Wierd Incident

[Guest greygirls2]

We had an odd occurance yesterday while walking. It was not a hot morning,about 57*, not overly humid, slight breeze and overcast. We were on our regular morning walk and at the half way point of the return trip Laci just suddenly stopped.....I mean stopped cold, wouldn't move at all. My friend was walking her and I went right over, Laci was hunched up in the back, her head was tilted down and slightly over to the right side and she began to tremble a lot. She was clearly disoriented and didn't seem to hear me talking to her, she wouldn't make eye contact. Her gums were pink, not red, eyes equal and reactive, nose cold & wet, her heart was racing but i think that may have been from fright, she was not even panting. She never fell to the ground but she was extremely unsteady and had a lot of trouble trying to walk so I was holding her by the top of her harness for support. We took my friend's 2 1/2 yr old granddaughter out of her stroller and I lifted Laci in. Of course she wouldn't sit or lie down so I walked along side holding her steady. After about 5 min. or so she started to perk up and wanted out of the stroller but when I went to lift her out she just hopped out on her own. She was walking slower than usual but much better and she was now alert. By the time we reached the parking lot she was back to her old self and you'd never know there'd been anything wrong. We got home and she went right out to the play yard but I wouldn't let her run. Any one have some insight to what his could have been.....seizure maybe?? Could it be some kind of mini stroke even though there seems to be no residual effect? I am at a loss and the vet says to just keep an eye on her and document. We walk about 3 - 4 miles a day when it's cool enough and I'm scared to death this will happen while I'm alone with all 3 dogs then what will I do? I think I want to have a senior blood panel done.....she just turned 6 in May.

[TheFullHouse]

It sounds like it could have been a seizure. All you can do now is keep documenting any future incidents if there are any. Most vets won't treat seizures unless your hound has more than one a month.

[Guest greygirls2]

Great....that's what I was afraid of. I hope it's going to be a one time occurance!

[Guest eaglflyt]

What you describe sounds like a seizure. Contact your vet and let them know and follow their advice.

[Guest greytbookert]

Hi Sheila!

 

I have no experience but wanted to wish you and Laci good thoughts that this won't happen again!

[Guest BrianRke]

I have a lot of experience with seizure dogs and I agree that it sounds like a mild seizure. You may want to give your vet a call and get his/her opinion.

[Batmom]

Could equally be a stroke.

[mychip1]

Just sending good thoughts your way.

[Guest greygirls2]

But would a stroke resolve in just minutes with no residual effects like that? Once she snapped out of it, she was completely back to normal. Right now I am just on edge watching for any little abnormality in her stance, gait, personality etc. Very stressful to say the least not to mention I'm thrilled it's raining today so we won't be walking. I've just gotten back to being comfortable walking alone after Diamond's attack 2 years ago....now this. I don't always have people to walk with either I was just lucky two of my girlfriends were with me and the baby stroller was available. Even at 55lbs Laci was heavy to lift in her state so I sure wouldn't been able to carry her the distance back to the car. But my dogs love their morning walks so I really can't deprive them all of that either....sigh.

[Guest greygirls2]

I made an appointment for Laci to have a check up with the vet tomorrow at 1pm. They probably won't be able to tell what the problem ws but I'd just feel better having her checked out. Thanks for everyone's good thoughts and insight. I'll update the post if anything shows up.

[Pepsi2004]

It sounds like it could have been a seizure. All you can do now is keep documenting any future incidents if there are any. Most vets won't treat seizures unless your hound has more than one a month.

 

 

I agree - Pepsi's first seizures occured while she was eating and I thought she was choking on her kibble. Things eventaully progressed to the point that she would go down.My vet didn't require Pepsi to have a seizure/month before we started treating her. I would sure talk to your vet.

[Guest snakes]

It sounds almost EXACTLY like FedX's seizures, the only difference is FedX will keep track of where i am and try to follow (unsuccessfully) me if i leave him. In his seizures that is what I call a 'moderate' seizure, in a more severe one he slowly collapses to the ground, a milder one he just stops for a bit, i pet him and then half a minute later we are on our way again.

Our vet says as long as they don't have more than 3 per month there isn't much need to do anything.

[MP_the4pack]

Oh Sheila, I'm so sorry to hear about Laci.

 

While it does sound like a seisure, mild strokes can disappear just a quickly. Pearl had an episode where she acted drunk and her eyes were moving very quickly back and forth. I thought it was a vestibular problem, but called her cardiologist 'just in case'.

 

Turns out, it was a stroke caused by her BP. Somewhere along the lines we lost control of it and it was soaring. Luckily we got it back under control and she was check every 6 weeks after that.

[jshell]

But would a stroke resolve in just minutes with no residual effects like that? Once she snapped out of it, she was completely back to normal. Right now I am just on edge watching for any little abnormality in her stance, gait, personality etc. Very stressful to say the least not to mention I'm thrilled it's raining today so we won't be walking. I've just gotten back to being comfortable walking alone after Diamond's attack 2 years ago....now this. I don't always have people to walk with either I was just lucky two of my girlfriends were with me and the baby stroller was available. Even at 55lbs Laci was heavy to lift in her state so I sure wouldn't been able to carry her the distance back to the car. But my dogs love their morning walks so I really can't deprive them all of that either....sigh.

