The hubbs left a bag of Christmas leftovers on the kitchen table and went to the bathroom. When he came out the bag was on the floor and the leftovers devoured.
Can't be 100% sure Topaz ate all of it, but he for sure ate some. Ham, Christmas cookies, and not really sure what else.
After a few days of on and off diarrhea, the holidays are over and we're back to our normal schedules and eating...hopefully this continues.
Still no seizures!
Ok...so last night and this morning Topaz has not been interested in his meal. The only thing different in it is beef instead of chicken or pork. Wonder if that's it?
I made two other batches, both with beef...hopefully we don't have issues with those.
All is still well on the no seizure front.
Yesterday we came home to an empty can of Belgium Lukken cookies that Todd's grandmother gives us every year. Seems that somehow the dogs...or cats...opened the can on the table, removed the two bags of cookies and left the can and lid on the table.
So, the dogs had a feast of 1 1/2 bread bags of Lukken cookies.
For future use: Lukken ingrediants: eggs, sugar, brown sugar, whiskey, flour, butter, vanilla.
We gave Topaz extra PB this morning and last night.
Then today, we come home to find the double package of Thomas English Muffins empied. These were on top of the microwave. Not sure if the cats helped with this one or not, I cannot imagine how Topaz or Onyx would have gotten them down and not knocked something else off the baker's rack that the microwave sits on.
Just in case: Ingrediants: Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Reduced Iron, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid], Water, Farina, Yeast, Nonfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Salt, Soybean Oil, Preservatives (Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid), Soy Flour, Grain Vinegar, Monoglycerides, Whey, Natamycin (a Natural Mold Inhibitor).
We will be again adding extra PB tonight and tomorrow morning.
Not sure if this is a bordom thing or a hunger thing. We always try to feed the dogs before we leave so that they're not hungry.
Hopefully this is the end of this...it's getting crazy.
Good thing is...so far so good on the seizure front, however, the Lukken did give him some wicked diarrhea. Well...serves him right! LOL
Topaz acting a little "off" to me, so I gave him an extra 1/2 pill of PB. I thought it can't hurt, right?
He ate some diarrhea cat poop earlier too.
Other than that, all is well!
I have been wanting to make more "goops" for Topaz for a few days now. We've been improvising on his meals.
So I started as soon as I got home from work and I made 4 different goops. These ones have meat, veggie, fruit and supplement in them. well, all but one has meat and supplements. One is just veggies and fruit. I can always add meat to that one later.
The first one I made has canned pumpkin, carrot, celery, spinach, garlic, apple, and pork, plus the supplements. I gave them this one for dinner...it's a little thick, I added 1/4 cup water to the other ones...but they both LOVED it...I think the garlic makes the difference!!
Today I made two batches of Veggie Goop and one batch of fruity goop.
In the first batch of veggie goop I put 2 or 3 celery stalks, 1 broccoli, spinach, 1 carrot, canned pumpkin and strawberries...plus supplements: Digestive Enzymes, vitamin E, Flax Seed Oil and their supplement.
Topaz is doing so much better. He's just about back to his crazy self. I missed my loveable nutty puppa!!
He's eating pretty good, still getting smaller meals and we're feeding 3-4 times a day. Mostly veggies too. We're going to add some meaty bones back in probably in a week or so.
We have a pretty good variety of things to give him. This weekend I'm going to make a batch of the veggie goop as well as a fruity one and probably a meaty one, or else just chop the meats up so they are ready to give when we decide to do so.
I looked online for the article that the lady who we buy our food from, I call her my mentor, sent me about pancreatitis. I found part of it at this site, but I could not find the entire thing.
So here is what we are trying to follow...please remember this is copyright Ian Billinghurst.
