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.

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.

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.

Something’s Fishy

LOL cute title huh?

So I’ve been thinking about possible triggers and there’s one thing that my mind keeps going back to and that’s fish.

Before the last seizure in February I think it was, I had given the dogs Sardines. That was the only big difference I could think of.

The cats haven’t been eating real well lately, not sure if it’s a seasonal thing, or if they’re bored with the flavors or something (we feed them strictly canned food and generally stick to poultry or beef/liver flavors) so we got a case of fish flavored last time we bought their food, and we got another one this past time as well.

So, maybe that’s a trigger for Topaz, or something in the fish. I don’t know. Definitely an interesting coincident.

He commonly gets into the cat bowls and goes behind them on the floor and everything. We have one cat, Beans, our little female, who takes a mouthful into the bedroom or hallway and then eats it. Half the time she drops some of it and she always leaves crumbs, so the dogs go and eat what’s left.

So, maybe it’s something? Definitely something to watch.

Interesting...

I told my sister about the seizures and how the two were a year apart, almost to the day and time...which is bizarre and is really bugging me. She mentioned barometric pressure and maybe that having something to do with it.

Interesting, it seems it is a trigger.

I am going to do the bloodwork and see if the vet will hold off on the meds for a bit because those anti seizure meds scare me...

So we'll see tomorrow.