3/30/10 – 2:09 am – Grand Mal

I am not writing this right after the seizure happened because it was in the middle of the night and I had to work this morning, so it’s actually in the evening…same day though.

Thank goodness for the Blackberry and Facebook. I guess I could update the blog from my phone too. I will need to look into how to do that. I still may move this blog to my own domain www.peargirly.com.

Anyway…on to the seizure information.

Topaz was sleeping in bed with just me, our other dog and a couple kitties. He got up and started stumbling around on the bed (which actually happens a lot because he gets tangled up in the blankets) but this caused the cats to get down and our other dog to growl because he stepped on her. All of these things happening at the same time woke me up.

He had the seizure on the bed, it was a Grand Mal and didn’t last too long. He was vocal, foamed and peed on the bed.

I went to run to the bathroom and change really quick and had my husband keep him on the bed while I did that. Then we got him down off the bed and let him outside as we usually do.

I quickly made my usual cocktail of Breyer’s Vanilla ice cream, 2 gr PB, Valium and Rescue Remedy and brought it outside to give to him. Of course, we also had to give our other dog a tasty little treat too!

The post ictal stage was typical, he ran around the yard a little, paced a little and seemed out of it a little. He pooped and peed and then we went inside and went back to bed. I barely slept because I didn’t want to disrupt him and I was freezing because I opened the window to help cool him off.

Triggers…NO CLUE. Nothing really has changed. We ran out of food and they were eating primarily frozen chicken wings from Costco for a couple days until we got their food again. We’ve been giving them these treats, which I guess could have triggered something, but I really doubt it…they have very few ingredients and they’ve been eating them for a couple months.

The only thing is it was a full moon last night…which I know a lot of people who have epileptic dogs have said that their dog’s seizures sometimes occur during a full moon.

I may see if I can go back and see if any of his others have happened while during a full moon. I don’t think so, I would have included that in the blog.

Anyways, it was 198 days between seizures, which is a good thing.

And you know, I kind of felt like this was coming…he’s been so super hyper lately, and that’s always a sign that one is coming…but it had been a long time of the hyperness, so I stopped thinking about it. And then in reading the EPIL-K9 list these past couple weeks, I’ve been thinking about some of the latest discussions, like bed protection…what do people use to protect their beds. Well, we’ve never had to because he’s never had a seizure ON our bed…until now. Just things like that.

He’s much better now…a little more wobbly than I like to see, but pretty much he’s back to normal. Well, a less hyper version of normal.

Trash Boy…the Saga Continues!

Everything has been going great with Topaz lately. No seizures since that last one in September, which is awesome!

He’s been hyper as hell, so I’ve kind of been on the watch for a seizure, but nothing so far…knock on wood and cross everything!

So..the reason for the blog.

SOMEHOW, Mr Topaz did some Houdini move and got out of his cage. Now, mind you, his cage is basically a gigantic cat carrier and there is really NO WAY he could have gotten out unless the door was improperly latched.

I didn’t lock him up when we left, so I don’t know what happened, but I have been assured that the door was properly shut and he was secured in the cage.

Uh-huh…whatever.

So how did he get out then?

Right…I don’t know either.

Anyway…I eat dinner in here most nights and there is food in the trash can in here, plus there are boxes from snacks.

Well you know this garbage hound just couldn’t resist all of the yummy trash smells so he ate everything he could get his grubby paws and mouth on and licked everything else clean.

I know FOR SURE that he ate leftover greek salad…which consisted of lettuce, chick peas (which I just Googled and are ok!) and feta cheese. Plus the dressing. – good thing I don’t like onions! He ate a 1/2 box of Costco sized Cheeze-Its, pickles, I think some almond cheese from Olga’s…and I really don’t know what else. Oh, BBQ chips.

He spent a long time outside while the husband and I cleaned the room up and then when he came in he drank a bunch of water…which he DOES NOT normally do.

But he’s been ok…it’s been a few hours.

I gave him 2 gr of PB (3/4 gr more than normal) and a Valium (we have pill form Valium, not liquid) and I will make sure he sleeps with us IN the bed if possible…and pray that this passes without a hitch.

We’ve been lucky with his garbage hound ways in the past…it’s just been a long time since we’ve dealt with this!

