Seizure

[Rose]

This is going to be a long and rambling (not to mention misspelled and grammatically incorrect) blog, so please bear with me! This morning I had one of the most frightening experiences of my life!

Around 7:30 a.m. my DH John went out the back door to put the garbage out and my doodle Blaze followed him into the backyard as usual. I looked out the door to check on Blaze and noticed he was wandering around the yard, eating grass (not unusual for him.) I went back into the kitchen to do something and then went back to the door and I noticed Blaze was laying next to the fence and appeared to be vomiting, so I grabbed a towel and ran out to him. When I got to him he started convulsing and thrashing around and I screamed for my husband to come and help, I actually couldn't tell if he was breathing and I thought he was going to die right there! John stayed with him petting him and talking gently to him, and I ran into the house to call the vet. I started to explain the situation to the lady on the phone, but it was the answering service (the vet's office opens at 8) so she gave me the emergency number and I dialed that, but it was the wrong number! I was about to call the office back when I looked out the back door and saw Blaze running around in the yard! He came in the house and walked into his food and water bowl a few times, but other than that he was actually acting as if nothing happened! He was also a little stinky because he blew out his anal glands during the seizure. (The whole seizure probably lasted about 5 minutes) He even ate 2 scrambled eggs and some cheese for breakfast!

I called the vet at 8 a.m. and explained the situation. They told me to bring him in right away. Blaze acted like his normal excited self to go for a car ride and as usual wanted to play with the other dogs and people in the vet's office. The doctor said that these things sometimes happen to young dogs (Blaze is 15 months old) and they don't really know why. He said it isn't life threatening unless the dog should happen to get extremely overheated and feverish. It could be a one time thing that will never happen again in his life. If it continues to happen, it is Epilepsy, but it can be treated with medication and should not shorten his life span. The doctor checked him out and took blood samples. He said he will call me with the results in a few days. From what I've been reading today, it actually sounds to me like he had a Grand Mal Epileptic seizure.

As I am typing this it is about 5:30 pm and Blaze has been acting normally all day, thank goodness! He is lying on my bed (in the doodle pose of course) with the ceiling fan blowing on him, just waiting for his dad to get home!

By the way - He came from a "reputable breeder" who does health testing and offers a 2 year health guarantee, but I don't know if Epilepsy is something they can or do test for and I don't even know yet if he actually has it. I haven't contacted the breeder yet, I want to wait until I get the test results from the Vet.

Anyway, sorry about the rambling (just call me Rambling Rose!) and thank you to anyone who takes the time to read and comment on this!

[Deb McD]

Thanks for your reply Rose - I have read your story and the part about thinking your dog was going to die right then and there was very real for me also. I sat with Sophie comforting her the entire time - as she began her grand mal seizure - she walked from the hallway right to me, almost telling me to sit with her and comfort her. It was truly a very frightening event. She is 4yrs old and has been so healthy. She had a litter of 7 puppies this past summer, and I boasted to everyone how healthy she has been. From what I have read from others on DK, it may never happen again. I sure hope not.......I am waiting for the vet to get back with the blood results. I am just so fortunate that it happened when I was at home and not at work. Today, she is back to her old self. ....Deb

[Rose]

Thank you Christi.

[Rose]

Thank you.

[Barbara]

Thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad Blaze is doing well!!

[Rose]

Thanks Kara. I'm sorry to hear about Lily, but it sounds like she's been living a pretty good life, all things considered. I guess we won't know for a while what's really going on, if anything, with Blaze. We're just hoping and praying for the best.

[Coop&Kara]

Hi Rose -
So sorry to hear that Blaze had to go through a seizure! My parent's standard poodle (Lily) has been having seizures on and off since she was about 5 years old. Hundreds (literally) of vet visits later, and the best we can come up with is epilepsy, or a possible side effect of her having Addison's disease (an adrenal disorder). I'm happy to say, though, that Lily is now 10 years old and still going strong! We've never been able to find a link between her seizures - we kept a detailed journal on her for years trying to find a common food, activity, anything that could be the catalyst, but nothing ever came around. We have noticed that the frequency of her seizures and how long it takes her to recover from them has started to increase, but the vet attributes that to old age. She's recommended a few different medications we could put her on, but given her older age and the fact that, at the most, she's having one seizure every 3-4 months, we didn't feel that medications were necessary at this time. Hopefully this is just one of those "Growing Pains" situations, where something just got cross-wired for a moment, and will never happen again for Blaze!

[Rose]

Thanks again everyone! I spoke to his breeder and she said she never saw or heard of, any seizures or epilepsy in any of her dogs or puppies, so hopefully it was a one time thing.

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

It is not unusual to find nothing abnormal with the blood work. This eliminates alot of things that could have caused the seizure. Hopefully it was a one time thing and you may never know the cause. Glad Blaze is doing well.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Hope that never happens again - glad the bloodwork is normal!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Great news!