Asking for Prayers for Frankie

On the left there is Czar's Benjamin Franklin AKA Frankie. He's pictured with his late brother Cosmo who I just lost last month. Frank was slow to wake up this afternoon when I asked the ever popular question, "Who's hungry?" I called him a second time and he sort of startled awake. He was a bit slow to his dog dish and didn't finish. I caught Zoe trying to clean Frankie's bowl after finishing her own.

I didn't really think anything of this until a bit later back upstairs. He was sitting across the room and it looked like he was doing his best Catherine Hepburn impersonation, head gently wagging back and forth. I could almost imagine him saying, "The loons, Norman, the loons are calling..."

Then I could tell his gait was off. First thing I flashed onto was he's having a stroke and my neuro nurse background kicked in. From what I could see he was not displaying one sided weakness. He was moving all extremities. I was able to get him to play. However, his balance was clearly off.

A quick call to the vet for reassurance and I'm hoping this is Canine Vestibular Disease. I will try and get him in tomorrow to be seen. The web site I found was a bit frightening. It talked about brain lesions and tumors. Only further down the page did it begin to talk about Idiopathic CVD which clears up after about 4 days with near full recovery after a week. Only then did they mention that most cases of CVD are due to the idiopathic variety.

Having just buried Cosmo a month ago, however, the next day or so is likely to be very stressful. I have had Frankie since he was 8 weeks old. I put a down payment on him before he was born. As my mom said over on Facebook just now, "He is my first grandpuppy."

I would appreciate prayers and comments of support. Those of you who disagree with me on spiritual issues, now is not the time to make any snarky comments, please. If you don't believe in prayer, then hold us in your thoughts.

UPDATE: 12/23/09 - My vet feels that he did have a stroke, but that given the timing there was no point in giving him steroid therapy by the time we spoke. It seems there's some disagreement on whether or not dogs actually have CVA (cerebral vascular accidents). He didn't think that the symptoms indicated the vestibular disease. All I can say is that Frankie's balance was clearly off - he wouldn't eat if he had to lower his head to the floor, but elevated dish was just fine. In any case, he seems completely back to normal. I am very appreciative of all the prayers from around the world. Merry Christmas to you and your four legged companions.