Lucky Had a Seizure - 5 years old

[greydad92]

Hello all,

Our beautiful Greyhound Lucky Princess Peanut butter had a seizure today at the groomer. I got the call on my way to pick her up that they took her out of the tub and while drying for approximately 2 minutes she had a seizure. When I got there, they had her on a table and she was still having seizures, not convulsing or anything like that, just out of it, eyes rolled back, didn’t realize that it was there. Her limbs were lame. We picked her up put her in my car and I took her to vets. By the time I got to the vets, she was alert, still kind of out of it, but still could not use her legs.  Later took her to animal hospital where they said it could’ve been stroke or something like that to brain or spinal area. Still unsure, no MRIs yet or anything like that. When I left her for overnight stay at the hospital, she was definitely more alert, knew I was there, but could still not use her legs very well. As I got up to leave, she wanted to get up and follow me out, trying to use her legs, which is a good sign. So tonight, vet called me and said that she’s doing well, alert, but still not good on her legs. Just wondering if anyone out there had an experience like this. Not sure what it is at this point still, not sure how to treat or what to look out for. Very scary stuff as we’ve only had her for five months. She raced over in Ireland, flew over here and we got her in December 2021. No signs or history of seizures. Very healthy greyhound, playful, active. Just looking for some good advice and encouragement thank you

Sincerely,

Luckys Daddy

[Time4ANap]

If Lucky was more limp than thrashing during the event, it could be a vestibular incident. Typically seen in older dogs, but affects balance and ability to walk and is an inner ear/ middle ear disturbance. Our Petunia had an incident of this when she was 11. She got up out of her bed and crashed into a chair, walking like a drunken sailor and was unable to maintain her balance for about 15 minutes. It can mimic a seizure because they are so off balance and confused that they can't respond to you while it's happening.  We went to  the emergency vet. Within a few hours of arriving there, the vet called us to come and get her because she was complaining about the service there.   She never had one of these events again. Given your description with the legs, I'm thinking this is a possibility, but your vet will recognize those symptoms if that's what it is. 

These are sometimes called an old dog vestibular event or something similar.  Usually within a day or two it clears up. 

If in fact it is determined to be a seizure, the seizure can be controlled with medication. There have been lots of people here over the years with greyhounds who had seizures and were under control with medicaiton. 

I hope Lucky is home soon and feeling better. Keep us posted here. 

[Bogangles]

Can you take her home where she will feel more safe? Despite her situation? Perhaps her experience at the groomers was too much for her.

I don't think my girl could handle being left even to just have her nails trimmed she will not go down the stairs -- they have to come up to her!

Edited May 22, 2022 by Bogangles

[greysmom]

Typically a non-grand-mal, neurological seizure will be of very short duration and the dog will recover completely inside of 30 minutes.  That your dog is still paralyzed indicates to me some sort of spinal stroke that affected the nerves in her spine causing an "interruption in services" so to speak.  The good news is she will likely still recover completely given time and medical support, and may not ever have another incident.  Even if it *was* an actual neurological seizure, there are plenty of medications to help control them and neuro docs are getting better at using them all the time.  It's scary and very hard to watch your dog go through them, but both conditions can be dealt with and managed.

This is the hardest time for you though - waiting for her to recover and not overreacting and driving yourself nuts with what-ifs.  There was likely nothing you or your groomer did wrong or incorrectly.  It *could* have been the stress of the grooming, but just as likely it wasn't.  See how she is tomorrow morning and what the doctors advise going forward.  If you can afford to have her in the hospital another day or two, and have a physical therapy evaluation, and (if warranted) some spinal xrays, it will give her some extra time and support to recover.

Good luck!!  Keep us posted!!

[greydad92]

3 hours ago, Time4ANap said:

If Lucky was more limp than thrashing during the event, it could be a vestibular incident. Typically seen in older dogs, but affects balance and ability to walk and is an inner ear/ middle ear disturbance. Our Petunia had an incident of this when she was 11. She got up out of her bed and crashed into a chair, walking like a drunken sailor and was unable to maintain her balance for about 15 minutes. It can mimic a seizure because they are so off balance and confused that they can't respond to you while it's happening.  We went to  the emergency vet. Within a few hours of arriving there, the vet called us to come and get her because she was complaining about the service there.   She never had one of these events again. Given your description with the legs, I'm thinking this is a possibility, but your vet will recognize those symptoms if that's what it is. 

These are sometimes called an old dog vestibular event or something similar.  Usually within a day or two it clears up. 

If in fact it is determined to be a seizure, the seizure can be controlled with medication. There have been lots of people here over the years with greyhounds who had seizures and were under control with medicaiton. 

I hope Lucky is home soon and feeling better. Keep us posted here. 

