LBass

I know the frantic feeling of watching your first seizure and am so sorry you had to face that. I think that dealing with it at night is especially hard. I always feel more alone if Piper is seizing at night. Best wishes to both of you. --Lucy

Sorry to be so slow getting back to this thread. I'm applying neosporin and watching the foot. Piper is not even limping. There is no swelling. He licks that toe occassionally but not often. I'm just watching at this point. Amazingly enough, he appears fine. I'm still not sure what happened. I know it happened when I was home and I suspect that it must have been in the yard because there have been no bloody messes located in the house. Nor in the yard, for that matter, but it is a big yard and I could easily have missed the evidence. Thanks for the info and reassurance. --Lucy

Thanks. I poured hydrogen peroxide over it as a way of cleaning and disinfecting. The bleeding has stopped. I've got a minimal wrap on it--a small gauze pad and baby sock to hold that in place. He is not limping yet. I suppose that might start tomorrow. I'll keep a close eye on the foot. Poor baby.

Piper and Winston came hurrying into the kitchen to get their CET chews and I turned around to find lots of bloody footprints on the kitchen floor. Piper's left rear leg's inner toe nail is completely gone! He seems perfectly oblivious. I'm going to clean it up, apply some disinfectant, and try to put a sock on it. secured with some vet wrap. What else should I be doing? Watching for? Should I rush to the e-vet or can this wait until Monday and my own vet? --Lucy

Amber, I'm so glad that you have a good working relationship with your vet. That helps so much when something this frightening is going on. Glad as wall that Soul is doing a bit better today. --Lucy

Awwwww. Soul is such a darling. Hoping that he is also a darling on the mend. --Lucy

Checking on Soul and you, Amber, and hoping that the current improvement holds and that you both have a peaceful, quiet, healing weekend. --Lucy and Piper

I know it will be great to have him home tonight and I'm sure he will be thrilled! Worry is for another day. --Lucy

Well, good blood work is good news. Fingers crossed that the ultrasound looks good too and that the Soulman will be on the mend. --Lucy and Piper

Good news indeed that Soul will be home tonight.

Congratulations! That is wonderful news. :confetti --Lucy

Checking in for news of Soul and sending you both much love and many prayers. --Lucy and Piper

Sending warm thoughts and healing prayers for poor Soul and worried Amber. --Lucy

I had the same fear with Piper but I've not found that to be the case. On meds, his seizures are farther apart and either less severe or about "normal"--the same severity. His are generally pretty violent but last only a couple of minutes. They always seem more spectacular when they start when he is standing up. The ones that start when he is lying down last as long and are probably as "strong" but somehow they don't seem as frightening. --Lucy

I too think that having a second seizure that soon is something to pay close attention to in deciding about treatment. Cluster seizures are usually defined as having more than one seizure in a 24 hour period. That is significant in part because clusters increase the risk of having your dog go into status epilepticus--that is a sort of non-stop seizure or one seizure after another with little recovery between them. Status is a true emergency and does warrant a rush to the e-vet. Here are links to some excellent resources about seizures in dog and some great support: www.canine-epilepsy.com the guardian angels site www.canine-epilepsy.net Piper's first known seizure occurred when he had been with me for 9 weeks. It happened late on a Friday night. He had 12 seizures that weekend, spread over Saturday and Sunday. He and I were both just exhausted and I was absolutely terrified. Five year later he still has seizures but they are several weeks apart. He still clusters but I'm usually able to keep it to 2 or 3. He is active, happy, and doing well. --Lucy

It does indeed sound like a seizure to me. That period of confusion and restlessness after a seizure is fairly common. IMO, a trip to your vet for a thorough check and base labs would be a good idea. It would also be a good idea to start a log--date, time, description of the episode, duration of the episode, any unusual situations in the last day or so (meds, new food, visitors, travel, etc.). There are many treatable health issues that can cause seizures so a thorough vet visit is really needed. The diagnosis of epilepsy is essentially arrived at by ruling out other possibilities. The seizure log will help you and the vet to determine if/when your dog may need to start medications to help control the seizures. Again, this is just my opinion, FWIW...I don't necessarily think that you need to rush to the emergency vet at this point. A single seizure is generally not an immediate crisis. What you do need to watch for and treat as an emergency is repeated seizures close together in time. This is indeed a medical emergency and would warrant a trip to the e-vet. Best wishes to you and your hound. --Lucy and Piper (6 weeks seizure free at the moment)

I know how terrifying seizures can be to witness. It does sound as if Picasso needs to be on meds to help get as much control as possible over his seizures, so I'm glad the adoption group will be following up on that. There is no shame in recognizing that the needs of a particular dog are just not a good fit for your family. --Lucy

Welcome to GT. You have a very handsome and regal looking boy there. --Lucy

That attitude is annoying, even though I think I understand what is behind it. When people feel passionately about any particular cause or issue, they sometimes have a hard time allowing other's the freedom to have a different passion., or to recognize that it is possible for some people to be passionate about more than one cause. The "I'm on my soapbox and I've got blinder's on" approach to life. They need to mature a bit, no matter what the calendar says. about their age I've run into a number of people who are surprised by Piper's epilepsy. I look at it as an educational opportunity. I always tell them that dogs can get just about any illness that people can and that the treatments can be surprisingly similar. I also find maybe a little corner of my self envying their blissful ignorance. Even if they are animal lovers, they've clearly never had a beloved animal who had a serious health issue. I hope they never do. --Lucy

I'm so very sorry for Brooke's loving and grieving family.

Argos is such a handsome boy! How heartwarming that he is roaching and playing and looking right at home from the very first. --Lucy

I'm so sorry that both of you are facing this heartbreaking situation. Bless you both. --Lucy

What a delight to read such positive news about your sweet girl this morning!

Checking on you and Henry. I'm so glad that he has made it 24 hours seizure free. I'm sure that is a huge relief. --Lucy

What Heather (Kennelmom) said. Piper's has always been in little glass vials and I draw it up as needed. It's kept in a zipper bag in Piper's kitchen drawer that contains all his seizure stuff. Hope that you find that it does the job for Henry.