Ruff Times

I didn't have the best Memorial Day weekend I'm afraid. My little buddy of the past 16 years experienced her first full blown seizer. It happened early Sunday morning and I really don't want to go into details on it because it bothers me to even think about it. I'll just say that it was a bad one. It lasted roughly 2 minutes and when she came to, she spent the next 15 minutes in complete shock running thru the house. She was literally climbing the walls, trying to bite me, knocking things over and making a very weird yelping noise - one that I never heard from her before even when she was hurt.

I immediately called the vet asking what to do and if I could bring her in. Of course since it was a Sunday, the regular vet's office is closed. So I was referred to one of the local animal hospitals. It wasn't exactly close by, but I found it ok and took about 20 minutes to get her there. By the time I arrived with her, she had finally calmed down and was more like herself. It was hard even getting her into the car because she was freaking out so much that she wouldn't even let me put the collar and leash on her. Instead I carried her with scratching and all.

To make a long story short since I'm not really in the mood to do a post on this, the doctor ran some blood work to try and determine what caused the seizure - after poisoning, head injury and a few other things were thrown out as a possible causes. The blood work came back fine with the exception of her kidney reading being just slightly low. I was told that is probably normal due to the fact she was a little dehydrated. Although the low reading on the test could be an early sign of kidney disease (which by the way is what our family cat died of a few years ago, not a pretty/good way for a pet to go). Since the blood work didn't tell us much, it is probably safe to assume that the seizure was caused by something in the brain. Therefore, at least for now, the vet diagnosed her with a "brain lesion". Even worse, it may also be a brain tumor that caused the seizure.

The thing is vets don't really have an answer on this. They can run an MRI on her (I hate to even think what that would cost), but all that would do is tell you what happened in the brain - what was affected. It won't really solve the problem and what good is it for me to know the exact cause if they can't fix it? Frustrating and very depressing. I'm hoping it's nothing that serious. She is old, so perhaps it will be a one time occurrence and that will be it. For now she is taking 2 different meds, one for the seizures and the other is a steriod. Then I have to take her to my regular vet in 2-3 weeks to see how she is doing. The good news is that I did get to take her home that day and she was fine the rest of Sunday and Monday. I always knew I was pretty attached to my dog. I mean I've had her since I was a kid, so it's expected. I just realized how much I do love the little fuzz ball when this happened. I know I can't stay at home and baby-sit her constantly, but for now I'm trying to stay home as much as I can, take her with me when I go out or check in on her. I guess I'm just a worried "Dad", but I have good reason to be I think.