Anyway…so that’s my update. Just wanted to document and all.

Grand Mal – 9/13/09 – 7:44am

I can’t help but feel partially responsible for this one. Unfortunately, I will never know either way, but I feel guilty as hell.

Topaz had what was probably 2 Grand mals this morning at 7:44am. We actually looked at the clock when it was all over with and it was 7:46am.

I think it was two because there was a little period where he came out of the first one and went right into the next. So it wasn’t like when he’ll go from one, get up and then move to a different spot for the next.

Some background…we got a new kitten on Friday. Kitten has a cold and so we’ve kept him isolated in the bathroom for the most part, but we have let him come out to play with the big animals a few times a day.

Last night Topaz seemed overly anxious. He’s been trying to mouth the kitten, so we’ve been yelling – not really yelling – but it’s been a lot of “Topaz, no!” and “Topaz, be nice” and “Come here and lay down”. Much, much more than normal. I’ve given him Rescue Remedy the past couple nights to help calm him down…but I guess if the seizures are coming, then they are coming!

The other thing is that I seriously think fish is a trigger for Topaz and we gave the kitten fish flavored food…so puppa could have gotten some of that on him from the kitten. It’s a stretch, I know…but I’m just throwing it out there.

The seizure itself wasn’t that bad as some that he’s had, but it also wasn’t the mildest one either.

He woke me up by trying to get up on the bed. That was when I knew something was up, so I helped him to the floor and he started seizing. I don’t know if he peed himself, I need to double check the bedroom and see. Just the usual paddling and foaming at the mouth.

I totally forgot about the ice pack, not that we have one ready, but we’ve used frozen vegs in the past, so we would have again. I had my husband get the rescue remedy, which made no sense…but I panicked.

After the seizure we gave him Breyer’s vanilla ice cream mixed with 2 1/4 gr PB, 1 valium and Rescue Remedy. We took him outside as we normally do and now he’s back in the house.

Still post ictal…nervous. I’m about to go back and lay down for a couple hours and see if I can get him to calm down a little.

I sure hope we didn’t do this to him with the new kitten. If not, then it’s some horrible coincidence.

Cost of Prescriptions

So we had to get a paper script for Topaz’s Phenobarbital because the vet isn’t going to carry it anymore due to paperwork and legalities.

I think I wrote last time that we were calling around to get price quotes.

I had kind of settled on Walgreens and their “W” card offer…they said a 90 day supply of his pills would be 10.99 plus 20.00 once a year for the program. That was cheaper than CVS and Target was going to be 15.00 or so. Walgreens without the W card was 20.99 for 90 day supply.

I thought that we should try Costco because I’ve always heard that their scripts are cheap. I had a heck of a time getting a quote when I called due to some rude pharmacy workers (unfortunately, I’ve found MOST pharmacy workers to be rude) and when my husband called he got a totally different quote than I did, so i was still unsure about the price.

My husband went up there today and for 150 pills it was under 7.00! I cannot remember the exact price, but it was CHEAP!

Plus, they are the same pills as he’s taking now!

That’s a HUGE difference than it even was at the vet! They were like 30 or 40 something for 150.

Score! Great savings!

The Valium was under 7.00 too and we ended up getting that at Target.

So overall, it helps to shop around and definitely try the savings clubs like Costco and Sams!

No New Seizures, Just Some Thoughts

Topaz made it through last night with no new seizures – Thank God!

I did talk to our vet last night and she’s going to give us a script for valium and we had to get a refill script for his PB…now I wonder if THAT is going to be an issue?? Ugh something else to think about. Usually we get his PB script from the vet, but they are no longer carrying it and are going to be scripting it out so we need to get it from the pharmacy. Hopefully it will not be an issue as far as the medication goes. And I will probably blog again about the cost of it all, I hope it’s not too much more than it is in the office.

The vet suggested to keep his meds where they are. Although, I will probably up his KBr a bit for my own peace of mind and I really thought he did much better on a little higher dose of KBr. But she did suggest that we check his PB level in a week or so, and come in for their last appt of the day (they are open till 10pm) and see what’s going on with it…if anything shows up. So we’ll do that in a couple weeks.

