Drop Jaw: Rare Animal Neurological Disorder

Our seven-year old black lab mix woke us up during the middle of the night in a panic. She was stumbling around the floor, whining and coughing, and she could not close her mouth. Her bottom eyelids were drooping and the whites of her eyes were bloodshot. At first, we thought she might be choking from a stick or something lodged in her throat and may be losing oxygen to her brain. It was the most disturbing, seizure-like episode I have ever seen in a pet. We rushed her to the animal hospital at 3 a.m.

After an hour of x-rays and physical tests, the veterinarian at the animal hospital said there was nothing lodged in her throat, stomach, or intestines. He had no idea what was wrong with our dog, but gave her IV fluids and sedatives to relax her. He suggested we take her home and visit our regular veterinarian in the morning if the problems persisted.

Throughout the night, our dog was still unable to close her mouth, so I used a turkey syringe to inject water into her throat and then held her mouth shut until she could swallow the fluid. This procedure did not seem to stress her, so I continued to give her drinks until the morning. I took our dog to our regular veterinarian first thing in the morning.

The first veterinarian to examine her was quite puzzled and suggested that our dog may have had a stroke. By the grace of God, another veterinarian came in to give a second opinion. She said she studied in New York and had seen a rare case of canine drop jaw. She believed that our dog was showing all the signs of canine drop jaw.

They did some neurological tests, and sure enough, it was drop jaw. They asked if we would be willing to send our dog to Texas A&M University for two weeks to one month to be studied since the drop jaw disorder was so rare. I was afraid to leave her alone because she was so stressed and scared through the evening. We decided to take her home. The veterinarian said there is no cure for drop jaw; it may go away in a few days, a few weeks, or it may never go away. She said if we want to take her home, we will have to force feed her to keep her alive.