Maddie had a grand mal seizure tonight
Scariest 2 minutes ever. I was out on the deck, relaxing after getting back yesterday from vacation, when I heard my husband yelling that Maddie was choking. Actually, she was having a very dramatic grand mal seizure. Thankfully I recognized it and from some dim corner of my frantic brain I remembered that we should let her alone til she came out of it.
Jack was barking frantically so I crated him til she was done. She probably seized about 30 seconds or so, then spent another minute trying to drag herself to her feet, and then another minute or two bumping into things and nudging our legs. She then shook herself off and went and got a drink and spent another 45 minutes pacing and panting a bit more than usual (though she came for cuddles and played a bit and had another drink in there; and the fact that there was a huge fireworks display nearby probably didn't help). She seems ok now.
I called the emergency vet and they said we could bring her in for 24 hour observation, or keep her here but bring her in if she seizes again. They said either would be fine. Since the observation would be in a vet cage (I asked), I made the decision to keep her home, but I am not 100% comfortable with that decision. We have work tomorrow and we can come home a couple times and my mom will stop over once or twice, but she will be alone for chunks of the day. We will baby gate her away from Jack just in case.
She is 8 years old which seems too old for epilepsy. I looked online and the causes of seizures are widely varied. I don't think she could have gotten into poison (plus I think there would be other symptoms). She ate fine, hasn't been ill in other ways, and has been bright and alert since we picked her up last night from the boarding kennel.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated. :-( I am worried and a bit sad.
****************************************************
08/12/13 update: Maddie seems to be her normal self today. Our regular vet was able to see us today. She did a bunch of posturing tests to check that all her neurological functions were normal. Also checked that her eyes had a normal response to light and that she had a normal flinch reflex. Her temp and vitals were ok.
They drew a bunch of tubes of blood to check liver, kidney, thyroid, and who knows what else. She says the test is mailed out and they should have the results within a day or so. IF the tests are all ok, then we just watch and wait. She says they don't usually medicate unless the seizures are more frequent than about one a month, or last ten minutes or so (the seizing, not the recovery which can be an hour or more).
Epilepsy this late in life is rare but not impossible. She says it's also possible she's had seizures before that were either very mild and went unnoticed, or happened when we were not home. I had already thought of that.
They don't suggest brain scans unless things get much worse; she said brain tumors are not all that common (and I get the idea the test is expensive). Since our neighbor recently lost their golden to a brain tumor that caused seizures, this is one of my biggest fears. However, the golden's tumor metastasized from a mammary tumor.
She also said it's ok to leave the dogs loose together when we are not home, since Jack is unlikely to attack her; he wants us to fix things when she acts weird.
I e-mailed her breeder last night, who got right back to me early this morning. She confirmed she is not aware of any of her dogs or pups she's sold having seizure issues. She has Maddie's litter brother at her house and he's fine. So I doubt it's something genetic.
I will update when we hear about the blood work. Thanks for all your concern.
**************************************************
Update 2 08/13/13:
All Maddie's blood work came back normal--- thyroid, sugar, ammonia, kidney, liver, red and white counts. So all we can do is just wait and see if anything else happens. I am keeping notes of the seizure and if there are any more (and I hope there aren't) I will document them as well.
****************************************************
Updated 9/14/13
Maddie had another seizure last night. Funny thing is, it was almost the exact time of day as the first one. No triggers I can possibly think of; she had a perfectly typical day.
We knew what to expect so it was not so scary for us, but it seems to greatly alarm the other animals in the house. I put in a call to the vet this morning. She was not in, and will get back to me on Monday. Last time, she said they usually don't medicate unless the seizures are more frequent than about once a month or so. This one was two days shy of five weeks from the last one.
It made me a bit sad, since I was really hoping the first one was just a fluke. The poor thing somehow backed herself behind a sofa (the sofa is diagonally across the corner of the room, so there is a fair amount of space back there). When she came too, she could not seem to see for a few minutes (this happened last time too), but instead of panicking and walking into walls, she wagged her back end like crazy and kept climbing up to get close to our faces, her nose going the whole time. It seemed to give her such joy to be by our faces that we got right down on the floor with her, but this made Jack bark and bark since it was such strange behavior for us. Poor girl.
