Everyone,

After two vet visits and an overnight in the expansive and useless animal
hospital here in NYC I think I'm zeroing in on what the problem is, but I
need some feedback:

To my untrained opinion, Dixie is having small and frequent seizures. I've
been reading up on the web, and actually I think she is more or less of a
textbook case of a Partial Seizure.

My vet has said as much but I must have missed it because it came after she
said, "I'm stumped."

Yesterday, Dixie was moving spasmodically for a while - her nose, head and
eyes were twitching, she seemed afraid and disoriented, she couldn't sit
down and she was whimpering.

Following that, she paced for a couple of hours.

Absolutely heart breaking.

Tonight I've been watching her closely. She'll rest, then suddenly whimper
and quickly get to her feet. Her head, lower jaw, eyes, and nose twitch.
Then she seems to want to walk around with a toy in her mouth.

This happens every couple of minutes.

Right now I think she's pretty exhausted. She' lying down, but I think every
couple of minutes she raises her head and is kind of twitchy.

I have an appointment with the Neurologist Tuesday.

The question now is, how can I make her the most comfortable, or how can I
keep these episodes to a minimum until Tuesday?


I read that feeding them a little Bryers All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream helps
to get her blood sugar level up. But this dog never eats sugar, and I'm
worried that giving her a little ice cream will just get her cranked up and
unable to sleep.

I could really use some help ASAP.

Thanks

On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 00:42:27 GMT, David Sherman
wrote the following:

Everyone,

After two vet visits and an overnight in the expansive and useless animal
hospital here in NYC I think I'm zeroing in on what the problem is, but I
need some feedback:

To my untrained opinion, Dixie is having small and frequent seizures. I've
been reading up on the web, and actually I think she is more or less of a
textbook case of a Partial Seizure.

My vet has said as much but I must have missed it because it came after she
said, "I'm stumped."

Yesterday, Dixie was moving spasmodically for a while - her nose, head and
eyes were twitching, she seemed afraid and disoriented, she couldn't sit
down and she was whimpering.

Following that, she paced for a couple of hours.

Absolutely heart breaking.

Hello David,

Have you thought about giving The Animal Medical Center in New York
City a try? Their website can be found at:

http://www.amcny.org/asp/homepage/default.asp

They have their address on their website. They may be able to help you
with the problem your dog has.

WienerDog

[posted and mailed]

David Sherman said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

Everyone,

After two vet visits and an overnight in the expansive and
useless animal hospital here in NYC I think I'm zeroing in
on what the problem is, but I need some feedback:

To my untrained opinion, Dixie is having small and frequent
seizures. I've been reading up on the web, and actually I
think she is more or less of a textbook case of a Partial
Seizure.

Can you give a better description of the seizures? Partial
siezures are uncommon. Rocky has them, though. Check the
health links on this page (scroll down to the health links):
http://www.rocky-dog.com/Links/LinksMenu.html

Yesterday, Dixie was moving spasmodically for a while - her
nose, head and eyes were twitching, she seemed afraid and
disoriented, she couldn't sit down and she was whimpering.

Following that, she paced for a couple of hours.

Absolutely heart breaking.

Tonight I've been watching her closely. She'll rest, then
suddenly whimper and quickly get to her feet. Her head,
lower jaw, eyes, and nose twitch. Then she seems to want to
walk around with a toy in her mouth.

This happens every couple of minutes.

Right now I think she's pretty exhausted. She' lying down,
but I think every couple of minutes she raises her head and
is kind of twitchy.

I have an appointment with the Neurologist Tuesday.

The question now is, how can I make her the most
comfortable, or how can I keep these episodes to a minimum
until Tuesday?

The good news (from what you've described above) is that it's
probable she won't have another seizure right away. She's going
through the after affects.

I read that feeding them a little Bryers All Natural
Vanilla Ice Cream helps to get her blood sugar level up.
But this dog never eats sugar, and I'm worried that giving
her a little ice cream will just get her cranked up and
unable to sleep.

That works with many dogs post ictal. A full-blown primary
seizure uses a lot of energy. I don't do the milk sugar thing -
IMO, it's best to hang with your dog during a seizure and talk
him through it.

I could really use some help ASAP.

