(no subject)
That up there is my 2.5-year-old puppy, Bragi Wigglebutt. He’s been having seizures, and I think it’s possible that they were caused by parsley.
Please allow me to explain: We’ve noticed a correlation between the introduction of parsley to his diet and the onset of seizures. The same correlation can be made between increased ice cream sales and increased boating accidents. They both happen at the same time, therefore, ice cream causes boating accidents. Right?
Well, no. Not necessarily. Unless the boating accident was caused by someone who was intimately involved with ice cream while trying to drive a boat at top speed through a busy harbor. So, in theory, ice cream can cause boating accidents.
I think Bragi is trying to drive fast while eating parsley-flavored ice cream. Sure, it could be idiosyncratic; it’s unlikely that parsley contains or can be turned into any chemical compound that would affect an ordinary individual to the extent of causing seizures, but it’s always possible that this one dog has an unfavorable reaction to it.
However, with almost seven billion humans on the planet, and about that many dogs, I have a hard time swallowing the notion that any type of ailment can be specific to one individual.
The main reason I suspect parsley is the simple fact that every single episode of seizures has occurred shortly after he has ingested parsley.
The first seizures were last February; two or three days prior to the first seizure, Frank had begun using Mrs. Dash ‘Original’ flavor (that was the only flavor we had at the time.)
The second seizure, which turned into a very bad ‘cluster’ of grand mal seizures, happened exactly a week later. Frank hadn’t discontinued use of Mrs. Dash. After the second seizure and its ‘cluster’, we no longer allowed him any of our leftovers. All was well for three months, and Bragi was put on Phenobarbital by the ER vets.
Four weeks ago, in May, Bragi had another cluster of grand mal seizures... two days after first eating a chicken-jerky treat that contained parsley. We took him back to the ER (it was 1am) and they gave him valium and upped his phenobarb dosage.
A week ago, we took Bragi to our local vet to get blood tests done to check his phenobarb levels and make sure he wasn’t being overdosed and taking damage. He wasn’t, levels were good, and the vet commented on how perfectly healthy the blood test indicated he was. Next door to the vet was a small dog boutique that sold high-end food. Since the food Bragi had been eating made all his hair fall out (Royal Canin brand --don’t buy it, it’s crap. More on that later) I made the decision to get him food that was free of chicken meal and corn gluten meal. The food happened to contain parsley flakes as a minor ingredient.
Yesterday, Bragi had two seizures, at 4:25 am and 10:42 am. A couple of hours after the first seizure, I gave him some kibble (with parsley) with a little tuna on it. He had another seizure, much worse than the first, a little over six hours later. I called the vet, and explained the situation. They had me up his dosage by half a pill a day. I also spoke with my husband, and we decided that it was a little too coincidental that each seizure cluster coincided with his ingestion of parsley. I made him some dog food to last the rest of the day out of tuna, carrots, peas, and brown rice, with a little more meat than vegetables, and an amount of rice that roughly equalled the amount of veggies.
I called back, and informed the vet that I was taking his feeding into my own hands. I outlined my basic recipe and asked for her advice. She approved the plan, and advised that I get a good, digestible multi-vitamin that included trace mineral to crumble into his food at dinner time. She wasn’t at all skeptical, and seemed to support the plan whole-heartedly. I fed him the new, home-made food the rest of the day, and made another batch that will last two days. I portioned it out in one-cup servings, and will give him three servings a day.
He loves it. Eats every scrap of it. So far, he’s got firm stool and good breath.. That’s a bonus. Hopefully, this type of food will do the trick, and turn the tide of these seizures.
If he doesn’t have a seizure for a year, I’m going to wean him off the phenobarbital. If he doesn’t have a seizure for a year after that, I’ll know it was the commercial food.
I could, at that point, give him parsley and see if he has a seizure, but i’m not sure I want to do that. I’ll post again soon, and share observations.
(There's no such thing as one catch-all 'perfect' dog-food recipe, but here are some excellent guidelines on HOW to make it. My husband found these guidelines for me just after I made his first small batch of food yesterday. It's important to change your dog's food every so often, to something that uses a different protein source and/or a different starch. A dog can eventually build up an allergy to even the most expensive dog food, so no matter what, it's important to periodically change protein and starch choices.)