I had a dog with epilepsy, Tucker. He died at 5 years old from a reaction to potassium bromide which we had added to his treatment regimen because he had cluster seizures that were increasing in spite of high doses of phone-barbital that had started to cause ataxia. The day of his death is probably the single most horrendous day of my life…I am not exaggerating when I say I spent about 4 hours straight holding an oxygen mask to his face…
But that’s not the topic…I offer it to let you know this ain’t my first rodeo.
Here’s the deal: my darling little blue pit bull, Zusje, who had her second birthday on March 18 and aside from skin allergies is insanely healthy, just had a big, fat, foaming-at-the-mouth pissing herself gran mal seizure a couple of hours ago. (On my BED…fuck, gonna have to get plastic sheets…) I am grateful I had Tucker, otherwise I would have freaked out completely, it’s very distressing to watch. But I have lots of experience.
So reaching into my rusty bag o’ canine epilepsy knowledge that I obsessively acquired during Tucker’s 3 years of seizures (which were probably caused by a blow to the head that also blinded him in one eye when he was 6 weeks old) I recall that congenital epilepsy generally surfaces at around 2 years old. Oh shit.
But I also recall, without any ready detail, that seizures can be caused by lots of different things.
Zusje and Preston got outside the gate last night for about 20 minutes. I have no idea if she ingested anything during that brief period, or if here is any substance she could have ingested that would lead to a seizure 8 hours after the fact. I also treated them both with Frontline a couple of days ago, but she’s been treated about three times previously so that seems unlikely as a problem.
So what are some other possibilities? I also recall that there’s no way to be sure at this point, after a single seizure, whether she has epilepsy or not. She may never have another seizure in her life, she may have another an hour from now, a week, a year… It’s a big question mark. But I also recall that the more seizures they have, the more likely they are to have seizures…so I’m wondering if I should give her some phenobarbital starting now. (I have a boatload leftover from Tucker. And it’s stable…check with the Defense department re: expiration dates on drugs) How many seizures do I wait and see for before treating? Probably at least 2, I guess…but Tucker just kept getting worse so I’m a little paranoid about it.
Anyway, what might some other reasons be?