Canine seizures
She seems fine now, but yesterday my dog, Midnight, scared the crap out of me.
I was dropping them off at the groomer's, who I love and does a fabulous job. So many people have complimented me on their looks and I owe it all to Lisa. The poodles, however, do not like the grooming shop and are always reluctant to go inside. I have learned to just grit my teeth and get them in there. This time, however, something was really wrong.
Sammy has this new trick where when we get to the shop he hides in the back seat where I can't reach his leash when I open the back hatch of the car. So I took Midnight in first and left her with the groomer, then headed back out to get Sammy, but while I was trying to coax him out of the car, Lisa ran out and yelled, "Midnight is having a seizure!"
I left Sammy in the car and ran back in the shop. Midnight was standing there, shaking and foaming at the mouth. This is a seizure, said Lisa, I've seen this before. Then Midnight collapsed and went into full Grand Mal, muscle spasms, eyes rolling, foaming, pooped herself. Lisa, bless her, was terrific--she dropped to the floor herself and held Midnight while she was convulsing, keeping her as still as possible so she wouldn't hurt herself. All I could do was crouch there, try to pet her and talked to her, waiting it out. It felt like it took forever, but it was probably no more than a minute or two. Eventually the shakes calmed down, and Midnight lifted her head and looked at me like she had just been woken from a nap. She was confused more than anything else. We cleaned her up and then I took her home and called the vet.
Since then she's been fine, and there is no outward reason for the seizure. She and Sammy have not been anywhere she could have gotten into poison, they share the same food and water. At the vet's we discovered that her neck was very sore--she probably sprained it during her seizure. The vet did a chiropractic adjustment which seemed to help quite a bit. She also drew blood for testing and gave me homeopathic phosphorus. The vet is as bewildered as I am.
So now we are in wait and see. I am not going to take them back to the groomer's in case the stress was some kind of trigger, but I am really sad about that because Lisa is a fabulous groomer and I don't think she was at fault in this at all.
My quick research shows that canine seizures are more common than I realized, and that many are attributed to epilepsy as a diagnosis of exclusion. I've heard anecdotally that some dogs will have one seizure and then never have another in the rest of their lives. And some start having them when they get older (Midnight just turned 7.)
I never want to go through that again. My poor baby.
I was dropping them off at the groomer's, who I love and does a fabulous job. So many people have complimented me on their looks and I owe it all to Lisa. The poodles, however, do not like the grooming shop and are always reluctant to go inside. I have learned to just grit my teeth and get them in there. This time, however, something was really wrong.
Sammy has this new trick where when we get to the shop he hides in the back seat where I can't reach his leash when I open the back hatch of the car. So I took Midnight in first and left her with the groomer, then headed back out to get Sammy, but while I was trying to coax him out of the car, Lisa ran out and yelled, "Midnight is having a seizure!"
I left Sammy in the car and ran back in the shop. Midnight was standing there, shaking and foaming at the mouth. This is a seizure, said Lisa, I've seen this before. Then Midnight collapsed and went into full Grand Mal, muscle spasms, eyes rolling, foaming, pooped herself. Lisa, bless her, was terrific--she dropped to the floor herself and held Midnight while she was convulsing, keeping her as still as possible so she wouldn't hurt herself. All I could do was crouch there, try to pet her and talked to her, waiting it out. It felt like it took forever, but it was probably no more than a minute or two. Eventually the shakes calmed down, and Midnight lifted her head and looked at me like she had just been woken from a nap. She was confused more than anything else. We cleaned her up and then I took her home and called the vet.
Since then she's been fine, and there is no outward reason for the seizure. She and Sammy have not been anywhere she could have gotten into poison, they share the same food and water. At the vet's we discovered that her neck was very sore--she probably sprained it during her seizure. The vet did a chiropractic adjustment which seemed to help quite a bit. She also drew blood for testing and gave me homeopathic phosphorus. The vet is as bewildered as I am.
So now we are in wait and see. I am not going to take them back to the groomer's in case the stress was some kind of trigger, but I am really sad about that because Lisa is a fabulous groomer and I don't think she was at fault in this at all.
My quick research shows that canine seizures are more common than I realized, and that many are attributed to epilepsy as a diagnosis of exclusion. I've heard anecdotally that some dogs will have one seizure and then never have another in the rest of their lives. And some start having them when they get older (Midnight just turned 7.)
I never want to go through that again. My poor baby.