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My old dog suddenly has trouble walking. Could it be a new probiotic?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Jack Russell Terrier | Female | spayed | 12 years and 5 months old | 12 lbs

Hi my dog is a 14 year old jack russel and she suddenly began having troubles walking around two hours ago. It isn’t severe like ataxia or vestebular syndrome and she’s currently sleeping soundly. I gave her 1/8 a tap (a little less actually) of probiotic powder on her food 4 hours ago and she hadn’t had it before. I read that an allergy can cause gait problems. How should I proceed?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on December 13th, 2017

Hi there and thank you for using PetCoach to address your concern. Based on your description I would not suspect that a probiotic would cause this symptoms. In my years of using probiotics in dogs, this is one symptoms I've never seen arise from using a probiotic. Probiotics are quite safe to give to dogs and rarely cause side effects apart from GI upset (vomiting / diarrhea). I would recommend monitoring Roxy for 24 hours and if the symptoms persists, take her in to be examined by a veterinarian to help rule out other causes of this. Vestibular disease or other neurological disease would be possible causes. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns that I may help you with. Please see the below article for more information that may be helpful for Roxy. If after reading this article and following the recommendations Roxy does not improve, I would get her seen by a veterinarian.

https://www.petcoach.co/canigive/dog/benadryl/

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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