So far we've got the digestive enzyme, I need to get the flax seed oil, we have vitamin E I think it is...and we're getting cod liver oil. We're also adding milk thistle to his diet for his liver. I am starting that next week.DIET FOR PANCREATITISWhen it is time to re-introduce food, your dog will be nice and hungry and ready to eat just about anything. This is great because we want your dog to start a completely new diet. The diet is designed initially to prevent reoccurrence of the problem and, ultimately, to not only prevent re-occurrence but to improve your dog's total health.You must not feed . . .Cooked food, grain, fatty meals, processed food, canned or dry dog or cat food.WHAT YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING1. Lots of little meals - i.e., small meals several times a day.2. Lots and lots of RAW vegetables - which must be CRUSHED, i.e., put through a juicer or a food processor. Carrot, celery, cabbage, pumpkin, etc.3. Lean RAW minced meat - chicken, beef, kangaroo - RAW - and only in very small amounts.4. Non fat yoghurt5. Fruit - apples, pears, orange, banana, mango, etc.6. Liver, egg, cottage cheese, sardines [in spring water] - in very small amounts.7. Slippery elm bark powder8. Enzyme tablets9. Supplements including Multi-vitamin B, vitamin E, Flax seed oil, Cod liver oil, garlic, kelp, vitamin C and zinc.The first water after an attack - should be little and often till satisfiedThe first food fed after an attack should be 90 to 100 percent raw crushed vegetables. To this is added an enzyme tablet -crushed and mixed through and left to stand for 10 to 15 minutes. If this is refused, add a tiny amount of one or several of the foods from the WHAT YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING list - to make it more interesting. That is, depending on what your dog likes, a tiny bit of minced meat or egg etc. BUT ONLY A TINY BIT! This is a small meal. Maybe a quarter to an eighth the size of what he or she would normally eat.Two to four hours later offer the same again. Repeat this over the next several days. You may gradually increase the size of these meals to about a third to a quarter of what he/she is used to eating, and reduce the frequency to two or three meals a day. You may do this over a period of several weeks. Gradually introduce the other elements of the diet such as the vitamins, the cod liver oil, slippery elm bark powder, the zinc, the kelp etc.When all is going well, and usually after a blood test has confirmed that the pancreas is back to normal, you may start to introduce some raw meaty bones into the diet. Chicken wings/necks, shank bones, large beef bones.
Today was a much, much better day. Topaz ate a bit this morning, took his am PB in peanut butter and just overall is acting so much better.
I tried to feed him a bit of banana and the turkey mix at dinnertime since he was acting really interested in food and was looking at me like..."where's mine" when I fed Onyx her chicken back.
We did his temp today:
10:15 am - 102
1:30 pm - 103.2
3:00 pm - 102.1
10:30 pm - 102.3
So even his fever is better.
I got a list of his blood work results and his WBC is elevated, one of his liver tests was slightly elevated and one of the thyroid tests came back a little low. (hmm...reason for the seizures?)
So he's on a different antibiotic for the high WBC and we decided against the flagyl. Oh, and the antacidy medicine they gave us...we just can't get it in him.
We are also going to really give a BARF diet for pancreatitis a try. So, tonight the hubbs was so nice to go out and get me some fresh veggies and a food processor and I made a "veggie goop" for him. I put broccoli, celery, carrot, cabbage and canned pumpkin. I also added in digestive enzymes and their supplement.
The entire time I was making it he was in the kitchen and seemed really interested in the smells of the veggies and everything. I even gave him a little to taste...and then we did the big test and gave him some with a little lean hamburger and were able to put his pills PB, the KBr, and even his antibiotic in there! And he ate most of it.
I think this will work out well. Tomorrow, or whenever the kitchen is cleaner I will make a fruity goop and also a meaty goop. And then I'll freeze them into small baggies and we'll feed him like that.
So...hopefully, things are looking up for the puppa!!!
We have been checking Topa's temp at various intervals today.
12:30pm - 102.7
3:00pm - 101.5
5:30pm - 100.1
So his fever is going down! YEAH!!
I am so torn about this whole Flagyl issue...and where do we go from here?
Topaz had a vet appt this morning.
His temp was 105!! omg...we're lucky he didn't have a seizure just from the temp alone!! (and my husband is out right now getting a thermometer for the dogs)
But he was dx with pancreatitis. He got a shot of Cerenia and they sent us home with flagyl and an antacid type med and did some other blood work.
We did a KBr level because I was worried about KBr toxicity and we also did the 6 panel thyroid testing. We should know more later on tonight or tomorrow. They did send him home with us since we were going to be home all day and could monitor him ourselves.
We have to check his temp and see if he can keep down his PB in an hour or so. I'm pretty sure he threw up most of his meds yesterday.
So Topaz has basically thrown up everything he's eaten since probably dinner last night.
He threw up tonight's dinner. I fed him at 5:30 and he threw up around 9pm.
Thankfully I was able to get him outside before he did it.
