures holding the third eyelid in place, while Horner's affects the nerve running along the entire side of the face, so there are multiple symptoms- including the third eyelid.

[greenbunny]

Thanks jesvet. Poor pup, what bad luck.

[jajacobsen]

I did google the term and found out more info. Apparently it can occur in cats, horses and people - probably other higher mammals as well. I'm just trying to figure out for myself if it was caused by trauma (from the hip-breaking fall), ear infection or an idiopathic reason. Apparently, it is not common in this breed, and I just wondered how common it might be - if anyone else had any anecdotal experiences to share.

And yes, it has been an eventful summer for us. His littermate, Delilah, our other weim, decided to eat a large portion of drywall out of one of our walls and gave herself an inflamed GI tract. Not only did she have diarrhea and vomiting for several days (joyous!), the treatment included feeding her a very mild diet of boiled chicken and rice. Which meant I had to boil and debone chicken for a dog that eats 15 lbs of food per week. And of course, whatever Delilah was fed, of course Samson had to have the same as well....

[Tanya]

My dog was diagnosed with this, but it only occurred for a few days, then went away, never to appear again. It was very strange, I came home one Fri and she (a beagle) was really, really ticked off at me, kinda like the time we took her to a boarder she didn't like. Extremely out-of-character behavior for her, as she is excited to see anyone, even strangers. But, she was fine with DH. Ok, so I figured maybe she hurt herself and got the idea I did it? Or had a bad dream about me?? But DH checked her out and the only weird thing she was dong was hunching her back a bit. So, maybe she pulled a muscle or had a cramp in her shoulder/neck? But, she wouldn't let me near her. I mean, run the other direction. Bizarre, and scary. I couldn't find our heating pad, so I got an old sock and filled it with rice and heated it up and tied it around her neck--I grabbed her and forced it on her. She also didn't seem up to running, just when I would come around. Anyway, I kept that up for a few hours, reheating it, and she seemed to get better.

The next day, she had a really droopy right eye with tons of drainage, but had perfectly normal behavior again. She has drainage anyway--beagles are prone to this--but this was much worse. This was also the eye she had gotten scratched by another dog a few months earlier. So I took her to the vet on Mon, but by then of course, she was back to her normal self. The vet could only come up with Horner's (explained to me like Parkinson's in dogs), and told us to use the antibiotic gel we had from the eye scratch in the leaking eye, but she didn't think the two events were related. She said the same thing your vet said about the coming and going of it, and that we might never see it again. She also gave her a thorough body exam and found nothing wrong with her, and could think of nothing that would relate the neck thing to the Horner's. So who knows. But, it is odd that both your dog and mine had an earlier trauma.

ETA: the vet could see other symptons of the Horner's even before I mentioned any issue that weren't apparent to me, like her mouth a little droopier on that side, etc. So that's why she thought it was more than just the eye.

[jajacobsen]

He is doing much better now. Hopefully, it will pass without any re-occurrence. He's still on meds for a week. To me, it sounds a lot like Bell's Palsey (which affects humans, not like Bell's, which is caused by a specific virus, the syndrome can some from multiple causes.

Samson had NO personality changes while affected but did seem a little tired.

[Tanya]

You're right, it's Bell's Palsy it's similar to, I can't believe I got those mixed up. The "P" word is all I could think of.