Sick puppy.Follow

So I freaked out tonight.

I was playing Infamous, minding my own business, and my dog jumped up on the couch next to me. She brushed by my foot and her mouth was all wet, so I thought she had just gotten a drink. A few minutes later, I looked down at her, and her mouth and chest were all wet, and she had bubbles coming out of her mouth. It wasn't thick white like foam, just bubbles. Like soap. I grabbed a towel and started wiping her mouth off, I called my husband and demanded to know if he'd thrown out some soap and missed the basket, and then I called my vet's office. They paged the on-call vet, and she called me back.

When I described my dog's issue to her, she asked me to check her gums, which were a healthy pink, and then told me that it would take her 30 minutes to get to the vet's office (and I thought, "then why the hell are you the on-call vet???") so she suggested I take Akira to the emergency animal clinic. After getting directions, I threw on the first pair of pants and a t-shirt I saw, and rushed out the door.

The emergency clinic checked her out, and all of her vital signs and her temperature were completely normal. By this time, she's incredibly excited that so many people are paying attention to her, she's wagging her tail and trying to catch the vet's hand. (The vet thought she was hilarious.) Turns out my dog probably had an epileptic seizure. Not a full blown, fall to the floor and shake seizure, but one that was just in her head. That's why she was drooling like an old man trying to gum a piece of steak.

Thankfully she doesn't need medication right now. I think it's possible she had a seizure back in May, and the vet said that if the episodes get closer together, we need to alert our vet and probably medicate her. So we just have to watch her for now.

My poor little girl.

It sucks when something's wrong with your pets--it isn't like they can tell you what's hurting/how they feel.

Hope everything goes okay, though.

There's some cutting edge research that says the base cause of epilepsy is overheating of the brain. The temperature regulation gets skewed somehow, the brain temperature goes up, and that causes the neural misfires, and hence seizures.

Anyway, not that it is formalised yet, but based on this research, I would be inclined to take steps to cool the head of someone/ some dog having an epileptic seizure. Such as carefully pouring cold water on the back of their head. Or maybe use a coldpack or bags of frozen food.

The lead scientist who produced this research said he recommends epileptics to shower with as cold as water as they can stand, especially when they are washing their hair.

One of our dogs has a similar issue. He's had probably a dozen episodes similar to what you're describing over his lifetime. We found that he was likely to have them in the morning if he went too long without eating, so we adjusted his meal times, and he has been fine for the most part. He's currently 11, so while it is pretty scary to witness, there's also the possibility that it's manageable.

I would suggest that if you don't have insurance for her and were planning on getting it, you should probably do so before establishing a pre-existing condition.

I wasn't considering it. Is it worth it?

Most definitely. If she ever needs surgery it can get surprisingly expensive. The flip side is having to put your dog down because you can't justify spending that kind of cash short notice. Doubly so for you since you're job hunting and moving.

I'm not sure you understand the idea of insurance, dude.

I'll have to look into it... My husband will be thrilled to learn of another expense for the dog he didn't really want.

Thanks, Spoonless!

Edited, Aug 1st 2011 10:28am by Belkira

You're right. I have no idea what insurance for, and am just getting defensive because I'm afraid of being wrong on the internet. I suppose I could have added "and you want to spend the money on diagnostics" after the statement about it not being worth it unless the animal is seriously ill. Also, I said "you" instead of "the animal" which is just silly, since pet insurance obviously doesn't not change its worth based on the owner's health.

Edited, Aug 1st 2011 12:13pm by Spoonless

You don't typically have expensive diagnostics run unless the pet is seriously ill.

I've worked for a vet as a tech for almost 20 years. Pet insurance is great, but be careful as to research the company and benefits. Some will only pay so much a year or lifetime for certain things. Some breeds have different limitations and each veterinarian has their own policies as to what they accept. Most people have insurance policies where the cost is paid up front by the owner and reimbursed, so you still need to be able to foot the bill. It is still very much worth it though.

A client came in just the other day who had adopted a 4 lb puppy and within a day had broken its leg. To pin the leg is going to cost almost $5000 when it's all said and done. She's glad she got insurance on the little guy, otherwise euthanasia is only a tenth of that cost.

Edit - Spoonless, if you go to a vet like the one I work for now, you get expensive diagnostics run for no reason. My boss who recently purchased the practice is a bit shady.

Edited, Aug 4th 2011 9:19pm by Brokenwheel

Yeah, but that was when you used to go to the local mercantile to buy a bolt of gingham for ten cents.





You are old.

Our dog used to get seizures as well, she seemed to get better when we started feeding her raw food. I'm not sure if it would be worth it for your puppy, but it may be worth exploring.