Downward Spiral

Bailey has gotten much worse in recent days, going from a dog who occasionally fell over after shaking to a dog who can barely stand up straight. Her head is lilting like a sunken battleship, and she keeps running into things, hugging the wall, unsure of her footing, collapsing up and down stairs. And yet her demeanor, despite looking confused as to what the hey is going on, is about the same as before: happy to see us upon our return, tail wagging, wanting to throw a nerf football around the office.

We took her to a neurologist today to get an assessment. The doc liked that she's still eating, sleeping, behaving 'normally'; that Bailey doesn't seem to have any other symptoms of nerve damage (responds to stimulus, fixes her paw went bent, leans into a push from the side, etc.), and it may just be a severe inner ear infection causing pressure that could go away with meds. But the fact that this started in November and has gotten progressively worse leads her to believe that it's something growing inside or just next to her brain or inner ear, either a tumor or cyst. So we'll get an MRI soon to see what it is we're dealing with. If it's in her brain, there's not much they can do. If it's somewhere else, maybe radiation or chemo, but we'd want to know what kind of life she'd have afterwards. If it's a polyp or cyst, they may be able to go in surgically. A lot of what ifs, but we're encouraged that the doctor didn't take one look at her and start shaking her head.
Still, it's ruff watching her stumble around the house. I even left her downstairs last night just so she wouldn't have to manage the stairwell again.
Meanwhile, we're into week three of pet sitting a friend's dog and cat, so we're creeping into crazy animal people territory again, getting looks from the neighbors, etc. At least the dog isn't brown. That'd just be nuts.