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A very worried golden owner

31K views 182 replies 34 participants last post by  Pipsqueak 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,

Yesterday my beloved 21mth old golden, Rosie had a seizure. It occured when we were making a fuss of her outside of my work place. She was happy and had been perfectly normal before it happened, just excited to see us. She then stretched out her front legs, collapsed and had a grand mal seizure. Thankfully it lasted under 30 seconds, though they were the longest 30 seconds I have experienced! She is fine now, recovered extremely quickly and no sign of any since. I have been on the phone to her breeder who reports last summer she heard of another pup in the litter had a seizure and she was going to phone them tomorrow to find out whether it developed into epilepsy or not. She is the world to me and I am heart broken. I know this may be the only one she ever has but it is much more likely this is going to develop into epilepsy. Thankfully she is fully insured so any tests or meds required she will have but I am looking for some info or reassurance from others who's dogs started so young. I am actually a vet but all that does is make me worry about the worst case scenario! I know about all the meds, tests required but I am worrying about how early she has started all this. She is my first golden retriever and she drives me nuts sometimes but she is one of my best friends. Why do we have them????!! They give us so much worry!!!! :-(

Lucy
 

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#118 ·
Not yet Dave. I did have one a few weeks ago on the "other anti epileptic drugs" other than Pheno and KBr. It seems much the same as we know already that each drug has it's good and bad points and they aren't proven effective enough in enough dogs at the moment to know what is the best one to use. Seems to be a trial and error job unfortunately. The next one is case studies in August I think which should be very interesting.

How is Tom doing?
 
#120 ·
Bad, bad news :-(

We had one last night, 3am I was walking round and round our village :-( She has been ok since but isn't 100%. Very quiet and her eyes aren't "normal" - very heavy, if that makes sense. So I am on hyper-alert.

We only managed a month this time. Totally gutted. And can't really think of any trigger this time. Just bad luck.

Thinking of checking her Phenobarbitone levels again as it's been three months. Will see what tonight brings. Not sure I'm going to sleep very well!!!
 
#122 ·
Oh dear sorry to hear about poor Rosie(and you of course!) As Dave has already said Ice cream (although I am now keeping that from Monty because of it being a dairy product but every dog is dfferent) Rescue Remedy and the rectal Diazapam.

Touch wood (and I am touching it very firmly!) Monty seems OK but I am keeping strictly to the diet that the Canine Epilepsy Support Group suggested for him. My main problem with him at the moment he seems to be barking a lot more than normal. Sometimes he just sits and barks into space, almost out of boredom! It sure gets on my nerves, but he gets away with a lot more than our other two!

Hope Rosie has not had any more fits. Is she on Kbr as well, or just the pheno? Having said that the Kbr has so many side effects, so I could understand a delay in starting that.
 
#123 ·
Thanks for your support as always folks! So far nothing else but she still isn't quite right. Just a little quieter than normal and her eyelids seem heavy....does anyone else see this?? It's how I can tell when she is back to normal. She just seems exhausted understandably. Dissappointed it has taken us a little longer to completely recover this time too which makes me nervous we may still be brewing another.

I haven't started her on KBr yet, trying to hold off to be honest. I would probably increase her Phenobarb a bit first too as last time I took bloods she was only just in the therapeutic range. We will see.

Ugh it is such a miserable time, every time it happens!!! I just feel so sorry for her. I want my mad, hyperactive, embarassingly behaved retriever back!!!!!! :-(
 
#124 ·
I'm so sorry to hear Rosie had another seizure. I wanted to comment on what has helped my Helo. I adopted him from a golden retriever rescue in May 2011 and he had seizures every couple of weeks until August 16, 2011 when he had 5 seizures in a 12 hour period. I had just been increasing his phenobarb until that point (as per my vet's office) but when he had 5 seizures and was on 5 pills per day I knew it was not helping so I went to a different Vet and he suggested Potassium Bromide. I am so happy to say he hasn't had ANY seizures since he started the KBr. So in 8 more days we will celebrate his 1 year seizure free anniversary! The only side effect he had from KBr was he was weak in the back end and I guess that can be from too high of a dose. So over the course of a year I have decreased his dose from 5ml per day to 3ml per day and he is now strong and has no signs of weakness. He is still on phenobarb but only 2 pills per day. I don't know how old Helo is but would guess 7 or 8 but he acts much younger and it is so wonderful to not have seizures that it was well worth putting him on KBr and it isn't very expensive. A bottle of the liquid lasts us 3 months and only costs $48.
Whatever you decide to do I hope it works. I know how awful it is to go through a seizure with your beloved pup. I am still worried about Helo having another one. Each day that goes by without a seizure is a happy day for us.
 
#125 ·
What a horrible waiting game this condition is! I'm always torn between being glad that Barley hasn't had a seizure to watching him more and more closely with every passing day - basically anticipating the next one!

It's enough to drive us all loopy. I do hope that Rosie has settled now (and you too, of course). We were told that Barley was only just in the therapeutic range too and then he had his 3 seizures in one day. We have to go for blood tests now that his dose has increased to check that it is sufficient.

