Hydrocephalus

[beauazzuri]

Has anyone had any experience of Hydrocephalus (Water on the brain) in pups.

[Tori]

Hi

When i was working at the Cavalier kennels we had a litter which had two puppies with this condition.  Sadly in this instance one we lost a week old and the second we lost at 12 wks.  I'm sorry but this my only experience of this disease and probably of little use.

Tori x

[beauazzuri]

Hi Tori

Many thanks for your reply, it has been a great help. Can you tell me if the 12 week old pup, was reasonably normal, in terms of behaviour, and eating habits etc, before it died.

[Tori]

Well funnily enough, we never realised there was a problem with the second puppy until it came to the weaning age.  Up to then he had fed well from his mother and maintained body weight with his siblings.  When started on solids it was like he couldn't co-ordinate himself over the bowl and would push his head into it, so we would have to feed him separately holding himso that he could eat on his own.  Behaviour wise again poor co-orditination and he couldn't interact well with his litter mates. One thing physically was that he had a rather pronouced skull and forehead, to be honest we never thought a huge thing of this to start with, as our Cavies were world famous for their strong heads, but in hindsight it was too enlarged.  The saddening thing is my boss (or more her husband) wouldn't have him PTS when first noted as he was such a little fighter.  Broke my heart when i came in a found him gone over night  

[beauazzuri]

Many thanks again, Tori, your information has been a great help. There is a very good website www.canine-epilepsy--guardian-angels.com
which provides good information on the problem .