Home    Cattery            Staff            Contact             News      Exotics           Links    Information
                                                                           

HORNER'S SYNDROME

What is Horner's syndrome?

Horner's syndrome  is a common neurological disorder of the eye and facial muscles. The condition is usually sudden in onset.  The most common signs noted by the owner are:

·drooping of  the eyelids on the affected side. 

·the pupil of the affected eye will be constricted if it can be seen due to the drooping eyelids.

·the eye is often sunken. 

·the third eyelid of the affected eye may appear red compared with the other one (conjunctival congestion) 

What causes Horner's syndrome?

Horner's syndrome is due to a dysfunction of the sympathetic nerve supply to the eyes and surrounding muscles.  This is part of the autonomic nervous system which helps to control normal functions such as blinking, muscle tone etc.

The reason it fails can be due to many causes.  The most common cause is classified as `ideopathic' which means it is self originating and occurs without known cause.   The onset can be very sudden.  Within a few hours you note that your dog has drooping eyelids and may be having difficulty eating on that side with a lot of saliva present.

The damage to the sympathetic pathway can be in the neck or chest and sometimes can be due to tumours or intervertebral disc disease.  Sometimes there is known damage to the neck area, e.g. a bite from another dog or a road traffic accident.  Middle ear disease, (otitis media) , can also sometimes result in the signs.

Does it affect any particular breed or age of dog?

Apart from the cases of Horner's syndrome following known injury, e.g. a bite or blow, the most common type, ideopathic Horner's syndrome,  appears to affect the middle aged Golden Retriever more than any other dog.

What is the treatment?

There is no specific treatment for the condition although if an underlying cause is diagnosed, e.g. a bite, Otitis media more specific treatment can be employed.  However the majority of cases of Ideopathic Horner's disease are treated symptomatically.  For example, the protrusion of the third eyelid due to the sinking of the eyeball (enophthalmus) can obscure vision, particularly when the dog is eating and specific eye drops can be used to treat this  problem.

What is the recovery rate?

If the lesion is not due to any discernable pathological cause, slow recovery can be expected.

What is the outlook?

Very good  if no underlying pathological cause is detected, i.e. no disease.  The condition tends to be self-resolving but may take weeks or months depending on the initial severity.