Sunken Head!

Hi I have a beautiful old boy 12 years who's head had sunken in on one side. After lots of searching I think it is muscle atrophy and was wondering if anyone else had experienced this?? If so what was your experience with it?

Stan is not good at the vets so I thought I would ask on here first before putting him through that. He turns into the devil dog, we have to muzzle him and he gets really stressed and upset so it 's almost impossible to be examined properly. We have sedated him in the past but as soon as we get to the vets, adrenaline kicks it and it makes no difference. Then the next 2 days he's so tired plus I think he is too old now to keep doing this. Any advice would be great.

Thanks guys,

Jill

i would take him to the vets sorry i'm no help i'm sure may give you ideas

sorry but it's got to be the vets I think , it's your call at the end of the day but he could be suffering and just not letting you know , one thing staffs are very good at is hiding pain

Could you post a picture? From the way you would describe it I think I would go to the vet as well

My old boy lost all muscle mass shortly before he dies - but that was due to cancer.

You really must brave the vets - rather a muzzle & find out what's wrong, than chance his health.

Thanks anyway guys. I thought a visit to the vets would be necessary. Have a good weekend.

Jill x

Yes a trip too the vets is the best my Jez had a similar thing and it was muscular atrophy around her orbital bone but did effect her eye sight slightly the vets will be able too tell you for sure though x

Thank you x

Hi everyone

I have just stumbled across this site as I was googling sunken skull in staffy's

I have a 13 year old staffy, Sammy and we just noticed this morning that his skull in sunken on the right hand side above his eye. We have booked him an appointment at the vets but I just wondered how you (Jill) and Stan got on when you visited the vets with similar symptoms as I note that Stan is also quite senior

Thanks in advance

Sarah

Hi, welcome to the forum Sarah. Please let us know how you get on at the vets.

And Jill, how did you & Stan get on?

Have a vet call out to your home, this will keep his stress down. This is a serious condition and can't just be left.

Hi After a visit to the vets we were told it was muscle wastage due to his age and this was common in old staffs. It is not nice to look at and really soft to the touch and I notice his other side is disappearing slowly too!
Stan is still my handsome boy though even with his odd shaped head!
Hope that helps, its always a worry when they get old.

Jill x

Ive never personally heard of it before, but glad he is okay.

Jillee-Staffee wrote:Hi After a visit to the vets we were told it was muscle wastage due to his age and this was common in old staffs. It is not nice to look at and really soft to the touch and I notice his other side is disappearing slowly too!
Stan is still my handsome boy though even with his odd shaped head!
Hope that helps, its always a worry when they get old.

Jill x

Not wanting to give you any false hope but my old boy had a similar thing when he was around 5. We rushed to the vet to be told much the same regarding muscle atrophy and it looked grim. You could clearly see the once side all suken in. the strange thing is that it went away just as suddenly as it appeared. Still have no real idea what it was about.

Moved to Staffordshire Bull Terrier Health Issues

Strange. Stan's age has really caught up with him in the last 6 months and we can see a real difference in everything with him. He doesn't even try to kill the vet on sight now which is probable the only good thing! He really 'plods' on his walk now too which we have had to half in distance. The vet said he has a really good healthy heartbeat for his age and is in really good physical condition, other than his head, so hopefully he will be with us for a few more years yet.

Hi everyone
Sammy went to the vets on Friday - had a thorough examination and blood tests (which he did not like one bit) the vet wanted to take blood from his back leg but as he has always suffered a bit with his back legs we asked him to take blood from the front (one shaved front right leg - bless)

The vet called us with the blood test results, like Stan, it appears Sammy has muscle wastage due to old age, not muscle atrophy like we first thought. His blood tests revealed a high white blood cell count which could be down to the dreaded C or an infection. Fortunately the Vet is convinced it is an infection as apart from a raised liver enzyme (expected in a dog of his age) he is in perfect tip top condition, in fact the vet said that his teeth and organs and general physique were so good, there is no way he would believe he was 13 without the paperwrk to prove it He did recently have a urine infection whilst he was staying at boarding kennels a couple of weeks ago and this could be a secondary infection following that.

Anyway he is to finish his course of antibiotics and then go back in a week for another blood test to see is the white blood cell count is back to normal.

Sammy is doing well and starting to follow my youngest daughter around the house again (feeding Sammy titbits of whatever she has is one of a favourite pastimes) so we see this as a good sign.

Glad Stan is doing well Jill, Sammy has also slowed down in the last 10 - 12 months or so - but still is as excitable as a puppy when visitors come

So glad it sounds like there's no serious problem. I suppose we all get old, & it can suddenly catch up with us.

Let us know how the 2nd blood tests go.

That's good to hear. Good for Sammy! Let's hope it's just an infection and he makes a full recovery.
Thanks for letting us know
Jill x

Hi Everyone

Just a quick update on Stan for anyone who had experienced this problem. The sunken head is not due to age in Stan's case but Cushings Disease. He went to vet today for something unrelated and they did a blood test which showed this. We are still waiting for full results before we can start him on medication. Like I say this is Stan's case and hopefully not the case in every dog with a sunken head but something to bear in mind as not uncommon in senior dogs. Hope this helps anyone who is looking for advice

Jill x