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!!!! :-(
I'm so sorry that Rosie is having seizures again. It's so very hard to deal with this awful condition. We were lucky that my BF could be home with Charlie for the year that we fought his seizures. I don't know how we would have coped otherwise. Even so, we know that he had seizures when we couldn't be with him and that was simply a terrifying reality.
Holding you and Rosie gently in my thoughts and prayers,
Lucy
She wears a seatbelt for her own safety in the car. She usually isn't left in it for so long but occasionally she is for my work. She hates being left at work in a kennel and she really hates being left alone at home so I have no other option as this way she can be with me a lot and I can monitor her more closely. We didn't choose to have epilepsy so we have had to make some allowances. She absolutely adores being in the car so she is happier there. When I say tangled, she just wasn't settled fast asleep and her harness was more twisted up - the bit which attaches to the seatbelt so I could tell she had been unsettled. It cannot choke her, it is a harness. I wish I could spend all day at home with her but life isn't like that. I do know what I am doing and I do not neglect my dog. Most of the time the car is parked right by where I am working and I can keep a very close eye on her.
Thank you for your concerns, she has improved and I hope this is the end of it for a little while. I did realise her tablets are coming to the end of their shelf life so that may be contributing.
Sorry to hear Rosie is having a few problems again. Monty too has been having episodes quite frequently (about every 2 weeks) for the last 4 months. I fear that the Keppra is no longer working with him.
It is very difficult to keep an eye on them continuously and sometimes you have to just do the best you can. You do have to carry on with your life as well.
Hope Rosie holds her own. Since starting KBr Tailer has only had a couple...single seizures. The Pheno could not do the trick if he had the runs...it lasts only 12-18 hours. The KBr lasts days! I'd add that if I were you...
As far as he car goes...Tailer love to go and does everyday with me...sometimes he is in the car for hours...windows down, just hanging out.
So sorry to hear Rosie hasn't been doing so well. I do hope you find something that has a positive effect soon Lucy. It must be so very difficult for you, coping with her condition and balancing the necessities of life and work. She is really lucky to have you on her side.
Sending you very best wishes for a happy healthy Christmas week,
Lyn
Hello, just thought I would update you all, it has been a little while.
We weren't good in January at all. We had full seizures and partial seizures. She would lie on the rug by our fire and her leg would twitch - she would wake up, look at it and then lie back down. Then it would happen again. It was horrible. I took bloods again, all fine. I phoned the neurologists at RVC in London who gave me the two options I knew but I couldn't decide which one. Unfortunately they couldn't tell me which one either, only guide me. We could up the Phenobarb from 90mg twice a day to 120mg twice a day or introduce KBr.
Her Phenobarb levels were already 25. They suspected if I uped it again, we would be in the low 30s. They don't like it over 35 but I was worried about going over 30 at all in such a young dog, we needed a long term solution hopefully, not a short term fix which I new the Pheno would give us. However, she was used to Pheno and we were managing the side effects.
So I considered KBr. Unofficially, they told me they are highly suspicious that KBr is better for controlling partial seizures than Pheno, it has yet to be fully proven however. I was concerned about the length of time till it was therapeutic and therefore giving her the bigger loading dose could be an option but I was worried about causing her too much ataxia in her hindlegs. And that only 4mths ago we were dealing with intermittent chronic diarrhoea - which I REALLY did not want to come back when adding KBr. And I was really worried about 'using up' all our drug options too early on.
I was in totally confusion as to what to do. The seizures were every other week with partial ones in between. It was heartbreaking to see. I really didn't know which option to do. So I asked everyone at work - no joke - half the vets said up Pheno, half said add in KBr. I didn't know what to do for my beautiful girl.
Eventually I decided on KBr. I want to conserve the pressure on her liver for as long as possible and I decided she was already well in the therapeutic level for Pheno. We can always up that again at some point and I would rather have both at fairly mid range doses, than one at a very high dose. So we started on 750mg a day of KBr - split up by 250mg in the morning and 500mg at night. Spliting up the doses I was hoping it would prevent any diarrhoea. It has no side effects on the liver and I decided to risk starting her on a low dose rather than loading her with it for a more instant effect. So we have been on it about 5 weeks now. So far so good. Our last one was just over 3 weeks. Partial seizures have for the moment gone. I am worried about jinxing it all.....but so far I am pleased with my decision. She still won't really be at the fully therapeutic level till April but she is happier and I am. We had no side effects of the KBr at all, except a further increase in hunger..........we are managing that - it's more that she just forgets ALL her training and will barg into rooms to get to the bins!!!!
So there we are. I was devastated that the Phenobarb honeymoon didn't last longer :-( I knew things were getting worse in Nov and Dec but it took me a few weeks to accept it. The joys of having an epileptic dog - I wouldn't wish it on anyone!!!!!!! But for the moment I have Rosie back again, full fitness and happy and for that I am grateful.
It's good to hear from you again! I'm so glad that Rosie is better and more herself. Thank you for the update and sharing your perspectives on the drug options.
