Phaelin Had A Seizure Last Night

[greypuppyluv]

I woke up at 1am last night/this morning to Phaelin having a grand mal seizure. My poor guy.....it took him about an hour to finally settle down afterwards and he's doing ok right now, but I just feel so bad for him going through that. This is the first time he's ever had a seizure. Jenny's (sweetgsmom) greyhound, Aidan, has had seizures for a few years now and she and I have talked quite a bit about them, so I was prepared when Phaelin had his, but it was still unsettling.

 

I have an appt with Phaelin's vet on Sunday, although I know at this point there's nothing the vet can do. I made the appt so that the vet will have the info on file in case Phaelin has any more seizures.

 

Once I'm more awake, I'll be checking out the seizures threads here on GT for more information.

[Guest luckydog]

A vet appt is very important, especially if the vet finds a reason for the seizures. Even if the seizure are idiopathic in nature, there are medications that the vet can prescribe.

 

Good luck with this.

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Oh no, how scary! It's very upsetting to watch your hound have a Grand-Mal no matter how many times you have seen it or how prepared you are. Except for the very severest Grand-mals, I think the seizures upset us more than it upsets our hounds. Your vet will want to rule out a few things such as hypothyroidism and etc. If no cause can be found, please take heart that idiopathic epilepsy is very treatable. Henry started meds Oct. 5th, and has not had a Grand-mal since!

 

Do you know about the ice pack trick? I found it significantly cut down that crazy post-ictal stage. For Henry it worked very well 17 out of 20 times, worked only partially twice, and not at all once.

[grey14me]

oh no, how scary!! :hope

[greypuppyluv]

Because of Aidan's seizures, I've read about treating with an ice pack, and giving Haagen-Daz ice cream afterwards, but I'll be going back and reading that stuff again. Thanks for the link.

 

A vet appt is very important, especially if the vet finds a reason for the seizures. Even if the seizure are idiopathic in nature, there are medications that the vet can prescribe.

 

Good luck with this.

Thank you. I know the vet will be very concerned about Phaelin having the seizure. It's been awhile since we checked Phaelin's thyroid, so I know he'll probably want to check that among other things. I just know that at this point, there isn't anything they can "do" for him to make him better besides testing. That's what I meant to say when I said there's nothing the vet can do, but I'm just so darn tired (and have a headache to boot ) that I didn't really word that very well.

[Guest LoveMyJoseyBean]

What a scary way to be woken up! I hope all turns out well at the vet. Prayers for Phaelin.

[carronstar]

Sending lots of good thoughts and prayers for Phaelin.

[sweetdogs]

Oh no! I was just reading Phaelin's beach thread & admiring his beautiful self. I hope everything works out at the vets & that he doesn't have any more. from one Faolin to another. (Faolin says that's an ear lick, KNOT a kiss ! )

[patricia]

Sending prayers....I know how horrible it is to watch them seize. Keep a diary of all seizure activity...and add to it any new foods...any stress...anything unusual in his schedule. Your vet will run some labs. When Angel Cody Angelo had his first seizure he did not seize again for almost a year...after vet visits...lab work...we monitored him. They eventually became more often and he started medication which held him pretty well...he would still have break through seizures but they weren't real often.

[ShantisMom]

How scary Paula! Glad you knew what to do. Was this the first time? We will keep him in our thoughts.

[greypuppyluv]

How scary Paula! Glad you knew what to do. Was this the first time? We will keep him in our thoughts.

Yes, this was the first time. It really scared him. He wouldn't settle down afterward unless I laid on the floor with him. Then he draped his front legs over my head.....I guess it made him feel better to be touching me.

[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

[Guest greyt2love]

I'm so sorry . I know how it feels to wake up to that. Thank goodness we have been able to get Caesar pretty well contolled and he no longer has the violent seizure he did in the beginning. Good thoughts to both of you and hoping that this was an isolated incident.

 

Deb and Caesar

[Guest akgs13]

my son has seizures, the effects from them can last for a few weeks, the Drs. have mentioned that dehydration can cause one. That is not the case in my son, but I have smart water on hand if he does not seem to be drinking as much.

I will be thinking for your guy and hoping this was a one time event.

[GreyWrangler]

Sending prayers....I know how horrible it is to watch them seize. Keep a diary of all seizure activity...and add to it any new foods...any stress...anything unusual in his schedule. Your vet will run some labs. When Angel Cody Angelo had his first seizure he did not seize again for almost a year...after vet visits...lab work...we monitored him. They eventually became more often and he started medication which held him pretty well...he would still have break through seizures but they weren't real often.

 

A log/Diary is a good idea.

 

Write down everything he had to eat that day while you can still remember.

 

Food can be triggers.

 

A definite trigger for Red is shrimp, even other foods cooked in the same oil, licking the plate.

 

He had seizures three nights in a row after having french fries cooked in the same fry oil.

Seizures the same night dad cooked some shrimp.

 

He takes Phenobarb twice a day every day.

Diazepam after having one to break any cycle that might develop.

The Ice Pack does shorten the actual seizure, but not the post-ictal phase.