He's definitely going to the vet tomorrow...in fact I just called and he has an appointment at 9am.
First Topaz snubbed his breakfast...which is SO unlike him!!!
And then when I mixed in some cottage cheese, he ate it...but we just noticed two large piles of throw up in the living room...how I didn't hear him wretching is beyond me.
Anyway...we're going to keep an eye on him and see how the evening meal goes.
If need be we'll take him in to the vet.
Poor puppa.
First off, no seizures...which is a great thing.
Topaz did throw up 5 times in the house and at least once outside this morning.
I'm thinking it was from the marrow bones I gave them this afternoon. They haven't had those in a while. Although, we've reintroduced many things back into their diet...coconut oil, the supplement...and we did have a batch of meat that didn't smell great. (I don't generally condone to feeding them "bad" meat, but by the time I noticed we didn't have much of it left)
I really think it was the marrow bones. Tomorrow I'll go easy on him and just give him the mix and pumpkin...no extras for the puppa.
I need to get back to bed. The house smells vomitous and I'm wide awake yet super tired.
If the vomitting continues...off to the vet we go tomorrow. We're lucky to have found a 7 day a week vet.
When we decided to take the dogs with us up north to my sister's wedding, it was really because I thought it would be easier on them coming with us than to stay home and have a stranger watch them.
Plus, I was really concerned about Topaz with the seizures. The last thing I needed was to be 4 hours away and have my poor puppa have a seizure without us there to comfort him and help.
He had a good time in the car it seemed, but when we got to this motel room (which was essentially a tiny, cramped apartment) he started to act a little down.
I was really worried about him there...moreso than I would be at home even. He wasn't acting like he was going to have a seizure, he was just really not acting himself. Which always brings me to keep a close eye on him.
Unfortunately we did have to keep them in the room alone for long stretches of time, but I thought that just being with us for part of it would be good.
His whole mood changed once we got home though...it took a couple days, but he is now back to normal.
Someone at work today was telling me about their dog and how they think the dog has come to an end because of some recent behavior problems. The problems are pretty out-of-the-blue and are really pretty scary changes (I don't want to go into too much detail) so I can see where the person is coming from when they say that they're probably going to be putting the dog down soon.
What they said that really has been bothering me is that they aren't going to put their dog through all kinds of tests to just prolong their life. And that they don't know how or why we do what we do with Topaz because "what kind of a life is that for the dog" when the owners are keeping them alive for themselves.
It was almost judgemental without being judgemental...
When this person was saying it to me, I was really uncomfortable. They said that the dog, my dog I guess, is suffering by having the seizures and the medicine is just drugging him up.
Dogs aren't human and I hold humans higher than my animals, however, I also know that I wouldn't put my child "down" because they are sick or have seizures. Shoot, I have to deal with a sick husband every day of my life. Would I leave him, nope. Sorry.
I don't think we've made a mistake by putting Topaz on medication and I think overall he's a happy Puppa.
It just really bothered me that someone would say that. I know it's their opinion, but still...please don't judge me because I have chose to treat my dog for the disease he has. He's only 3 yrs old. It's not like he was 13 when the seizures started! He has so much life left to live!!!
I so wanted to tell this person to just MIND THEIR OWN!!! And deal with their own animals. Ugh...people. I hate them, I swear!
Since I now know how to make scrappy pages and scrappy blog templates, I think it's time to redesign my Puppa's blog.
Not sure when, but soon!!
Nope, no seizures...going on 150 days too, which is just awesome!
However, Topaz has been really shaky lately and ataxic...moreso than usual. He still seems to have good and bad days, but lately it's been mostly bad days.
I'm hoping it will pass. Just keeping an eye on him for now.
Well, Topaz got into the trash again today. I guess it was from one room to the next with even some kitty food cans IN THE BED!!! Ugh.
Little brat probably hopped off the bed shortly after I left this afternoon to check and see if I forgot to lock the garbage can in the kitchen...and well, I did.
The only bad thing in there, I think, was marinara sauce....well and gum. I think he'd leave the gum alone with all the other yumminess in there.
Hopefully this will not trigger anything, he's gone 125 days with no seizures and we'd like to keep it that way!!
Topaz has been doing well. No new seizures or anything. I was a bit worried a few nights ago, he was acting kind of off, but we made it through the night so all is well. He's been getting into things more than usual, but then again our schedules have been a little wonky and he gets out of sorts when that happens sometimes.
