Cerebellar Disease Causes Abnormalities of Movement
As discussed, the cerebellum constantly compares the intended movement with the actual movement and makes appropriate adjustments. In cerebellar disease, these appropriate adjustments are not made, resulting in a variety of movement disorders.
Affected animals often place their paws far apart (widebased gait) and walk in an uncoordinated manner (ataxia), which reflects the inability of the vestibulocerebellum and spinocerebellum to coordinate balance and movement of the axial skeleton. Affected animals also have various degrees of dysmetria (inappropriate measure of muscular contraction), in which movements either continue too long or not long enough. In animals this is often manifested as difficulty in bringing the muzzle to a fixed point in space, such as a food dish, and as exaggerated “goose stepping” walking movements. Asynergia, a failure of the components of a complex movement to occur in a coordinated fashion, may also be seen. Intention tremor (action tremor), an oscillating movement disorder (tremor) that is worse when the animal is moving, especially near the end of the movement, is common in cerebellar disease as well. Intention tremors are much less severe when the animal is relaxed and not moving and worsen when a movement is being performed. In animals, intention tremors seem worse in the head and axial (proximal) antigravity muscles. If the vestibulocerebellum is damaged, nystagmus may also be seen (see Chapter 11). These commonly-associated clinical signs resulting from cerebellar disease exemplify how the mechanism of disease can be understood through knowledge of normal physiology.
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