Bell's Palsy in Dogs?

[laceynoelle]

My 11 year old Border Collie has the right side of her face drooping really badly. Shes drooling all over herself and has little control in that area. This happened literally over night, and idk whats wrongwith her. At first i thought it was a stoke, but google says dogs dont get paralyzed when they have stokes. I think its something called Bell's Palsy, but im not sure. Can anyone enlighten me? Has anyone had this problem before? Please help out. Ive had her since ive been six, she cant go now. Is it serious?

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Stroke in dogs does cause head tilting and also can cause facial mucles to be weak on the stroke side...My 19 year old Rat Terrier had several of them before we euthanized him.

 

[Brindlebtch]

Sometimes AmStaffs will get partial facial paralysis, which is very like Bell's palsy. The cause for it is unknown, but obviously involves nerves. AmStaffs and BCs share several genetic disorders like ataxia and PFP.

Make sure she can blink and swallow. If she can't blink you can always add eyedrops. If she can't swallow, then it is very serious. If she can swallow and blink, not to worry. We recently put down a much loved dog from cardiomyopathy and cancer who had PFP. It weakened her bite but otherwise was not a problem.

 

[laceynoelle]

She can blink and swallow fine. Thank you for the reasurrance. I cant tell what set it off, so ive pretty much factored out everything but a nerve issue.

 

[dedicateddourly]

Are there any other symptoms? Like loss of balance or head tilt? My 13-year old recently had an attack of Old Dog Vestibular Syndrome. He didn't have any face-drooping though.

Good luck. I hope it's nothing serious.

 

[lasergrl]

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/neurological/c_multi_facial_nerve_paresis

Sounds alot like Horners syndrome. Usually a benign problem:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2105&aid=2478