We have been crushing his PB and mixing it in with his food. I think this is a better way to go...we don't need to worry about whether or not he's eaten his pills or not, which makes things easier for me. I bought a little pill crusher thing from Avon. It works so well and was pretty inexpensive too. I was going to get a mortar and pestal from amazon.com, but saw this in the avon catalog and thought it was perfect. And it is!
I don't want to jinx anything by talking about how long it's been since his last seizure, but this has been a great stretch!! This was the time last year when he really started having problems and it's nice to see that he's doing much better now. Hopefully it will continue. Although, even the last GM that he had was not that bad at all...and since joining the EPIL-K9 list, I've got a few other tips to make the post ictal stage better, so if he should have another GM I will be sure to put some of those into play.
I also think the raw diet has helped him. I know there's info on the net about the risks with epi dogs and each person has their own idea of what's healthiest and best for their animals, but I really think this is working well. I need to get the coconut oil and the supplement back into his diet...we are waiting for Todd's disability checks to start before we get that again. But that will be hapening soon.
We're planning on getting his thyroid test done too whenever we have the money.
Tonight is a full moon. I hope that doesn't effect him. It didn't the last time.
So things are going well...and I really hope they continue!
Ugh...this dog has gotten into EVERYTHING this week!!!
My lunch bag was on the kitchen table and he got that down...no doubt looking for food.,...which there was NONE. So what does he do? He chews the BAG and also the blue thing inside that keeps the food cold. BAD DOG!!!!
Then...tonight we leave for a few hours and I left my work bag on the kitchen chair...which I do ALL THE TIME...and he got into that!!! No doubt looking for food.
I know his meds make him hungry...but good Lord dog. STOPPIT!!!
Topaz has gone 100 days with no seizures! Woo hoo!!!
We're doing a little dance here at our house.
I just want to document some recent changes. We were really short on cash this past pay and we were expecting some checks to come in and they never did, so we've been improvising with the raw food.
We've been feeding chicken backs for breakfast, and hamburger meat and dinner has been kind of skimpy too.
Topaz has been acting a little odd, almost like he did when he was coming off the loading dose of KBr. I'm thinking maybe it's too much meds/not enough food.
Anyway, we now have money and were able to get some food. We haven't been able to get their right breakfast, but we're got eggs and cottage cheese, pumpkin and more hamburger...so hopefully this will hold them over until I can get their food this weekend.
Plus, I won some samples of Honest Kitchen from their blog and we can give that to Onyx. It has rosemary in it or we'd also give it to Topaz, but he can't have rosemary.
Anyway, I just wanted to document this change just in case it triggers a seizure. He's been doing so well. I sure hope not!
My husband took the dogs today for a mile walk which is a good thing if they are used to walking that far/that long, but they aren't.
When I came home from work Topaz didn't even get up to meet me at the door, he was so exhausted!!!
I know my husband didn't mean any harm, but #1 the dog's not used to it and #2 seizure dogs have a tendency to not be able to regulate their body heat.
I immediately took him outside to the kiddie pool to help cool him off and he's back in the air conditioned house with a fan on.
Hopefully he'll be ok and I hope my husband has learned to not do that again, or else go into it gradually!!
Everything is fine with the Puppa. No seizure activity...although he has been acting more "doped up" lately. I don't know if he's lost weight lately or something and the meds are stronger now for him, or what's going on. But he has seemed a bit off lately. We're keeping an eye on him.
Ok...so we will be traveling in October up north for my sister's wedding. We've decided to take the dogs along with us because I'm worried about finding someone to watch them and feed them correctly and administer the medication correctly. We're on a pretty tight schedule and that's important, so I think I will just feel better if they are with us.
We're staying in a "pet friendly" motel, and they already know we're bringing the dogs and all that is set. In order to prepare, I wrote on the EPIL-K9 list I belong to (for epileptic dogs & their people) what they bring when travelling and what they have in their emergency seizure kit.
Here's what they've said so far:
Topaz got into the litterbox today. My husband left the door to that room open and since the dogs are never allowed in there, of course he needed to check it out...little bugger that he is!
He had a gross kitty snack...hopefully this doesn't trigger anything, but I'm documenting just in case!
The vet called this afternoon and Topaz's PB level is normal, which is good.
