Very Worried About My Dog

[Booldawg]

I went to bed about 10pm and woke up at 10.30 as I thought I could hear my dog being sick downstairs.

When I got downstairs he was lying on the sofa having what I can only describe as an epileptic fit. His body was limp but he was frothing at the mouth.

That was half an hour ago. Since then he's been pacing around downstairs in a daze, his back legs keep going from under him and its like he doesn't recognise me. He is panting and continually pacing around in a state of confusion.

He's 12 years old and never had a history of fitting. I'm sure if its simple eplilepsy its treatable via medication?

[Peter Pedant]

vet I am afraid

be prepared for bad news .....

[wolf63]

Best wishes. You know in your heart that the outcome may not be good. It is never easy to say goodbye to loved family members.

[Booldawg]

Back from the vets. She said its uncommon for epilepsy to start in a dog of his age and there is more than likely an underlying reasons.

They've taken a blood sample to check various things and given us some anti-seizure tablets.

Thanks all for you kind words and advice, the sun is shining and he's out in the garden destroying a football! He's well enough in himself until the seizures start. Hoping the meds will help him.

[boxtops]

Thanks for the update, booldawg - we have been wondering about you both. Fingers crossed.

[quizzkid]

So pleased he has settled down. Hopefully the meds. will work and the blood tests come back ok. Keep us posted.

[Peaspeculiars]

Booldawg, I'm so pleased to hear he is knocking a football about! Sounds like he is still a happy dog :-)
Might be worth checking round the garden for anything nasty a bird may have dropped (berries) and cleaning out any external sources of water just in case?
All the best x

[Prudie]

Glad to hear all is reasonably OK, I was thinking about you this morning. Fingers crossed they find a treatable cause.

[chrissa1]

Pleased to hear that news.

[NoMercy]

Symptomatically it does sound epileptiform in nature, particularly with the dazed listlessness following the seizures.

I really hope he's back to full health soon.

[seekeerz]

Oh that is good news, bool, it's well past my bed time here but I've been waiting hoping there'd be an update ... Now I can turn in ( wouldn't have settled anyway )

Hope all continues to go well for all.

[seekeerz]

Btw what is his name ?

[berniecuddles]

aahh bless him give him a big cuddle for me x

[Booldawg]

His name is Saxon and he's a Staffie. We got him when he was 7 via someone who works at the same company as my wife. She'd split up with her husband and neither of them had time/space to look after him properly.

As the lady who previously owned Saxon works in an office about 100 miles away we did the very thing you're not supposed to and met halfway at a motorway service station!

It worked out from day one with Saxon. As soon as we got him home he settled straight in and came very well behaved. We had to encourage him to be a bit naughty sometimes as he wouldn't even get on the sofa for a cuddle!

[rockyracoon]

That's good news, hopefully the drugs will get him back to normal. Give him a big cuddle from me too.

[anneasquith]

I hope the medication helps until the vet has a diagnosis.

[2sp_]

Our beloved spaniel had a fit/stroke at the age of 11.

Vet put her on meds and she lived another 4 years happy and content with life.

Good luck with Saxon, I hope it all works out.

[pastafreak]

Just read this a little while ago. So glad you have some good news,and hopefully the meds will do the trick. We feel so helpless when our friends are so unwell.

[seekeerz]

Hey, don't give service stations a bad name, they're easy to find and have plenty of parking......lol

Seriously, good to hear Saxon is feeling more like himself and hopefully the meds will keep him so for a long time. Do keep us posted as news comes in.

The Down under pack send best wishes and a couple of bones they figure are surplus to requirements

[Booldawg]

Update: The blood test didn't show any organ damage that would attribute towards seizures. He's on Epiphen and not had a seizure in 24 hours since starting it. This is good as he had 3 seizures in 12 hours before.

He can hardly walk through through the house without his back end giving out 2 or 3 times. I have read that this is a side effect of the drug along with heightened hunger and thirst - he has all these signs. Didn't expect the lack of balance to be that bad, he also demonstrated these signs after having seizures before we started the drugs.

I want to see how he gets on after a few days on the tablets and maybe see if the vet can tinker with the dosage to get a balance between the severity of the side effects; the tablets seem to be doing the job, maybe a lesser dose will be easier for him to handle? Anyway back to the vets. They didn initially talk about an MRI scan to confirm brain damage.

[murraymints]

Hopefully it's just getting the drug dosage balanced...hope things improve x