My Baby Magic Had a Seizure Tonight

Just wanted you all to be thinking about Magic tonight. About an hour ago he had a minute-long seizure out of the blue.

He's 2 and is the picture of health otherwise. Unfortunately, he's about at the age at which dogs develop eiplepsy. But there is also the chance that he could have eaten something in the yard. He's up and about and feeling better, if a little clingy and worried. I was pretty freaked out and almost lost my fingers trying to make sure he wasn't choking on his tongue.

Sahara, his bosom buddy was awesome - she alerted to the seizure right away and sat down next to him while it was going on. She was sure that I could fix it, but stuck close to him as he came to and regained his sense. She has been keeping an eye on him and trying to cheer him up ever since. What a sweet girl.

I try to keep ahead of the mushrooms in the yard this time of year. But I have plants out there that I don't know the toxicity of. Don't know what to hope for - that this was caused by a toxic plant or epilepsy (which is very treatable).

Anyway, hug your babies tonight and make sure that you know what you have in your yard . . .

Hopefully, Magic is feeling better today. What a good girl, Sahara was to stick right by him. Animals are amazing.

Thanks, Jan. Yes, they really are.

He had another seizure in the middle of the night which seemed to put him on a 5-hour schedule. And he recovered much more quickly from the second seizure (though I still have to finish washing my bedding as he urinated during the seizure). But nothing since then, thank goodness. Now I just have to convince him that he doesn't want to go out and play.

Meanwhile, I've found crystals in the urine of one of the cats who peed on the mat by the back door - just don't know which one. Sunday night I was at the ER with a different cat who has something going on with her bladder.

And this morning my smoke alarm went off and I had the fire department out because I smelled something hot. Their conclusion was that it was something from the dirty furnace filter (been meaning to change that) that dropped on an element. I need to go get another filter, but of course I don't want to leave the house because of Magic. And the house is cold because I turned the furnace off and I don't want to turn it back on before I leave.

It's been a crazy week. And I'm supposed to be work working from home. Looks like I'll have to work some this weekend. It's times like these when it would be so nice to have a DH to help or at least provide moral support .

I have to remind myself that many worse things could have happened . . .

Kathy, omigosh - my heart goes out to you and to your dear sweet Magic!!! Good grief, girl, you've had more than your share right now - know that I'm thinking about you and your wonderful family of pets. Sahara is a love bug. Hope you can more easily determine which kitty has the crystals in its urine.

And dirty furnace filter - yeah, I understand that kind of thing too. Glad you called the fire department.

Do something nice for yourself.

Love, Carole

Wow Kathy Thinking of you and hoping everyone gets well soon.

Thanks. It just feels good to know you're all out there. :-)

Put the new filter in and everything seems to be running fine - just have to remember that with this many animals I need to change it more often than most people. The good thing is that this forced me to call ADT about the fact that my alarm system doesn't work with Comcast (I've been meaning to do that for awhile, but I've had my fill of people on the phone who can't understand what I'm saying). I talked to a great guy this morning and ADT will come out to see if they set up the system correctly and not charge me for that. I just need ADT and Comcast to agree on how they are supposed to work together (weird, because Comcast is a "preferred" provider of phone services for ADT. Guess that doesn't mean that they work together, though.)

No more seizures as far as I can tell. Magic's drinking a lot of water. I'm trying to keep him calm, but all he wants to do is go outside and play with Sahara in the sunshine. If it's not a recurring thing then I'll probably never know what started it. Just weird.

Next thing is the kitties. Apparently I can't change food for them until I know what kind of crystals there are and the vet has to get the urine from the "offending" cat to determine it, so that's my next challenge . . .

But I'm healthy (knock on wood) and the sun is out and I have a job, so in the light of day things seem much better.

Thanks for listening (reading)!!

Whew! Things sound much better!

I'm off to the grocery store to buy a sourdough bread mix for DD to have with her split pea soup when she arrives from Southern CA tonight to do more painting for me - she's a gem, to say the least!

(I guess I should change my clothes first as I've been painting as well and I'm a darn messy painter!)

Oooooh. Enjoy your visit - tell your DD hello for me. And tell her to stay off the ladder!! LOL

LOL - she'll crack up over that one! Come on over if you want to take a break (I promise not to put you to work - just bring Magic - and any others you wish to bring - so I can have some wonderful cuddles!)