And my husband and I went to get cat food and also to pick up dinner and we were maybe gone an hour. We come home to nasty, stinky trash from one end of the house to the other!!! GRRRR
The new locking garbage can wasn't locked. 
Ugh....we're a bunch of dumb asses.
Anyways...so he got into the trash again. Lovely.
We took Puppa to the vet to get his PB levels checked. They also are doing some other routine labwork. The vet tech dude asked us about vaccinations. I really need to call the other vets we used and see if he actually got vaccs somewhere else. Now that I think about it, I think he has.
He also got into the trash in the computer room and also ate the cat food...little shit that he is!!! Ugh, he's BAD!!!
Anyways...still no seizures! Woo hoo!
We went to dinner last night and then went to a couple of stores and came home to the garbage can on its side and garbage strewn from the front door to the back door and everywhere in between. What a lovely mess!
Anyways...that's the 3rd time this month Topaz has gotten into the garbage.
And he threw up again yesterday morning.
But...no seizure activity...which is lovely.
No new seizure activity...thank God!!
Topaz threw up yellow bile (I believe it's bile anyways) a couple times on Monday night and then he did again this morning.
We're gonna keep an eye on him for now...if it continues, he'll be going to the vet.
I called the vet when I got to work and she said that since this one was "different" and that it didn't seem as violent as the others and since he had gone such a long time seizure free, we will leave his meds where they are for now...which is good because he's totally a different dog with the 1/4 pill decrease. It's amazing.
So..we'll keep an eye on him and go on with life as usual!
Topaz had a seizure this morning at 6:08am. It wasn't as bad as the last ones have been and so far no clusters. He had it in our bedroom at the foot of our bed. I heard him kind of get up and then felt and heard a hard thud and went to see what was going on.
And there he was seizing half under the bed and wedged between the bed and dresser in this little area.
He made little noise, and wet himself and foamed as usual, but overall it wasn't as bad as they have been. I'm hoping he won't cluster. The last couple have been very loud and pretty violent.
This one was different too, I couldn't get to him flat, so I kind of picked him up and held him while he came around, which seemed to comfort him...no growling this time around. We also gave him rescue remedy when it was over...gotta keep that in our room to be able to give it right away. Maybe I'll order another bottle of it.
I also should add that he got in the garbage can on Saturday and garbage was all over the house. He licked out cat food cans and ate whatever was on the garbage he pulled out. We've also been giving him peanut butter bones and those new hip-flex treats. And the supplement...no changes other than those.
Plus, it's that time of year and we have wonky weather...maybe the barametric pressure is messing with him.
I'll call the vet when they open to see what they want to do about his meds, we lowered his PB a couple weeks ago and he's been doing so well. Maybe we'll continue and see if this was an isolated incident or something, not sure yet. Will update later.
Anyways...he went almost 83 days with no seizure. 4 hours shy of 84 days. That's awesome. I'll reset his ticker.
...but hopefully it won't be...
Neighbor closer to mile road fertilized his back yard (and possibly front) yard this afternoon. 
Brought the dogs in when I realized what he was doing, but they were outside for a little while. 
sigh...
Hopefully this won't effect the puppa. 
We got the supplement for Topaz as well as some treats.
The supplement we got is: Advanced Mobility from Oma's Pride (O'Paws)
Of course on the day we were to take topaz to the vet he decides to act like nothing is wrong. He was running around the yard, jumping up on Todd and jumping all over the living room and on the couches like all is well.
He is always really nervous at the vet, and this trip was no exception. We had to wait a while to see the vet too, which didn't make things any easier on poor puppa.
Needless to say, he wasn't on his best behavior and tried to bite the vet. Nice, huh? Anyways...he needed to be muzzled and she tried to examine him. He was just too nervous.
She said he doesn't seem to be in a huge amount of pain, but if he's moving slow and everything she will give us some pain meds for him and suggested we get him a joint supplement. She suggested Kirkland Glucosamine/Chondroitin, but we're probably going to get something from The Pet Beastro...which is where we get their food and treats at.
We'll get the supplement tomorrow and I'll list what it is then.
We also are going to lower his PB from 1 1/2 gram to 1 1/4 gram...which is progress!
I feel so much better taking him in, and I'm confident that we're on the road to him feeling better!
We're taking Topaz to the vet this evening. Our vet is open until 10, so we have a 9:00 appointment.
