My Dakota could not walk last Monday. I ran him to the vet only to find that he is unsure of his problem. He was alert and following the Dr. as he did various tests. He put him on the floor and he fell over. He noted that he recorded in his chart on the last visit his right pupil was dilated. He felt that his problem was brain related. He gave him a shot of Dethametaxone and some pills in the prednisone family. Dakota weights 7lbs so he perscribed 1/2 pill two times a day. That afternoon within about 3 hours he was his old self. I started giving him the pills and by Friday he was panting and urinating in the house. I did not realize that this was a side effect of the Prednisone. By Sunday evening he started acting strange again and falling over. I took him to an emergency vet hospital where they also verified the same observation as my vet. He was having issues in his head. He could not stand and was falling over to the left. He would not put his paws straight down to stand. The Dr. was kind in giving me some things to think about. I was not able to afford the expensive tests that she would preform to be 100% sure of the problem. I took Dakota home and decided to see what would happen with him the next morning. To my surprise he was walking a bit in the morning and was able to go to the bathroom. He was eating but still very quiet as he tried to do his normal running to the door when the ups man rang the bell only to find he would fall and then seemed very depressed. He slept and laid almost all day long. I called the vet to get his additional thoughts. He told me to cut back on the Prednisone to lessen the side effects. He said to just keep an eye on him. It was not time to put him down. I have been spending many hours researching this problem only to find that Yorkshires have this problem. Now I understand how I lost my last two. All of the symptoms were all becoming clear to me. I lost my first Yorkie at 8 yrs old as he had sudden seizures. My 13 year old tea cup started having some of these signs leading to what I thought was a stroke. Now my 9 year old male Dakota. We just lost our little one almost a year ago to date. So now having to deal with this, I am just sick over and don't know what to do. This morning he could not walk at all. He did move his bowels but could not empty his bladder since he could not stand up. I gave him his 1/2 pill of prednisone and hand fed him a scrambled egg. It took about an hour for the pill to kick in as then he was able to go outside and walk around finding his special spot to urinate. I am not sure what to expect from here. I don't know what to do after reading about Encephalitis. Some say there is no hope but I have been reading some say there is. I feel this is what he has based on information read. I even tried to use some holistic forms of treatment to help build his immune system based on what I have been reading. I appreciate any information or advice I can get.