Any high cal food will bring their Blood Sugar levels back up, we use mashed potatoes and gravy.

 

Scary thing to witness and you feel so Helpless while they are locked into their seizure.

 

[Guest EmilyAnne]

...The Ice Pack does shorten the actual seizure, but not the post-ictal phase.

....

By shortening the seizure,(at least the crazy violent part) you shorten the post-ictal. For Henry it shortened the violent part of the seizure, but didn't totally end it.

 

Before we knew of ice-pack trick. Henry's post-ictals were INSANE. He would run very fast in the yard, smacking into the garage, and then smacking into the fence, (couldnt stop him if I tried) and then trying to climb onto kitchen counter and and etc. So for Henry ice pack really made a difference in post-ictal.

 

My understanding is, the more the body overheats during the seizure, the worst the post-ictal. The most overheating happens during the violent part. The post-ictal pacing is needed to cool down. Kind of like if you do a vigorous work out, you need a cool down right?

 

Also, seizuring burns up a lot of calories, so your grey will be very hungry after a Grand-Mal. I always feed Henry an extra meal after the Grand-Mal is over and he is coherent enough. I feed small amounts at a time or he'll wolf it down too fast.

 

Anyways, yes, keeping a food/seizure journal is a very good idea. Triggers will be different for each dog. One very common trigger does seem to be stress. Another trigger that is not quite as common but still fairly common is Flagyl, an antibiotic. A definate trigger for Henry, but a few epi-dogs do ok with it. Chicken and eggs are triggers for Henry. Raw fish is also a common trigger, due to thiaminase. Since you ave no way of knowing for sure if a particular batch of raw fish has no thiaminase, it's best to play it safe and avoid it.

 

[Guest tricolorhounds]

Sending tons of good thoughts that it was just a once in a lifetime event.

[greypuppyluv]

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

Thank you. Luckily (for Phaelin, at least), over the past year or so, I've been talking with Jenny about Aidan's seizures, so I was more prepared to deal with this than if we hadn't been talking. I had to explain what was happening to my dh.....at first, he didn't know what was going on. He later told me he thought Phaelin was going to die.

 

Sending prayers....I know how horrible it is to watch them seize. Keep a diary of all seizure activity...and add to it any new foods...any stress...anything unusual in his schedule. Your vet will run some labs. When Angel Cody Angelo had his first seizure he did not seize again for almost a year...after vet visits...lab work...we monitored him. They eventually became more often and he started medication which held him pretty well...he would still have break through seizures but they weren't real often.

 

A log/Diary is a good idea.

 

Write down everything he had to eat that day while you can still remember.

 

Food can be triggers.

 

A definite trigger for Red is shrimp, even other foods cooked in the same oil, licking the plate.

 

He had seizures three nights in a row after having french fries cooked in the same fry oil.

Seizures the same night dad cooked some shrimp.

 

He takes Phenobarb twice a day every day.

Diazepam after having one to break any cycle that might develop.

The Ice Pack does shorten the actual seizure, but not the post-ictal phase.

Any high cal food will bring their Blood Sugar levels back up, we use mashed potatoes and gravy.

 

Scary thing to witness and you feel so Helpless while they are locked into their seizure.

It's interesting you mention seafood. I was talking with a friend earlier today and she mentioned her dog having seizures after she gave the dog a new treat. It then dawned on me that I had just opened a new bag of salmon treats 2 days ago. Phaelin has had these treats in the past with no issues, but now I'm wondering if there was something in (or having to do with) this particular bag that caused the seizure. I won't be giving him these treats anymore and I'm really hoping that this was the cause of the seizure. I will definitely mention all this to the vet on Sunday.

 

I will be keeping a log of his food and activity level for the future. I've already had to do this for my migraines, so it shouldn't be a problem keeping one for him too. Thank you for mentioning it.

 

Sending tons of good thoughts that it was just a once in a lifetime event.

I sure hope so. I did appreciate Katie PMing me today with her good wishes. You've got yourself a pretty neat daughter.

[4greyhounds]

I know that must have been very scary. We are sending prayers and hugs....

[Patclara]

I hope that this will be a one time, weird, not happening again event.

Been there , but not with a Greyhound.

It scared the **ap outta me.

But, it never happened again with Molly Bloom, our tiny poodle girl.

Some good words to hear, "it's the fish".

 

[crazygang]

Sending good wishes...........poor fella hope it's just the one and no more ever again

[ShantisMom]

Paula are you able to get down to the vet? They are closing a lot of freeways!!! Make sure you check those. Hopefully this will be under control by tomorrow and Phaelin sees the vet and gets a good report!

[greypuppyluv]

So far, we don't need to use the areas of the freeways that are closed because of the fires. The northbound 57 right behind us is closed, but the vet is in the other direction.....thank goodness.

 

I hope Scott will stay safe with all these fires raging.

[ShantisMom]

Good. Scary! Scott just left for the station.

[ShantisMom]

We are thinking of you guys today. Keep an eye out on the freeways. They keep opening and closing them as the fire shifts. Let us know what the vet says.