We have to get his pills, but I am also concerned he's in pain and I want the vet to check him out. He gets up very slowly and paces around a lot, so hopefully she will see what we've been seeing. Maybe I'll try to get the twitches on video as well.
Anyways...I'll definitely update either tonight or tomorrow.
Topaz has been pacing a lot lately. I think a call and/or a trip to the vet is needed. I've been feeling for a while that he's in pain and maybe he is. I think it's time we found out for sure.
I'll update later.
We didn't lower the PB yet, but we did start the Kbr at night. It really seems to be making a difference.
We also added Taurine...2000mg daily for a week and then down to 1000mg daily.
We're going to wait a couple weeks and then lower the PB.
So far so good. 63 days and counting!!
My husband spoke to the vet this afternoon. He called to ask about us giving Topaz taurine. I've been told and have read online that it has some success controlling seizures. We're not replacing his meds with this by any means, but adding this along with the meds.
When I had spoken with the vet last month I asked about lowering Topaz's dose of something. Not that I think he's on such huge doses, but because he's so out of it and spacey and I hate seeing him that way all the time. She agreed that if he made it 60 days seizure free we could lower the PB by 1/4 of a pill...so give him one and 1/4 pill twice daily rather than 1 1/2 pill.
She said we could start the lowered dose tomorrow. My husband also asked her about the time we give Topaz the Kbr. I was wondering if we could give it to him at night rather than in the morning because it kind of makes him loopy and sleepy...then he could sleep it off at night.
This will change the way we feed them as well. I'll have to think about it all and figure out how to do it as the Kbr is a liquid and he's not that into the yucky flavor!
We're also going ahead with the Taurine. We'll be doing 2000 mg for a week and then 1000 mg daily after that. It will be mixed with his food also.
Hopefully, this will help and we can get our fun loving energetic puppa back!
Will update as needed!
I believe this is what's going on with Topaz...not sure if this is related to the twitches/tremors though...I need to ask the vet.
What is ataxia?
Simply said, ataxia occurs when the body is out of balance. Symptoms of ataxia include: wobbliness, buckling leg joints, a drunken, staggering gait, lack of coordination, a tilted head carriage, tripping, falling, or collapsing.
This inability to coordinate voluntary muscular movements is often a side effect of anti-seizure medications which can cause weakness or loss of control of the hind legs, especially when the anti-seizure medication is first introduced, or when the current dosage has been increased. There are many other reasons that ataxia may be present in your pet, including ear infection and other health problems, but, if you noticed the ataxia soon after introducing anti-seizure medication, chances are, the anti-seizure medication is the source.
Another cause of ataxia is seizures. For a few days after a seizure your dog may not be able to jump up on the bed or couch and may have trouble going up and down stairs. Tremendous isometric stress is put on the muscles during a seizure. Immediately afterwards the back legs may not be strong enough for normal "romping" and it may take a few days to a week for that strength to return.
Both Phenobarbital (Pb) and Potassium Bromide (KBr) can cause ataxia, and the combination of the two drugs can often cause increased ataxia. Often, as the dog becomes used to the medication, the ataxia diminishes. If your dog is in this initial stage of getting used to the medication, it's prudent to go slowly with your dog on slippery surfaces and stairs. In time, your dog will gain more control of his/her hind end, so try to be patient.
It can be depressing to see your pal with ataxia. If medication was only recently introduced or increased, try to be patient and encourage your dog to go on short walks.
Problems can occur with older dogs who may be weak in the hind end already, or for dogs whose flooring is slick, as with hard wood or tiled floors. If you find your dog is unable to move safely on your wood or tiled floor due to ataxia, try putting down throw rugs to provide extra traction.
If you find that your pup's ataxia is pronounced, and shows no sign of lessening, please talk with your vet. Sometimes the anti-seizure medication can be reduced slightly and the ataxia will be greatly reduced. Of course, having ataxia is better than having a seizure, so we have to consider the balance there. If the blood levels of the medication are in question, the best way to know how much medication is being absorbed is with a simple blood test. Often the drug to reduce if you dog takes both Pb and KBr is Pb. Please do not try to reduce Pb without your vet's supervision and also you do not want to reduce it more than 10% every two weeks.
If your dog is only on KBr you might ask your vet if you can drop the KBr for just one day and see if that lessens the ataxia. If it does, you could ask you vet if a slightly lower dose could be achieved while keeping it in the therapeutic range.