In hopes of easing your worries a bit, our Seizures 101 thread has information on several other drugs besides Pheno and KBr that are used to control seizures in dogs. For example, zonisamide is thought to be effective in controlling focal/partial seizures and certainly helped Charlie. Here's a site that discusses some other drugs: Newer options for medically managing refractory canine epilepsy - Veterinary Medicine. At least on Forum pup has been on a combination of three seizure meds for several years now.
Loving and caring for a seizure dog is never easy. We invest so much in them and it changes us - probably forever. Maybe our hearts grow.
Holding Rosie and you in my thoughts and prayers,
Lucy
That is fabulous that she is doing better. She is so lucky to have you as her mom..someone who loves her so much and is giving her the best possible care. I hope she continues to be seizure free!
Sorry you've had a bad time Lucy, but it's good to hear from you. I hope Rosie responds well to the additional meds and we hear positive reports back in the future.
Sorry to hear Rosie has not been so good recently, but hopefully she will settle down again once the Kbr gets fully into her system. I think I would have gone the same way. The effect on the liver does worry me with the pheno.
All is good in Rosie's world! I have actually forgotten when her last seizure was (it's on the calendar but it wasn't this month....) and she is HAPPY :-D We had a rather unpleasant bout of diarrhoea last weekend (due to discovering a lovely dead rabbit in the field) and she had her vaccinations yesterday. So far so good. Both possible triggers which we have manage to pass for the moment. We even had a big pressure drop in the weather a couple of weeks ago and I was tenterhooks but we were fine.
Didn't stop me waking up at 3:30am this morning because I heard a very faint dog bark.......my heart races, I lie there for a minute thinking.....is that Rosie......then remember that her barks are VERY LOUD esp. post seizure and I try and get back to sleep........she is a worry but I need to try and stop worrying and just enjoy every minute. She isn't allowed to look at me oddly without me questioning it!!! Or twitch her legs or when she didn't eat all of her chew on Friday night (almost unheard of!!). I can't help but worry.
So meds are the same for now and her last bloods a few weeks ago were fine. LONG MAY IT CONTINUE!!!!!!!!!! :-D She deserves it :-D
great to hear from you and even better to hear Rosie is doing so well. I remember only too well the slightest little noise would have had me on red alert too.
Thanks for the update. Good to hear Rosie is doing well.
I don't think that feeling that you get in the middle of the night on hearing ANY noise from a dog will ever leave you after having an epi dog. Even on the odd night when we are away from home without Monty, if I hear any sound I immediately jump up and think is that Monty - is he OK?
Also I get worried too when the pressure drops low as Monty has had a good many fits when that has happened and yet there have also been many occasions when the pressure has dropped and he has NOT had a fit. Just seem to go round in circles. There can be so many triggers. I guess anything that can cause stress of any sort can trigger a fit.
So my dearest Rosie has made another insurance claim..................
Last week she had to visit her referral centre again.....in November she started gagging/retching and eating grass to try to clear it. It came on vv suddenly and she soon developed a very high temperature and was salivating profusely. She thankfully responded to antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. We did however discovered she had a puncture mark to her soft palate in her mouth..........so who knows what she had eaten which set this off....a stick maybe???
Any way 3mths later all has been well when the same symptoms returned again!!! This time she wasn't poorly with it thankfully but she would eat anything (not just grass) to try to clear this irritation in her throat....so she ate some of my car seat cover!!! I thought it had all passed through........well because these gagging symptoms wouldn't settle down I booked her for a workup with the referral centre basically to "hunt the stick" which I was worried was still there.....
She's had a camera down her lungs, oesophagus and behind her soft palate. A CT scan of her head, neck and chest. Full bloods. Basically they found an old aspiration pneumonia in her chest (not significant so probably did this during a seizure), remains of my seat cover in her stomach which they removed with the scope thankfully and an inflamed nasopharynx (throat) but no reason whatsoever for these symptoms. So we have no idea why she is doing this or what triggers them off....!!!!!!
So many £££££'s later we are still non the wiser and guess what.....she hasn't done the symptoms since....!!!!!!!!! I was concerned they were partial seizures but it wouldn't fit with her soft palate puncture or the previous temperature she had. Very odd!!!
Thankfully she got through a sedation and a general anaesthetic and we are now OVER 2 months since her last seizure :-D The longest we have gone in, I can't even remember :-D
Congratulations on the long period between seizures! And I'm sorry that Rosie continues to cause you worries and vet bills for other problems.
Long ago, our family vet told me that gagging and wrenching can be a sign of an abdominal tumor. That saved Charlie's life when he was about 7 years old. An ultrasound revealed a tumor on his spleen, which was removed the next day and was blessedly benign. The doctor who did the ultrasound questioned why he was called right up to the second when he saw the tumor. The surgeon wondered why in the world he had to operate on a perfectly healthy dog...except that the ultrasound images told the story. That's all because I happened to remember a chance remark by our vet. Charlie lived almost 6 more mostly-healthy years.
Glad to hear that Rosie has been seizure free for a couple of months, I hope it stays that for you!
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Golden Retriever Dog Forums
2.8M posts
62.5K members
Since 2005
A forum community dedicated to Golden Retriever owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeds, training, puppies, food reviews, service animals, and more.