The cat was very frightened and ran upstairs. Then she sat on the steps for some time and hissed whenever a dog came near. In the past few weeks, she has hissed a lot more than normal at the dogs; I think the seizures make her think the dogs are unpredictable and violent.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Beth on
-
Monday 08/12/13 update above.... She was an angel at the vet. It took them what seemed like forever to draw an incredible number of little tubes of blood. Corgi legs are not good for blood draws and they got her in all four before they finally had enough; they kept losing the flow in the back legs and she was not too happy with them using the front.
-
Permalink Reply by Linda on
-
Pepto? Pepto contains aspirin...that's the main reason you are NOT suppose to give it to young children. My vet told me not to use Pepto but to use Kaopectate.
-
Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
-
My vet also says use Kaopectate but didn't give a reason why.
-
-
Hopefully the good news will continue. Glad that jack can be there for her!
As for something genetic...I could be wrong but I have never heard of this. Seizures can be caused by many things.
-
Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on
-
Beth,
Absolutely do NOT leave her around the other dog. They can, and will, attack a dog that they see as sick or not acting right. I had a husky who seized her whole life, and always left her out with the others, even though they told me not to. Sure enough, about 6 years in to the seizures, I came home and they had attacked her- puncture wounds all over her face and neck. I'm surprised they didn't kill her. And they all got along perfectly fine in every day life, never one ounce of agression on anyone's part toward another.
-
-
Jennifer...I was never told that when my Irish Wolfhound had seizures. We also had a rott/shep mix and he was the alpha dog and he ever bothered Duffy. He would come over and sit next to me while I was holding onto Duffy and he would nuzzle him when it was over. Maybe it was because there were only the 2 of them rather than several other dogs?
-
-
I'd be more concerned if there were 3 dogs and two might pack up on the other. However, if I had three I would not leave them loose unattended in the best of circumstances.
I do think it depends on the dog. Jack is a real "nurse dog" who comes running when someone says "ouch", checks on other dogs if they yip, and breaks up scuffles between Maddie and the cat. He is a worrier and takes it on himself to protect his flock.
Keeping them separate would mean keeping her gated in the kitchen, which has its own downsides. For one, she's coming on 9 years old and the floors are hard. Two, my hips can't handle going over the gates, since I have pretty bad arthritis,and that means taking the gates up and down multiple times a day. Three, Maddie is not much of a thinker and it worries her to make decisions; she is very used to following Jack's lead on everything. Finally, it would also mean locking up the cat every day in yet another room since she might get over the gates one way and not want to go back the other and get stuck on the wrong side of the gate. When she is frustrated, she goes after the first thing she sees, which would be a bad thing.
My main deciding factor at this point is she's only had the one seizure and we don't yet know if this will be an ongoing thing or just the once. I won't separate them forever just based on one. However, if the situation changes I will rethink my plans.
-
-
I know that Cooper the Corgi would always run up to the lab and try to lick his face...I agree that maybe more the pack mentality can be a problem. I have a couple of Corgis I don't leave alone together when I'm gone because they have always been rivals so I wouldn't maybe trust them in a situation like this but the rest I trust.
Hopefully it was an isolated incident:)
-
Permalink Reply by Marcie on
-
I was very worried when I read your first post. I'm glad the vet was positive and hope everything works out well. Becca sends Maddie a corgi nose bump and good thoughts.
-
-
Beth...I agree with your thinking. Even tho Rascal, the rott/shep mix, was an alpha dog he was a huge worry dog if he heard any of the other critters give a yip or a screetchy meow. He was the first one there to make sure they were ok. And I know he would not have hesitated to go after even the wolfhound if he wanted to take advantage of a sick/hurt dog. He never had a problem with taking a nip at Duffy's nose if he tried to get on the bed...that was Rascal's domain.
I will be keeping lots of good thoughts for Maddie and you. And lots of prayers that this was a one time thing.
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
