LBass

I'm so sorry. --Lucy

Pat, I am so sorry your wonderful boy had to say goodbye. --Lucy

As others have said, head to the vet ASAP. Her seizures may have reached a point where she will need medication OR there may indeed be something else, like vestibular disorder, going on. We'll be anxious right with you for news from your vet visit. Lucy with Piper, 2 1/2 days seizure free

I've had great luck with the Wiggles Wags and Whiskers harness from 2Hounds. http://www.2houndsdesign.com/Harnesses-Tag-Collars-c-13.html I am now using the harnesses for all 3, though originally I only had one for then-spooky Spirit. --Lucy

That sounds like a good plan. I hope you'll like the neurologist and that she'll be able to help get more time between those seizures. --Lucy

What a great dog and a charming character. I'm so sorry that his family and you, his beloved friend, face the grief of saying goodbye to Tucker. --Lucy

I know just what you mean. When Piper's seizures first started, every odd noise (and lots of perfectly normal ones ) brought me to high alert, busy checking to see if Piper was going to have another seizure. Even now, it is amazing how quickly I can go from sleep to purposeful action when he does seize. FWIW, the panic and fear have gotten much better. Having a practical routine that kicks in during seizures helps me stay calm. Best wishes to you and Ez. --Lucy ETA: I will also add that at one point during a long cluster episode, I took Piper to the emergency vet. When I went back the next morning, the e-vet was horrified at the awful seizure Piper had while he was there. I waited in rising panic for what she would say. As she described the seizure, I found myself relaxing--it was just his normal type of seizure. It is amazing what we can learn to handle for our hounds when we have to.

Oh I'm sorry for poor Ez and for you. Have you tried giving a small meal after the seizure? It may not help Ez but that seems to help my Piper settle down after he has a seizure. Also, on the rare occasion that that I can't stay with Piper to watch for a cluster, my vet will keep him for the day. There is a small charge but such an arrangement might help since you've got a medical appointment yourself. --Lucy

Treating a hypothyroid dog who has seizures may help control the seizures...if they the low thyroid contributed to them. Piper takes Soloxin and seems to genuinely need it but it does not seem to have made any difference at all in his seizures. So very glad to read that Hero's histocytoma is benign! --Lucy

I'm just now seeing this and I'm so sorry you and Hero experienced that frightening seizure. You've had loads of good advice and have already been pointed to those great web sites--they were a real life line for me when Piper's seizures started. He began to seize at about 2 years of age and has dramatic tonic-clonic seizures (the current name for grand mal seizures). He also tends to cluster. When he clusters his seizures are generally 3-4 hours apart. That makes rectal valium of limited help for him--it is fast acting and is best used for clusters when the seizures are 30-45 minutes or closer together. Daily Piper takes 2 1/2 grains of Phenobarbital (Pb) and 800 mg of Potassium Bromide (KBr). For him, the Pb gave him slightly milder seizures and adding the KBr to the Pb seemed to give us more time between seizure episodes. When he has a seizure he gets an additional 1 1/2 grains of Pb and 10 mg of valium (orally in pill format). This combo is given every 6 hours until he has gone 12 hours without a seizure. This combo has kept him from having a cluster series for about a year and a half, so far. After a seizure it helps Piper settle down if I give him a small meal. He seems to actually prefer a meal of his regular food to anything else. I sometimes add a cooked egg. Managing seizures is really as much art as it is science. You may need to experiment with a variety of approaches to find out what works and doesn't work for Hero. On the positive side, most dogs lead happy active life in spite of seizures. Unfortunately, there are loads of GTers with way too much experience managing epilepsy. --Lucy

Welcome to GT. Your Ted surely is a handsome boy. --Lucy

Donna, hugs for you . I can imagine how worried you are for your handsome boy. --Lucy

Here is a link to some information about the rectal valium protocol: http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/diazepamprotocol.html and another that includes oral valium: http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/OralandRectalProtocol.htm One of the things that makes seizures so hard to manage is that somehow things just don't stay the same. Predictability would be so welcome, but it just doesn't seem to go with the territory. Things may cruise along one way for a while but eventually something new crops up, with all the disquiet that causes. For instance, for the first 5 years of seizures with Piper I could count on the fact that he'd be up on his feet--clumsy and confused but on the move--within about 30 seconds of the end of a big tonic-clonic seizure. Then about a year ago that changed. Now he lies quietly, breathing heavily for a full minute or two. I found that rather alarming at first, but it just seems to be par for the course now. For most of that time as well, I could be pretty sure he'd have 7-10 weeks between seizures. In the last few months they are coming more like every 3-6 weeks. Not such a benign change but I suspect it is just the "new normal" for Piper and me. Warm good wishes to you and your boy --Lucy

All of your hounds are gorgeous but, Uncle Royce?! Wowzer, look at that amazing face!

Oh dear. I'm just catching up on this thread now and I am sure you are frantic with worry. Fingers crossed for your boy. Let us know when you can what your vet says. My Piper can cluster. When he does it is usually 10-12 seizures, one about every 3-4 hours over 2+ days. It is just awful for him and for me. For a long time I used liquid valium given rectally to try to break that cluster cycle. What I finally realized was that the value of the rectal valium is that it get into the system very quickly. Unfortunately, it is gone very quickly too. It is most effective with seizures that are coming one right on top of the other--w/in 30-45 minutes of each other or sooner. Piper's seizures were always farther apart so I finally realized that rectal valium probably wasn't helping him. My wonderful vet consulted with a neurologist and gave me a new plan to follow to stop those awful clusters. Now when Piper has a seizure I give him an additional Pb tablet and a 10 mg Valium tablet every 6 hours in addition to his normal 2 1/2 grains of Pb every 12 hours. That approach has kept him from having a cluster episode for over a year. In the past, I could always count on a big cluster episode each summer. At this point, he is still having single seizures but they are coming more frequently. I too am about to get his Pb and KBr levels checked again to see if he needs a change in his dosage. This business of managing seizures keeps us constantly on our toes, doesn't it. --Lucy

I have seen a similar phenomenon in Piper, my epileptic 8 year old. With him, I am reasonably certain it is a minor type of seizure--a partial or a focal seizure. With Piper, if I call his name and he engages and looks over at me the shaking stops. Sometimes is starts again and sometimes it doesn't. A good plan would be to record the dates/times/symptoms of the episodes in a log--you may be glad of the history later--though these don't seem to be serious spells for Piper. How nice too that you can speak to your vet about the episodes. --Lucy

That is such an encouraging update to read! Sounds like you are on the right track with Rufus.

Aw, bless his heart (and your too). Piper is pretty much chronically clumsy and ataxic from his combo of PB and KBr.

Piper came to me as a 2 year old and, after an amazing array of chewed up items (books, blinds, boxes wicker, fruit, paper, pillows and on and on ), I started to muzzle him when I left the house. He's 8 now and a couple of years ago I experimented with leaving him home without the muzzle. He did fine! No chewing and no destruction. So, there is certainly hope that as your hound matures the need for the muzzle may end. --Lucy