WHEN she woke up, as she had done many, many times before, things were different.

Opening her eyes was painful and she felt dizzy; wave upon wave of nausea washed unpleasantly over her, assaulting her mercilessly, leaving her dizzy and dazed.

She lay still for a while, trying desperately to fight it, but it was no use; the room was spinning, her world was in turmoil and there was just no sense to it.

Things had seemed entirely normal the night before.

Dinner had been consumed with customary gusto. Her long, post prandial evening stroll had been invigorating and uneventful.

She had curled up peacefully in her comfy bed just before 'lights out' and enjoyed a decent, prolonged slumber.

Her partial deafness helped with that, of course. But she hadn't expected this. With the horribly fateful feeling flatly refusing to lift, she decided she must rouse herself and wander outside.

Perhaps some fresh air would help? She never got to find out.

Summoning all her strength, she mobilised her arthritic joints, strained her stiff muscles and managed to make it unsteadily to her feet.

Wavering dangerously, she headed courageously for the door but succeeded only in circling hard to the left and falling painfully on her side.

There she lay pitifully, her legs paddling in a vain attempt to correct her position.

She opened her eyes but the room was still revolving dreadfully, reminding her of a rough ferry ride she had once taken that had most of the passengers hanging over the side rails depositing the contents of their stomachs into the writhing sea.

Finally, utterly exhausted with the effort, she lay still so that, at first, when her owner appeared in the kitchen to put the kettle on, he didn't even notice her.

Suddenly, fearing she must surely be dead, the coffee mug dropped from his hands and he rushed to her. The first thing he saw as he raised her old head was the side to side flickering of her eyes.

Then he felt her gulp with her nausea.

Finally, as he tried to help her get up, he realised her balance was completely gone; she seemed unable to determine which way was up and which way was down.

She was a big girl and he wasn't so strong anymore but between them, with the help of a bath towel slung under her tummy and considerable grit and determination, they finally made it to the car and raced to the surgery, both quite convinced that it would be their last trip together.

But they were wrong.

She had suffered a 'vestibular episode', not an uncommon occurrence in our geriatric dogs.

Damage had occurred to her semi-circular canals, resulting in her ataxia and nausea, which are very much like sea sickness.

Her eyes exhibited a phenomenon we call nystagmus. Happily, with powerful anti-emetic treatment, some tender loving care and a wee bit of luck, most patients recover within a week.

While there can be permanent residual damage, such as a slight head tilt, quality of life can usually be maintained and life can go on.