While I was thinking about environmental changes, I remembered that my husband had bought a different laundry detergent. He got Tide with Febreze – Meadows & Rain scent. It’s really fragrant! Personally, I never would have gotten that because it doesn’t smell good to me, but that’s what he got because it was on sale. I wonder if that has anything to do with the seizures. We’ve been using it for a week or so. Next time we’ll go back to our normal detergent.

Not sure if the Tide is to blame, or if it’s a total fluke…we’ll probably never really know, but I wanted to jot this down anyways.

Another Grand Mal Tonight! 7/13/09 – Actually 2

I really hope this isn’t going to be a long year with the seizures.

Topaz had another 2 Grand Mals tonight. I believe they started at 11:30pm ish. it was kind of hectic and I wasn’t able to see a clock right away. It was 11:35 when I looked at the clock…

I was making my lunch for tomorrow (Salmon, if that has anything to do with anything…the possible fish connection I made a few months ago) and Topaz went running down the hall to see my husband, which was kind of odd. Not that he’s never done so before, but it was just odd. Then he came my way and kind of staggered near the dining room table and then I knew, this wasn’t normal…so I was prepared and called my husband down to help.

He definitely foamed a heck of a lot more than usual this time. The first was fairly short, he kind of came around and then went right into the second one. It was a little nosier than the first and he was really contorted into a horrible position. Seeing a dog seize is not a pretty picture! 

A few other things:

• he didn’t urinate on himself during either seizure
• more foaming than normal
• loud crying noises
• post ictal has been long, he’s still not ok (this was written over an hour later)

We called the e-vet and they suggested we bring him in. As you may or may not know, e-vets are super expensive and we only have xx amount of dollars available to use and well, it was definitely going to be more than that. They suggested we maybe bring him in and they could treat him outpatient.

We decided to keep and eye on him and call his vet first thing in the morning. If he has another one tonight, we will take him in for sure though.

I don’t know what else they can do at this point but up his medication. He may just need to be a bit ataxic in order to function with minimal seizures. Lots of epileptic dogs are like that.

I think we may have his thyroid tested again too, just to rule that completely out. Oh and we need to review the ice pack position. I am going to print that out now!

After the seizure we took him outside and I gave him some Bryer’s all natural vanilla which he loved, and also some Rescue Remedy. I also gave him 2 gr of PB tonight and we upped his KBr back to 1.5ml. I am gonna have the hubbs ask the vet about upping that back up anyways.

Hopefully this doesn’t continue. I hate to have to write these blogs…especially back to back.

*sigh* going to reset the ticker. My poor puppa!

7/12/09 Another GM

Tonight is not my Puppa’s night!!

Topaz had another Grand Mal seizure at about 11:10pm or so this evening.

He had been lying on the couch with me again and had been pretty restless…he had JUST settled down.

I noticed that ever too familiar way that seizing dogs have just before they seize and tried to get to him before he fell off the couch. Unfortunately, he kind of landed on his head a bit, I righted him as soon as I could, but it did take a few minutes. I hope he’s ok with that, he seems to be ok. My husband or I couldn’t get to him in time. It was horrible looking.

Anyways, this was so different than his other seizures. It wasn’t so much paddling as it was laying there all stiff with teeth chattering. He also didn’t urinate on himself again, but did foam a bit. He took a while again to get out of it too.

We tried the ice pack trick again, but we don’t have a crushed ice bag ready (note to self…we NEED one of these!) so we used green beans. I also need to have my husband look at the picture of where to put the ice pack and I need to look at it again. We also may need to ask for some Valium from the vet. Esp if this is going to be a new norm.

When he finally did come around, which took a few extra minutes it seemed…even longer than the first one earlier in the evening, we gave him another spoonful of ice cream and rescue remedy and my husband took him outside.

He wasn’t pacing, but was walking around and kind of staggering. Moreso than normal, to me anyways.

We called the e-vet too, to get their opinion. If he has another one tonight, we’ll bring him in. Hopefully all will be ok and we’ll call his vet in the morning. I am thinking we need to up his KBr again back to 1.5 from 1. I don’t know.

I have no clue on this one…just the disease I guess.

Anyway, I hope there won’t be anymore! Poor puppa!