 

Something similar was happening to Betty Joan a couple of weeks ago. She could still walk, but would drag her feet. First on one side of the body, and then the other. One Wednesday morning, we were a couple of blocks away from home when this happened again - she tripped, was suddenly dragging her feet / not walking, and her eyes were going a little goofy. I still wasn't sure what was going on, so I lifted up her front legs to see how strong her back legs really were. When I set her back down, she seemed fine and we turned around and walked home. I went to work, thinking "if this shows up again, it's time to call the vet."

 

When I got home eight hours later, she was totally disoriented and unable to stand or move about very well (but somehow she made it up our stairs, and then fell off the bed). So we went to the emergency vet, where she ended up staying overnight. She was improving by morning, and I took her home that day. We didn't run any expensive tests as she seemed to be mending. We also did not put her on any medication at the time.

 

I've been told that she had something "like a stroke". It may have been vestibular syndrome. She has a follow-up visit with the vet today. It's been nearly two weeks since The Event, and she's improved a lot and is walking mostly normal (still drags her right legs, sometimes, but infrequently), although her eyes are still twitchy and her head tilts when she looks/stands a certain way. Since this is the first vet visit when we're not in crisis mode, I hope to get some good answers today about what happened to Betty, and I'll report them in this forum.

 

But the moral of the story is - yes, the dog can go back to normal quickly after one of these small events (Betty would), but they may be precursors to something bigger.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Jacey has had this sort of "absence seizure" on occasion. She usually can still walk, but doesn't respond to her name and can't eat while it's going on. Eyes are normal, breathing is a bit rapid, no other sign of trouble. But you know how a really frightened dog will stand very still, not look at you, not turn its head when you talk to it--just stand rigid and look off into the distance? (Sort of, "If I don't look at this person, I don't have to respond to anything.") That's Jacey. I'd call it "statuing" if it happened on walks, but she does it in the house...and she's not frozen and rigid. She'll walk with you if you tug on her collar.

 

As for the risk on future walks: if your vet doesn't find anything significant, future occurrences might be just like this one, with a duration of a few minutes. Be prepared to just sit it out, but keep your cellphone with you in case you need to call a friend--maybe someone with a car who can come get you and the gang if the event doesn't resolve itself in a few minutes. And keep a careful eye on your other dogs to make sure they don't bother Laci. If you don't crate your dogs when you're away from home, you might want to consider how to keep Laci separate from the other dogs--or muzzle the whole bunch when you can't be there to supervise. (My two are muzzled when I'm not home.)

 

Jacey had one episode at dinner time: scary when my dedicated chow hound stares at her dish like she doesn't know what it is or what she's supposed to do with it. I could pick up a piece of kibble and put it to her mouth, and she'd just stand there. Within a few minutes (two? less?) she was trying to eat: she'd get a mouthful of kibble, open her mouth to chew it, and all the kibble would drop out onto the floor. Another minute, and she was figuring it out. By the end of her meal, she was normal and responded eagerly when she heard me unwrap a piece of cheese. The vet did all the bloodwork he could think of, and none of her numbers were odd--or significantly out of whack in terms of previous bloodwork. Jacey was 7 at the time, and a little old to suddenly be developing epilepsy. Her events are rare--maybe once a month?--and she's not on any meds for it. But the vet gave me a prescription for valium to keep on hand in case she starts cluster seizures some weekend when only the e-vet is available. One "event" in 24 hours--no big deal; a second one merits a dose of valium; a third one will have us headed for the vet or e-vet or whatever.

 

There hasn't been a pattern to Jacey's episodes: not all the same time of day or the same length of time after a meal; usually there's been no unusual exertion. And sometimes it's just strange behavior: occasionally, she insists on standing the the bathtub. Same distant stare, same tucked tail. It's not storming (and she's not storm-phobic). A minute or two later, she climbs out of the tub and is fine.

[Guest Fasave]

I don't have experience with seizures but it sort of sounds like what would happen to my boy when he had bad abdominal cramps. He went through a complete neuro exam with two different neurologists (because I didn't like the first one) and was referred to an IM doc. It is also possible he was throwing small clots. I hope you find some answers and your pup feels better soon.

[Guest greygirls2]

So Laci went to the vet yesterday and he did a complete blood panel. her creatinine was on the high normal side and one liver value was high but that could be a result of her having been treated this spring for the Anaplasma. Nothing there that would trigger a sei

zure and they will just keep a watch on that. She'll go for a repeat blood in a month. I'll start her on milk thistle to aid her liver. He said the same thing as me.....could be a once in a lifetime event or the beginning of a series and only time will tell. Of course I am to document any other incidents or changes. He said he doesn't think it's hereditary epilepsy...though we have no idea of her family history, as that should have started before now unless it was so mild as not to be noticed. So this type of thing would be considered idiopathic IF it continues to happen. They won't treat for it unless she has another or more intense episode as this was considered very mild.