I've been there. When it first happened, I received a huge
amount of help from these groups. My url is in my headers,
there's a phone number on my daycare page.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

David Sherman wrote:
Everyone,

After two vet visits and an overnight in the expansive and useless animal
hospital here in NYC I think I'm zeroing in on what the problem is, but I
need some feedback:

To my untrained opinion, Dixie is having small and frequent seizures. I've
been reading up on the web, and actually I think she is more or less of a
textbook case of a Partial Seizure.

My vet has said as much but I must have missed it because it came after she
said, "I'm stumped."

Yesterday, Dixie was moving spasmodically for a while - her nose, head and
eyes were twitching, she seemed afraid and disoriented, she couldn't sit
down and she was whimpering.

Following that, she paced for a couple of hours.

Absolutely heart breaking.

Tonight I've been watching her closely. She'll rest, then suddenly whimper
and quickly get to her feet. Her head, lower jaw, eyes, and nose twitch.
Then she seems to want to walk around with a toy in her mouth.

This happens every couple of minutes.

Right now I think she's pretty exhausted. She' lying down, but I think every
couple of minutes she raises her head and is kind of twitchy.

I have an appointment with the Neurologist Tuesday.

The question now is, how can I make her the most comfortable, or how can I
keep these episodes to a minimum until Tuesday?


I read that feeding them a little Bryers All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream helps
to get her blood sugar level up. But this dog never eats sugar, and I'm
worried that giving her a little ice cream will just get her cranked up and
unable to sleep.

I could really use some help ASAP.

I'm so sorry to hear about your poor dog's ordeal. Does she enjoy
gnawing? Since she seems to take comfort in carrying something maybe
she might enjoy a beef marrow bone, or maybe a kong stuffed with peanut
butter. She may be clenching her jaws during her episodes. The chewing
may soothe sore jaw muscles and help distract her a little.

I'm not sure ice cream is the best way to maintain an even blood sugar
level. On the other hand, when my dogs have binged on ill-gotten gains
I really didn't notice any behavioral changes that I could ascribe to
being "sugared up". Large quantities of sugar *will* cause farting and
diarrhea, though.

I suspect that vanilla ice cream is a comfort food for the owners, and
more or less harmless to share with a pet (in small quantities). If
it's something you like, letting your dog lick spoons full of ice cream
might be a pleasant distraction for both of you.

Kathleen

In article ,
Kathleen wrote:
I'm not sure ice cream is the best way to maintain an even blood sugar
level. On the other hand, when my dogs have binged on ill-gotten gains
I really didn't notice any behavioral changes that I could ascribe to
being "sugared up". Large quantities of sugar *will* cause farting and
diarrhea, though.

I'm currently using vanilla ice cream to get ivermectin into
Image. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to find sugar-free
low-fat vanilla and the dogs do seem to love it as much as
the real stuff.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Over half of all US Treasury debt is now held by overseas owners

No, asshole, it's not that I don't like you. It's that you want to preach
instead of help.

And right now, help is what I need.

If you have anything specific, lay it on me. I don't want a lecture, I want
details.

I'll try anything. Point me to your ****ing Amazing web site and I'll
download whatever I think can HELP my dog.

Melinda, Matt and WienerDog,

Thanks.

She went back to the animal hospital last night so they could sedate her.
Today we're trying to get to see a really good vet Neurologist. We have an
appointment for tomorrow, but I can't care for her at home while she's in
this state.

Thanks for getting back to me. Matt, I'm looking at your site right now.

David

Dixie is not at a Neurologist. He examined her today and determined that it
was something going on in her "mid-cranium". He want to take an MRI of her
brain tomorrow.

They haven't yet determined what's up inside her head - they haven't ruled
out inflammation. Due to her age, they don't suspect cancer or some kind of
mass. But they think there is a possibility of a lesion in the brain.

They just have to find out what is putting pressure or causing seizures.
Maybe she took a mighty bump on the head, ingested some kind of toxin. And
the Neurologist does think she is having seizures. He put her on
Phenobarbital and Valium for tonight.

Meanwhile, if you all have just a moment, please send Dixie a few positive
thoughts. My wife and I would certainly appreciate it.

If you'd like to have a look at Dixie:

http://www.doodlebreeders.com/rockyt.../previous.html

(Dixie is the top picture.)