Carole - thank you so much. I'd LOVE to do that, but I think I just might have to do some catch up for the work I didn't get done today. Had a nice little nap this afternoon (I needed that!!)

Hope I can have a rain check? We do need to get together soon.

Of course you can have a rain check!!! Let's figure something out soon. Give all your fur babies a hug for me.

WoW, sounds like you had a hand full going on, for sure.

So glad Magic is OK, Did you set up a appt. for him to have a check up?
Let him out and stay close if he ate something he might show you, dogs are smart if we can just learn to read what they are trying to tell us.
Ester has a way of telling me when Tylers missing just have to pay attention to her.

Hope Kitty or Kitties, will be OK

Tilly sending Hugs

Thanks, Mary! Magic has done great today. No seizure since this morning at 2 a.m.

Kitties seem to be okay today, too. Have to give Gemini fluids and pain meds tonight - she has a follow up tomorrow.

And scritches to Tilly.

Glad to hear.

Hows this for a cool pic, was playing with textures on a photo.
Miss Sassy, The Queen LOL

It's Tilly's alter ego in another dimension!!

This was the pic I took it from. Too cool
Hugs

Kathy, I'm so sorry your babies are sick. How tough that must be for you and your pet family. I hope Magic has continued to be seizure free this evening, and that you get a good sleep tonight. (((( )))) Holly

Oh. Holly, thank you, thank you. It sure helps me to have you guys pulling for us. So far so good tonight. Feeling better, generally, about the whole thing. And he, of course, is in great spirits.

Thank goodness he is doing better now, and helpful that pets don't stay worried too long once they are feeling perky again. :)

Ack! I just checked in for a minute and found this thread! I do hope that Magic is well and that no more seizures have occurred! Poor baby, and poor you! And what a trooper Sahara must be to be right there by his side, so trusting of you. Where is Sofer?????
Franny and Skippy send best wishes to Magic for a speedy recovery and no more seizures ever. Also they would like to tell Magic and Sahara that they are lucky because they did not get a bath tonight, but Franny and Skippy did. They have not forgiven me yet. Skippy will probably have loose bowels tomorrow from the stress of it. Fran is just long suffering.

Katie, glad to hear that Magic is feeling better today. Sahara must be exhausted with all the watching. Terrier agrees with skippy and wonders why he hadn't thought of that solution for bath deterrant - thanks him for suggesting it, and will put it in practice next time the doggie shampoo turns up.

katie...so sorry about your puppy having troubles. Glad things are calming down. Hugs to all of you and you'll all be in my prayers.

Skippy says for terrier to let him know how it goes. If that doesn't work, try throwing up.

Hope all your fur kids are feeling better today. I'm sorry you had so many troubles at once.
Let Magic out in the healing sunshine with you today and enjoy it, it ( the sun) may not be here long.
((((Hugs to you all))))
Linda

Thank you for passing that on Pix - I am going to ban skippy suggestion from the house!

Oh, no! I just saw this thread! So happy to hear Magic is doing better now-wow, it sounds like you've had a heck of a week, everything all at once! Hope things settle down for you soon.



( Sophie the cat sees the terrier and such goings on as she walks by my monitor on the way to her extra-special cushion (Spoiled? Not at all, it's her due, lol) and says "Dogs! Always so much drama! So happy I'm a cat! Hmm, naptime, so tired from my time sitting on the heater vent. Where's my sunshine? (yawn!)" ) Sigh, she's gotten to be such a curmudgeon now that she's 13...

edited to add that Sophie wanted to add that I quoted her out of context and that she feels very badly about Magic's seizures, it's only issues about baths that she's commenting on...

This message was edited Oct 11, 2008 1:21 PM

I love to hear Skippy, Franny, Terrier, Tyler, Tilly, Ester and everybody else's suggestions. And I'm passing on only those I want them to hear.

Poor Skippy - he does sound dramatic. If it weren't that Nick had such long legs and Skippy had so much hair, I'd think they were related.

So Magic and Sahara, ever the optimistic kids have conveniently forgotten that anything happened on Thursday. We all slept well last night. Magic doesn't act like anything at all happened. Except that maybe he's a little more tired.

