 |
Lisa
and Gidget: Hi, my name is Lisa Zuris. I
along with my husband John, and kids Sean, Keegan & Brenna have been "owned"
by Gidget for three months. Here's the GETTING GIDGET story:
After
our 11 year old (adopted/rescued) French Bulldog died on Christmas Eve, we were
devastated. We tried to rescue another Frenchie but non were available at the
time...I sent out e-mails to breeders in the Northeast asking if they knew of any
available Frenchies for adoption or rescue. One wonderful breeder got in touch with
us. He is the president of a Frenchie rescue service, but wasn't planning on
"surrendering" Gidget. She was a big dog show winner with a promising
future but that was all over when she was diagnosed with epilepsy this past Fall. He
had planned on just keeping her as a pet, but decided to make her a personal placement to
us. I did lots of research on epilepsy before making the decision to have her as our
family member. HER story of epilepsy is this:
Her
first seizures occurred in about November. I don't know the details of the first
couple of her seizures, but they did advise medication at that time. In December she
had what her previous owner described as "two days of cluster seizures and that she
aspirated fluid, she developed pneumonia and they nearly lost her". At that
time they put Gidget on Pb (1/4 grain 2X day) and Kbr 1.5 of 250ml) and from then on
was seizure free until two weeks ago. Now it's OUR story:
Two
weeks ago she had what I'm calling/assuming was a petit mal after a particularly hot day.
It was an out of the ordinary hot week and I took her for a REALLY long walk
that evening and I blamed the seizure on the stress of the walking in heat, or perhaps
some dehydration (and myself of course). At 3:00 that a.m., we woke up to the sound
of her snorting and snorting (reverse sneeze ? sound). We realized she was having a
seizure, and it stopped rather quickly. Her postictal stage was brief too, lasting
only 10 minutes. She went back to sleep. Our vet said not to increase meds at
that time, to just wait and see. WELL...this a.m. (5/3/02) we have no
rhyme or reason why she seizured. But she had one at 2:30am, to tell the truth we
didn't even realize it was a seizure! She did alot of snorting like the seizure
two weeks ago, but it stopped quickly and she went back in her bed and went to sleep - and
so did we! Then at about 6:00am she did it again. AGAIN, we weren't
sure, but when she got up this
time, I went to take her for a walk, and I realized she was post-ictal. About 10
minutes later, she had another seizure - I'm still calling it petit mal - she never
came out of the post-ictal before this one started. Well, at that point I was
getting dressed going to take her the emergency vet (because of her terrible
clustering in the fall, I didn't know what to expect and didn't want to take any chances).
After the seizure was over, she was post ictal - pacing, sniffing, not wanting to
be touched, kinda wild eyed, dilated pupils, THEN SHE HAD THE GRAND MAL. Spun in a
circle hit the ground and convulsed. My kids were hysterical, even though I'd
pre-warned them, it's not the same actually seeing it, is it? My husband held her
gently through the convulsions and I got her to the emergency vet and they gave her a
double dose of Pb (IV), and an anti-inflammatory. They drew blood first,
though, so our regular vet could test it for proper med levels, we are waiting for those
results tomorrow or Monday. My
vet said next time after the first seizure try to give her a dose of her Pb, but I'm not
sure we'll be able to get the pill down! I remembered reading in you site
about the Rectally administered Valium and told the vet about that, but she didn't
know about it...so I got it from your website and passed it to her and him (a team of two
vets)...will see what they say about it. I don't know if it's premature to think
that Gidget would be a good candidate for the rectal valium. She takes Pb ¼ grain
2X day and Kbr 1.5 (250mg/ml) once a day – so far…
|
 |
Lois and Stout: Stout
is an Australian Shepherd born 7/19/94. His first seizure was 12/26/96. At my
insistence, he was given a thyroid panel and sure enough he is hypothyroid. I have
tried many things slowly, in order to reduce the number of seizures and the severity of
them. I feel that I have been successful since in 1998 he had a total of 33 seizures
and last year he only had 16 seizures...still I'm hoping for not as many seizures this
year. He is such a happy dog and I won't give up on Stout. I will keep trying.
Medications and
Food: 100 mg Phenobarbital, 1.7 cc potassium bromide and 0.4 mg Soloxine, twice a
day. Supplements include Ester C, Vit E, melatonin, Zinc, Vit B-complex,
kelp and lecithin.
|
 |
Lori and Tanner: Tanner was born May 9, 2000
and is a 2 1/2 yr old male "yellow" colored Australian Shepherd.(which isn't
very common). He is very sweet, gentle and a lot of fun. He loves to give kisses. You
can't get past him without one. He doesn't bark much, runs like a crazy man at the park
and is a total mama's boy. But believe me, he does have his bad moments. Sometimes I just
have to say "you're lucky you're so cute" :) Tanner just started having Grand Mal
seizures in October of 2002, at 2yrs 4 months old. He started with one seizure on 2
occasions, but after that has clusters almost monthly. He has had like 17 seizures in 3
months. I have yet to get the Vet or the Neurologist to prescribe Valium, but I am still
trying. For now, I will try Valerian Root and Rescue Remedy.
Tanner is everything to me and I am his world. I know we are going to get through this,
especially with the help,advice and complete support of the Angels. It is truly a blessing
to find them.
Medication and Diet: Just started 120mg of Phenobarbital and home cooked meals.
|