Poor you and poor Rosie - hang in there.
 
#127 ·
Never fear folks - my mad, hyperactive, embarassingly behaved retriever is back :D We are back to normal. Phew! Such a relief and it is so wonderful to see her pelt it across the fields and dive into the river!!!! Best sight to watch!! Now the waiting game.....if we don't manage longer this time I will repeat her bloods. We are due again in November but may need to do them sooner.

And thanks for the note about Potassium Bromide. It is on our a list but if Pheno can control it for now we will stick with it for now. I recently watched a lecture which said they have trialled both drugs as first line treatment and they still have much better success with Phenobarb alone compared to Potassium Bromide alone but obviously those that don't respond to just Pheno, do often respond to both together. It is a fine balance! And we are still fairly new to this so it is possible her liver has got more effective at breaking down the Phenobarb and this is why it may be in the lower end of the therapeutic range. Will be interesting to see her next blood levels.

Here is so seizure free days to all our dogs :) I am SO pleased to have my pup back again!! :D
 
#128 ·
We have diarrhoea again!!!!!! She barked at half 5 to be taken out for a poo!! And more at half 7 and a little more at lunchtime. So far no more........but once again I am terrified of the potential seizure........! I have a feeling I might not sleep so well tonight!!!!!!

I think I need to keep a diary of the diarrhoea as well, it must be getting more frequent!!! Anyone else have this unfortunate problem??????
 
#131 ·
Sorry to hear that Rosie has a poorly tum again.

Just a thought, a friend of mine has a 3 year old Blue Merle who used to get the 'runs' a lot. Over the space of about 6 or 9 months, he had loads of tests but nothing irregular could be found. She started him on just plain Chappie - that was about 6 months ago and (touch wood) he has been fine since.

Monty is now on the Laughing Dog Meal and plain Chappie, as suggested by Anne of the Canine Epilepsy Group, and to be fair, I do not think he has had a bout of it for some time. He also seemed to be prone to fairly frequent bouts of diarrhoea, with the worry of a fit to follow.

Hope Rosie was OK over night and this morning.
 
#134 ·
Thanks for asking folks, so far so good :) No seizures and we have normal bowel movements again :)

The diarrhoea episodes are definitely more frequent but they respond to a koalin paste very quickly. We have needed antibiotics a couple of times since Feb but only for 2/3 days. It is frustrating because before epilepsy she had diarrhoea ONCE in 2years!!!! Never had even loose bowels. It just seems too much of a coincidence. I spoke to the neurologist at RVC about it a few months ago and he suggested it is due to her extreme hunger brought on by the Phenobarb (and therefore eating things she shouldn't) as oppose to a direct side effect of the drug itself.....but either way it so frustrating!!! I am concerned to change her diet at this stage but going to monitor these bouts of diarrhoea from now on and see how we get on. On going worries!!!!
 
#135 ·
Just thought I would update you all. As much as I feel it jinx's it.....Rosie is on a good stretch at the moment. We had a scare in October. We went from monthly intervals to only two weeks. I got very nervous and was almost about to up the Pheno but decided to try and hold out as with both seizures the recoveries were fairly quick. Well it was the right decision and we went a month before we had a very strange afternoon - she seemed to be having partial seizures - but she will behave like this before a grand mal sometimes so it was a very odd afternoon - all she wanted was to be with me having cuddles (very unlike Rosie). Thankfully no grand mal developed and that was two weeks ago. No more since. And some more good news - she hasn't had diarrhoea for about 6weeks plus!!!! We have moved house early/mid October and we are now renting a farm, with 67 acres and I have one very very happy retriever :) I open the door first thing and she just runs and runs and runs. There are numerous rabbits to chase and no leads are required. She is so happy it brings tears to my eyes - and I am seriously wondering if her diarrhoea may have been caused by stress at our previous home as her life was so different there. In October I had her faeces tested for everything under the sun and it was all negative!!! So I've recently re-introduced all her old favourite treats like Dentastix which I was convinced was causing all her problems and so far so good.

Now if only seizures could be cured by a change in lifestyle!!!!
 
#138 ·
Bad news again, as is so common with this d*** disease.

Well we definitely had a full seizure last sunday though neither my partner nor I saw or heard it and we were both outside as was she. However recovery was good and things have been fine for a week. Then yesterday so a week later, we have a day of being very lethargic, quiet, cuddly Rosie so totally unusual behaviour. Then today was fine this morning but I had to leave her in the car for a few hours when I was on call at work and I got back to the car to find her tangled in the seat belt and very stressed and agitated but not our obvious - saliva dampened lips - which tell me for sure when she has had a full one. But she wasn't right and tonight we keep barking!!! Things are not ideal. And this is so frustrating. We go one step forward, two steps back. We did bloods in October and all was fine. I am starting to wonder about looking into her diet again, perhaps trying the diet trial the RVC in London offered us a few months ago. Things are just not where I want them to be and I feel so sorry for her. I wish I could watch her 24/7 but we all know that isn't possible and we need to have our own lives too.

Epilepsy sucks - for the dogs and for the owners!!!!!!!
 
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