And from what I've read, it sounds like there is no way to predict what will happen next. Fortunately, as I understand it, the seizures most often look much worse than they are; that's good to know.

Sahara, bless her little heart slept right on top of me on the couch last night (she's about 30 lbs, but all arms and legs . . uh legs and legs). This is the two of them in the snow in the yard last January.

Really cute dogs. I've had two dog friends who had seizures while I was tending them. Not fun to go through, but they don't know anything has happened. They seem to wonder who threw them on the floor and why everyone is standing around looking at them. Then you are left to clean up the mess. Sometimes they bite their tongues and foam at the mouth and then of course the urine.

Wow. Two.

Yes, the cleanup was a pain - I had to wash all layers of bed linens on Friday.

I talked to the vet about it today and she said that, for infrequent seizures, most people medicate based on how much they (the owner) can stand.

Good vet - I think all dog treatment/loving/doing is based on 'how much the owner can stand'!! Our terrier can stand more rubbing than any animal in the world!! His owner calls a halt and he just looks at me in disgust "whimp! I could go on for hours...."

Katie - glad to hear dogs are back to best foot forward. Just the position they like them to be in! Good doggies.

sophie, you are absolutely right to rest after sitting on the heater vent - really made me laugh!

glad to hear magic is doing better and you got some rest. Take Care.

Glad to hear all is well for Magic.
What about the Kitties, All 4 of mine are wanting to know, if its something mom needs to watch for.

Oh Tilly dosen't

Hi Mary -

In general, if you're feeding them kibble, you need to keep the Magnesium low and the urinary acidifier high. I'm evaluating options for this, since the quality of the prescription dog and cat food that most vets provide to do this (Hill's Science Diet) is garbage from a nutritionary perspective.

The Best bet is to feed only wet food - and even better is to feed raw wet food to emulate their natural diet - in controlled potions. With 11 cats, the logistics are tough to do this, but I'm thinking about building a bench under which are stalls that I can feed in. That should limit the intimidation and dish-swapping. I understand that there is a cat nutrition discussion group on Yahoo, so I'm going to be joining that.

Tils, the other thing about the urinary crystals and blockages is that in most all cases, only male cats are affected. It usually shows up when they're pretty young, about two years or so.

Katie is right about the prescription diets being total junk, though. I just wish the raw diets were less expensive (not that the RX stuff is cheap, either). Do let me know how you manage it-wish I could make the switch myself.

A friend of mine put her geriatric Husky who was having tremendous health problems on a raw diet, and she's turned around 100%. It's given her at least two more quality years.

Hi Sue -

I hear that time and time again for both cats and dogs. From digestion to teeth, raw seems to be the best approach.

Actually, crystals and stones can occur in both males and females. It's just that it's more likely to cause death in the males as their anatomy makes it harder (or impossible) for the stone to pass. And it's an incredibly painful occurrence. . . fortunately, we believe it's struvite crystals for my cats (to this point) in a female (to this point) and not oxalate crystals or stones, so I'm hoping to head off any other issues.

Sue - I would at least start with wet, rather than kibble, as keeping cats hydrating is part of the battle. I was feeding tuna water to get my affected cat to drink until a friend pointed out that what are tolerable mercury levels for humans are not necessarily tolerable for cats. Argh!! What have we done to our food supply!!

Let me get this straight Kathy... you have 11 cats? Really?? And I thought Tills had a lot of cats with 4.

Kathy also has five dogs - can you imagine a more wonderful household with all that unconditional love???!!!

My youngest has 4 horses (big ones!!!) 5 dogs, 4 cats, 2 goats and a pig, at last count. LOL

Hi Kathy,

Too bad about your female cat. I tend to forget that you're as much cat lady as dog person. I guess I've been lucky to only have two males (and $3500 in vet bills) with the problem in 20+ years of being a cat owner. Fred's going on 6 years without a blockage now, and I caught it in Roscoe before he ever actually had a complete blockage. In addition to treatment from my normal vet, I took Fred up to the CSU veterinary school in Ft Collins where he had a very thorough workup when he was first diagnosed. Getting them to be willing to even eat wet food was tough at first. They're reasonably happy with Pet Promise, which at least doesn't have by-products or chicken meal.

Yessss, but Sally, I am assuming that the horses, goats and pigs stay out doors. I am betting that Katie 16 all have snuggy little spaces inside.