Moderate and sensible exercise is recommended for dogs with ataxia. It is important to keep muscles strong and flexible. If your dog seems tired, take a break and continue on your walk when the dog is ready again.
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ataxia.htm
We got Topaz's lab results. The bromide level is good.
He's still been having these tremors (for lack of a better word). I don't know if they are getting worse. I just may be noticing them more. I think they're about the same.
Will keep an eye on him. He also keeps cutting the pad on one of his feet and he has a mysterious bruise like spot on his mouth, like where his chin would be.
Odd. Anyways...definitely keep a close eye on him.
I noticed the other day that when Topaz is laying down his feet and limbs kind of twitch. Once he's asleep it seems to stop, but it's like while he's relaxing. It's uncontrollable and I don't know what to make of it. I did mention it to the vet tech we spoke to yesterday.
I took a couple videos of it.
Topaz had a vet visit today to get blood drawn for his bromide levels. We'll get the results next week.
We also talked to a tech there who's going to talk to a neurologist about some of his symptoms. He's been really stumbling and falling a lot, and sometimes he's in almost a deep sleep like comatose even where I have to shake him awake...the sides of his mouth are also droopy now and sometimes he looks sad.
He's 63 lbs, he was 64 lbs in December...so he's down a bit...I'd like him at 60 lbs and I'm sure as soon as the weather breaks it will be no problem to get him down.
At least we have been seizure free!!
Will update when we get the bromide results!
We started putting Topaz's PB in his food as well. It's been going pretty good so far.
Nothing more to report, thankfully!
My husband and I went out for a few hours tonight. We left at like 5:30/6:00 and came back right away...we bought a chest freezer to keep the dogs' food in so we wanted to set it up. At this time I fed the dogs a little bit...not their whole meal, just something to tide them over until we returned home later in the evening. We still had to go to Costco, get dinner and go grocery shopping.
We ended up getting home at like 10:00 pm or so.
Well when I let topaz out, the room had that seizure smell to it. It was that way earlier in the week one night too. His blanket in his cage was also wet. But his muzzle wasn't. The last time it happened it was the same thing...wet blanket, no wet muzzle. I always check when I smell that smell.
We were gone for a number of hours. It's possible that his muzzle could have dried...
I don't know what to think. I don't want to call anything a seizure unless I know it is one, but this is just odd. Maybe he peed in his cage? I don't know
We're not going to call the vet unless we actually see a seizure happen, which I hope to God we don't. But if we do need to call the vet, I will let them know of the two incidences this week.
He has been pretty drugged up all week since he had that loading dose of the potassium bromide. He's doing much better now.
We also have been letting him sleep in our room again at night. It's better if he has a seizure and he's in his cage at night, but at least I will wake up and can be right there.
Anyways, just wanted to document and update.
No seizures to update on , thank God!! But my poor puppa is all stumbling around the house and falling over and tripping on things.
He's obviously overmedicated or else these are side effects from the Potassium Bromide being added to his meds...or both even.
I just feel bad for him, he seems lost and just kind of wanders around the house. I am sure once the medication is in his system, he'll be ok.
It's just hard to see him like this.
Topaz absolutely HATES the potassium bromide!! So we'll be mixing it with his food.
Let me tell you, 60lbs of determined dog is STRONG!! whew, he gave me a run for my money trying to get him to take that medicine!
We got Topaz's Potassium Bromide today and will be starting it tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. He has to go in for a blood level check in 3 weeks and then his PB will probably be adjusted.
I'm not looking forward to new side effects with this medicine. But, am hopeful that this is the medicine that he needs to being seizure free long term.
I'll keep the blog posted!
*ON a personal note...I really need to work on the fact that there just may not be a trigger for Topaz's seizures and that I may not be able to change anything to make him better. I need to realize that he's probably always going to have these seizures and that we're doing all that we can for him.
My husband went to pick up Topaz at 8:00 from the vet. He did good there, no seizures.
They gave him a dose of PB in liquid form and a pill. And they didn't feed him all day to not mess up his raw diet...which was nice, but the poor thing went all day without eating!! he tore up his chicken backs when he got home. I may give him another 1/2 of one before I go to bed.
They did up his meds to 2 gr 2x a day, but it will probably go down once he gets on the potassium bromide. They will call about that later on in the week.