Thanks so much for the information. I do think it was some sort of a stroke / seizure as I had a Greyhound previous who did have a vestibular disorder. When I saw Lucky, she wasn’t just dizzy, she was out of it, like I said eyes rolled back and head and couldn’t even attempt to walk when I first saw her because she was just lame and lying there and having what I observed to be a seizure of sorts but not thrashing around and such. But again thank you so much for your information and please say prayers for a little girl because we love her so much. I’ll update you all with how she’s doing when we pick her up today. 

[greydad92]

3 hours ago, Bogangles said:

Can you take her home where she will feel more safe? Despite her situation? Perhaps her experience at the groomers was too much for her.

I don't think my girl could handle being left even to just have her nails trimmed she will not go down the stairs -- they have to come up to her!

Thank you for your reply. As always I appreciate everyone’s input. Lucky had been to groomers a few months previous and did OK there. Moving forward, we are probably going to have someone come to house or we will do it ourselves.

[greydad92]

2 hours ago, greysmom said:

Typically a non-grand-mal, neurological seizure will be of very short duration and the dog will recover completely inside of 30 minutes.  That your dog is still paralyzed indicates to me some sort of spinal stroke that affected the nerves in her spine causing an "interruption in services" so to speak.  The good news is she will likely still recover completely given time and medical support, and may not ever have another incident.  Even if it *was* an actual neurological seizure, there are plenty of medications to help control them and neuro docs are getting better at using them all the time.  It's scary and very hard to watch your dog go through them, but both conditions can be dealt with and managed.

This is the hardest time for you though - waiting for her to recover and not overreacting and driving yourself nuts with what-ifs.  There was likely nothing you or your groomer did wrong or incorrectly.  It *could* have been the stress of the grooming, but just as likely it wasn't.  See how she is tomorrow morning and what the doctors advise going forward.  If you can afford to have her in the hospital another day or two, and have a physical therapy evaluation, and (if warranted) some spinal xrays, it will give her some extra time and support to recover.

Good luck!!  Keep us posted!!

Thank you for your information. All very wise things that you said, as both vets said the same thing. Vet did also add that if it was fear and a seizure out of fear, she still would’ve recovered quickly from that, which she didn’t. Thank you all for your prayers and we will keep you up-to-date when we see our little girl. Once I get this crazy profile picture thing figured out, I will post pictures of our girl. Not easy to do on this forum. But again once I have it figured out, I will share. 

[macoduck]

There's lots of good information in this 2021 thread about strokes: 

 

[EllenEveBaz]

Sending our best thoughts to your Lucky Princess Peanut Butter 

 

[greydad92]

2 hours ago, macoduck said:

There's lots of good information in this 2021 thread about strokes: 

 

Thank you for sharing this

[greysmom]

To post pictures you'll need a "third party photo hosting site" like Flickr or Photobucket, OR be on Facebook.  Upload your photo to either. 

On Facebook, click on the photo to open it in it's own window, right click on the photo, click "copy photo" in the pop up menu, paste the photo into your reply box on Greytalk.

On a photo hosting site there should be a icon to bring up a way to copy what's called a "BBCode" or link to the photo.  Click on that link in a smaller size (you may need to experiment with your site a bit to get the size right), and then paste that copied info in your reply box here on GT.

[BatterseaBrindl]

    Lucky Princess Peanut Butter

[greydad92]

Lucky is back home.  She are her dinner as soon as she got home, drinking water and now crashed out on her bed in our bedroom with air conditioning. She is walking well, but as vet said a little wobbly, but not too bad. Thank you God. 
Vet report says based on her neurological exam that most likely she had a fibrocatilaginous emboli (FCE). Will take it easy with Dr over next couple weeks work frequent short walks and maybe even physical therapy. We will keep you posted, but so happy to have our little girl home. 
 

[Houndtime]

Glad to see she is doing better.

[greydad92]

Sorry for all the duplicates here, just trying to figure out technicalities of this forum…..sheesh

Edited May 23, 2022 by greydad92
Edit

[greydad92]

Just now, greydad92 said:

 

Just now, greydad92 said:

[greydad92]

Just now, greydad92 said:

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by greydad92

[greydad92]

1 minute ago, greydad92 said:

 

 

2 minutes ago, greydad92 said:

Lucky

 

[greysmom]

She's adorable!!  Congrats on getting her home!!

FCE is a reasonable diagnosis given the symptoms.  She should recover quite quickly from now on.

[EllenEveBaz]

Oh, that unmistakable "I'm so glad to be home where I can just zone out" look.  Sweet dreams, PB Princess.  

[zimsmom]

Just wanted to say hello.  Greyhound owner in Metrowest also!!  Glad she is home where she belongs.