Hi bluedianey,
Seeing your beloved pet having a seizure nothing less than terrifying. When our siberian husky Storm had her first seizure, that was the first time my husband and I had ever seen one. I was freaked right out. I can deal with a lot of situations, but there are three things that I can't deal with, psychosis, seizures and my kids throwing up when they were little.
My husband having been a first responder, his training kicked in and he dealt with Storm and I called our vet. Actually Storm had the seizure as we were getting her in the car to take her to the vet because she was just not herself. She came out of the seizure, we got her in the car and off she went on the hour long drive to our Vet clinic. He went over her with a fine tooth comb, ran some blood work and everything came back normal. My husband headed back home with her, and the vet called me to say he couldn't find a problem and she was on her way home, but just in case, he gave my husband rectal valium should she have another seizure and it lasted longer than five minutes. I was overwhelmed with anxiety that this dog was going to come home and have another seizure.
Every move Storm made I was on eggshells, watching her like a hawk for fear she would seize again. I made my husband take her with him when he went to have a shower because I was terrified she'd have another one. Poor man couldn't have any privacy for anything, I made him take her with him, and I'm sure he thought his wife was totally losing it. The next morning I had to go to town, my husband was moving the vehicles around so I could take the car, I took Storm out to do the potty dance and as we were walking down the path to the back yard I noticed she kept turning her head to the side, we went through the gate and she floppped down against the snow bank and was looking around and then she went stiff and another seizure started. I started screaming for my husband and he came running, I ran into the house and called the vet and he said it was time to put her on medication. Told me to come pick up the prescription. We were lucky, the phenobarbitol worked and Storm hasn't had another seizure in almost a year.
But she still didn't seem herself, and I spoke to the vet about it a month later and I asked him to do a thyroid panel on her. So the next day hubby took her into the clinic and sure enough her tyroid panel came back borderline low. She was started on medication for that and within a week she was back to her lovable self. Thyroid problems can cause seizures in dogs and it's a simple test to check the levels.
Storm was fine after her seizure, she was a bit disoriented, but within an hour she was fine. The problem with seizures is if they continue for any length of time, it can cause the dogs temperature to elevate and that is dangerous because if their body temperature gets too high their organs can be damaged and start to shut down. That's what happened with our beloved Thunder. He seizured for almost 2.5 hours by the time we got him to the clinic and his heart was damaged, he had pulmonary edema, his brain was damaged, and his organs were shutting down and there was nothing the vet could do and we had to be kind and put him down. Thunder was 3 years and 10 months old and that was his first episode having a seizure. Even though we gave him phenobarbitol as the vet directed from Storms prescription, it had no effect.
Our vet now wants us to have rectal valium on hand should Storm ever get into a crisis, because we are so far away from the clinic, the valium could buy us some time to get her there. I told our vet if she starts having seizures again, she's going straight into the car and heading for his clinic and I don't care if it's 3 o'clock in the morning, we aren't going to watch her go through what Thunder went through, that was horrific to see and we were traumatized seeing our beautiful Thunder like that.
Seizures are serious and can become a medical emergency very quickly.
QUOTE (bluedianey @ Dec 28 2013, 10:41 PM)
Hi moon_beam,
I can't thank you enough for your kind words, I have been simply lost.
I have always had a dog throughout my life and have never seen any kind of seizure. I, of course, have been searching the internet for any info I can find and there isn't a lot. I have been taking Giz to the vet closest to my house but I just don't feel at all comfortable with his response. He is really a young guy and probably not very experienced, I took Giz in to see the vet two days before his seizure because of his stiffness and head tilt and I could see he was in pain. Giz, unfortunately has "floating knee caps" and his one back leg is bad and will soon need surgery The vet contributed all his symptoms to the pain from his leg. Giz was also shaking continuously by this tim. I was concerned he might have got reinfected with lymes so they did give him a antibiotic shot at the vets office. But, when I left I just knew there was more going on. Two days later he had his really bad seizure and I called a on call vet who told me he had had a seizure and this was definitely not lymes.
Then all the pieces just fell into place for me. He had a seizure last summer too
I have been to a vet across town who is much older and I am going to go see him. He also takes calls all night. It is just so weird and I guess I kind of freaked out.
I recently finished up a year long chemo treatment and just have not been myself and the realization of what is happening to Giz just panicked me.
I am going to "bend your ear" for a bit here. My last dog, Milo, was a Jack Russell and he and I had a very special connection, I have never been so close to a dog---not even Giz. Giz comes close but you know how there is that one special dog that reads your mind and you his. Anyway....I babble... Milo got Lymes and he never presented with any symptoms at all, nothing. I treated him with the tick medicine and he got the shot but anyway, I started failing from my illness-- undiagnosed at the time, and I got more and more weak and tired. Then Milo lost his appetite began vomiting. I took him to this vet THREE times and it wasn't until the third visit that they tested him for lymes. He was positive and by then his kidneys had failed. I brought him home until he started hanging out in the closet and I had to put him to sleep. I adopted Gizmo from the shelter about 4 months later. I was dropping off some of Milo's unused meds and decided to just "take a look".
I knew I was gonna get a dog but was determined to not get a like breed or color and I was gonna get a female. But there was Giz, Rat Terrier mix with same markings and masked face just like Milo only giz was a puppy and smaller. I took him for a walk and we clicked and I took him home. He had his first seizure when I was very very ill from the chemo, I feel so bad ---- I woke up at 7am to take my meds and he was laying on his side by me in bed, he looked asleep. I woke up at noon to take more meds and he hadn't moved. I panicked, he was sluggish and wobbly. Took him to vet and he to tested positive for lymes and was treated for that. I didn't realize till late.r that he had had a seizure. At the vets he could not stand up or control his legs. Anyway, I am getting better and I swear Giz is gonna get better too.
Anyway, Iam sorry to blab but you were so kind with your advice and you are right I need to change vets and get him better care. I am not gonna lose another dog so young and so quickly.
Question for you.... Giz improved after his seizure, do you think there is any connection between the lymes disease and seizures or is it just a fluke that the lymes treatment of antibiotics coincided with his improvement. Or do dogs usually improve after the seizure happens. The word encephalitis keeps popping into my head. I guess I need to keep a really good log and RUN him in when I notice the Aura beginning. Funny...Giz literally clung to me about 2 days before and up until the seizure, I think he knew something was happening. And the blindness was absolutely frightening --- Gosh, it has been a year full of "rarities" for me. Several things have happened that I was told "oh,that is SO rare and just doesn't happen" and then they did happen to me.
Here is to 2014!!!!! A better year for everyone!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!
Bluedianey
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