It's been a long day. I'm so glad he's ok and is home, I just wish I knew why he keeps having the seizures.
Topaz had another grand mal at 10:21. It lasted a minute or so.
I was sitting here posting on a forum or updating a blog and I saw him walking in circles in the doorway. I got to him just as he was about to fall over and he had the seizure.
My husband called the vet and they wanted us to bring him in, so he's on his way now with my husband.
We'll see what the vet has to say...
Called the vet and the vet is going to put him on Potassium Bromide. I guess some other company in Arizona has to call me because they make it special and they flavor it or something...interesting.
Anyways, that's the way we're going.
The side effects are similar. and of course levels will need to be checked. I am going to do the thyroid panel at the same time they check his levels. That will be an expensive vet trip!
Off to feed and bathe the puppa...
Topaz had a Grand Mal this morning at 5:52am and then 3 clusters shortly after. The whole thing was over by 6:10 or so.
He has been sleeping in our bedroom for the past few nights. He's been barking at night when we put him in his cage to go to sleep and just would not settle down. I think that's because he went from crated 8 hours a day when my husband was volunteering at the shelter, to being out now that he's home again.
He was on my side of the bed on the floor when he had the first one. Once he came out of that, we put a leash on him to go outside to cool him off like we usually do and he had the other 3 once we got into the kitchen.
They didn't seem as violent as the past ones, but maybe I'm getting used to them...I don't know.
Right now he's lying on the floor next to me. He seems really out of it and very tired tonight in his post ictal stage. I'm sure they take a lot out of you.
We'll be calling the vet when they open. I think they will add Potassium Bromide and we will definitely be getting the thyroid test in a couple weeks. Will update again after the vet call.
Differences in food/environment...I gave him 3 tiny new treats and a couple days ago I started the dogs on chicken backs instead of turkey/chicken necks. Doubt either had to do with this though. Oh and he may have had some Mc Donald fries. But I'm not sure...if so it was like maybe 10 of them and it was the other day. Hmmm Environment...nothing I can think of offhand. The husband is home more, and I did go to the ER last night with an anxiety/panic attack so I know my husband and I have both been stressed and worried, maybe we are giving that energy off to the animals...but other than that, I don't know.
And...unfortunately, I need to reset his ticker. He had gone 66 days though! That's something.
I called the vet the morning after the incident and she said that since I am not positive it was a seizure and it was so different than the others...and especially since our other animals didn't seem to notice anything happened, we're not going to treat this as a break through seizure and so we won't be changing anything right now.
She also said that if he needs more medication or an addition medication, he will have another seizure and will let us know that.
Hopefully he won't!!
So for now, we're not going to call this a seizure...but maybe an "episode" and I do have documentation on it now here so that's good too.
So the ticker remains!!!
He did urinate on himself.
I wonder if I just didn't hear him have the seizure? Maybe it wasn't as severe as the last couple have been.
I don't know, I'll call the vet in the morning and see what they say.
I think Topaz may have had a seizure tonight. I am not sure though.
He just woke me up about 10 minutes (1:40 am) or so ago but just with barking. That high pitched, get me out of my cage, barking.
If he did have a seizure, I did not hear him while he was having it in his cage.
The room had a faint smell of that saliva smell and when I check his muzzle and chest when he got out, it was a little wet. But no urine or feces in his cage and his blanket was only a little bit wet. The wetness was on his mouth a bit and his chest, which is typical during a seizure, however.
He's outside with our other dog, who was asleep on our bed when I got up. (generally when he has a seizure she is up when I get to him)
He's acting a bit post ictal, but not really. He knew his name and commands and didn't seem as nervous as he usually is.
No changes in his food, except one raw baby carrot tonight and the necks I fed them seemed a bit slimy today. The weather has been really wonky too...we've went from 30's and snow to 60's and rain in a matter of a week. It's been in the 40's the past couple days. The husband and I argued a lot this weekend too, with yelling, but I always try to nip it quickly for Topaz's sake.
So I don't know. I'll call his vet in the morning and see what they have to say. If this was a seizure it was not typical.
I'm not going to change the ticker either. I want to see what the vet says first.
Some jerk opened up our gates and let the dogs out this afternoon! I can't believe people would do such a nasty thing!!
Anyways, I wrote about it at my other blog. Here's the link.
http://randomheidiness.blogspot.com/2008/01/happy-new-yeardog-scare.html
