This morning around 9:15 am Reed had a grand mal seizure. He’s okay now. After we got home I did some research on the web and found videos of dogs having seizures, and descriptions, and Reed’s was pretty close to the worst I saw. It was very violent. I managed to stay calm while it was happening, but afterward I was pretty hysterical myself. Thankfully I have such great friends and family. It was one of the most terrifying experiences I’ve ever had. I love Reed so much and I’m just thankful he’s okay now and that it wasn’t something worse.
The vet tech and vet said it sounded like a seizure, and so they did a physical exam and said he was fine at the moment. Regular temp, regular neurological behavior, no injuries. They took blood to test for various problems that might have caused it, and told me to watch for any signs of it happening again. They explained it might be an infection, something caused by a tick, a liver problem, or epilepsy. I could not think of anything out of the ordinary he could have gotten into, no chemicals or plants or anything unusual. (Some things like that can cause seizures). We hope it is one of the first three, the first two which can be treated easily. They said I could take him to a neurologist but it would cost a lot and they might still not know any answers. So we decided to stick with the bloodwork. They told me they generally only give medication if a dog has seizures more than every few months. They said he may never have another. We’ll know more by the end of tomorrow, and by Monday (different tests). I called my best friend, and Kyle, and my mom. I also called Reed’s breeder later to let her know, and the dog walkers later to let them know. I still need to call the day camp and cancel his camp until I know what we can do.
Everyone was very sweet to me today. My friends were very helpful, and I got a nice reminder of how sweet Reed’s breeder is. She was sad I wasn’t calling to brag about Reed doing Rally, so that encouraged me once we get this sorted out we’ll be doing everything we can now that I actually have weekends and money to spend on dog sports.
I’ll update again when I hear back from the vet.
********************
Below is a graphic description. If you don’t want to read that, please stop reading this entry here.
********************
I was in my office and I heard him in the living room throwing up. I went out to clean it (he had vomited some yellow bile) and saw the seizure start. He coughed a few times then his back arched, and his front legs went rigid. He fell over against the door and onto his side. His legs were sticking out but the rest of his body was curling up. At first I thought he was choking so I tried to help him. He couldn’t stand up and wasn’t responding to me. I tried to check his throat, still thinking he was choking at this point. I realized something else was wrong when he started shaking and then he started running in place on his side, not breathing well and at one point not breathing. I was kneeling beside him not really doing anything useful but telling him “come on buddyâ€. It seemed like forever but I think it was close to a minute long. At that point I noticed he had peed and his mouth was foamy and drooling. Also the room smelled disgusting. I reached down to help him up and he bit me on the wrist. After the seizure he was very disoriented and growling, something Reed never does (he started growling after he had bit me, if he had been growling before I think I would not have touched him.) At that point I made sure Sadie wasn’t in the room and I stepped away.
When he looked normal, like he knew who I was, I told him to go to his kennel so I could figure out a way to get to the vet, since I didn’t have my car today. He couldn’t walk, and when he tried he fell over and then ran into the table. He made it to the kennel and a few minutes later was fine. I ran around trying to find a ride, and Reed started barking non-stop in his kennel. I called a friend to come pick me up and told Reed I was back. He stopped barking. I cleaned up my hand and changed and let Reed outside to wait for our ride. He was very hyper, wanted to sniff everything and run around. He seemed to really want ice cubes from the freezer so I gave him a few small pieces. At the vet he was very hyper, more hyper than usual. He was very whiny and barky, also unusual.
After the vet visit Reed immediately crawled onto an armchair and fell asleep. He’s been sleeping all day, except for dinner time when he ate normally.
No comments:
Post a Comment