Hello,
I would like to keep this post rather short. I have posted a wall of text when I thought my dog is dying in December last year. He is still around and he was doing really good until this week when he started having cluster seizures. I'm sorry for not providing any answer, but after being at a few vets (they all say very different things) and the fact that he did eat quite a lot of fat back then, we just thought he had some kind of poisoning and it passed because after a few days and some painkillers as well as some morphine-based sedatives (yeah, they primarily diagnosed him with pancreatitis that just doesn't stick at all). Besides, I do really hate veterinary help in Poland. Reading US forums I can clearly see that there is a whole different attitude when it comes to treating dogs. Vets are actually much more into helping the dog – here I feel like they don't really care because he is old. Doesn't matter – I learnt much more from the Internet over time than from them and it's up to me and my family to start taking necessary steps in finding the root of his problems.
I can't post a link to the thread as I don't have 10 posts, but I posted a thread called: 'Is my dog dying? Please' on December 7 in the same section if anyone would like to read my thoughts on his initial sickness.
Short story, symptoms:
December – he suddenly stopped walking, lying flat on his stomach, he felt extremely weak. Passed after a couple days – he had a moment when he was barely breathing and we thought he is dying, but I do believe it's more because he barely had any sleep for a week or so. When he woke up he was suddenly much better and quickly returned to being a normal dog, just like he used to.
Early March (this week):
I found him lying on the floor at 5pm and he couldn't move. It's his back paws that gave up. I tried teasing him etc – no reaction. It passed itself after an hour or so and when we went outside he was walking normally again.
After that, the very next day at 7:30 am he had his first seizure. Not a long one, but surely looked scary. From this point on he had 1 very short seizure and 4 scary seizures (one of them for like 2 minutes – I had to catch him because he was blindly running around and could smash his head at a wall; post seizure for a minute or two he was like blinded and he didn't even see where he is going – again I had to protect him from smashing his head at a wall). This was the strongest, 4th seizure – he received Luminal quickly after that at a dose of 25mg and he is on it from then. He then had one last seizure at night and no more later. So 5 seizures in 24 hours. Although, I do believe he had more after that but Luminal has prevented them from happening. I do think so because he had periods of being overly reactive and extremely hungry and thirsty to the point of lethargy later on – without seizures, but it looked exactly like he did behave after them.
Today, Friday – he does seem very tired. Could be because of medications. He drinks a lot, but doesn't eat as much as before. He wants to be around people and he is quite energetic first thing in the morning, but the later it is the more tired he is. He couldn't walk again today – I started pulling his back paws and they were like 'flaccid'. He didn't have this typical natural movement of pulling them back in as he had with his front paws. I do understand he may be tired, but temporary, sudden loss of feeling in the back paws to the point of not being able to stand up from a lying position to recovery and being able to walk in a matter of... an hour – I just cannot connect any dots at all. I will try going to different vets and discuss this matter, but what I have learnt so far that there is nobody I can actually rely on this matter. And we have to find a solution of these seizures as cluster seizures at older dogs are almost exclusively triggered by something.
It's quite a long post again – guess I just can't write it any different. I don't expect you guys to read it, so just please if anyone can connect the following information or has some experience regarding this, please let me know – I will try and utilize any information I can to find a solution:
Breed: Schnauzer Mini, Age: 13.5 years, Weight: 9.5kg.
Symptoms: lying on the stomach (not so much now); temporary loss of feeling in the back paws and regaining it shortly after; cluster seizures (stopped by Luminal – Phenobarbital), lethargy and weakness (probably after seizures and intensified by Luminal).
What I'm the most interested at is what may be the cause of him suddenly losing feeling in his back paws and then regaining it quite quickly. There is very little information regarding that in opposition to seizures where I did found tons of useful information. If anyone can make any connection regarding this I would be very helpful. I just don't want to see him go, not yet at least. He was in top shape, still being old, but it felt like he could run marathons and he was just so cheerful. Now he is gloomy, mostly lying, acting like he is 'retarded' a bit. I do rather see him being slow and lethargic than none at all.
I will have full blood work done again on Monday – I just want him to recover a bit as this may be too stressful at this point, especially as his blood work from December was perfect in every regard (slightly elevated liver markers, but slightly). He also had X-Ray scan of liver areas – nothing found. I want to do another for his back and the area of back paws.
Thank you!
I would like to keep this post rather short. I have posted a wall of text when I thought my dog is dying in December last year. He is still around and he was doing really good until this week when he started having cluster seizures. I'm sorry for not providing any answer, but after being at a few vets (they all say very different things) and the fact that he did eat quite a lot of fat back then, we just thought he had some kind of poisoning and it passed because after a few days and some painkillers as well as some morphine-based sedatives (yeah, they primarily diagnosed him with pancreatitis that just doesn't stick at all). Besides, I do really hate veterinary help in Poland. Reading US forums I can clearly see that there is a whole different attitude when it comes to treating dogs. Vets are actually much more into helping the dog – here I feel like they don't really care because he is old. Doesn't matter – I learnt much more from the Internet over time than from them and it's up to me and my family to start taking necessary steps in finding the root of his problems.
I can't post a link to the thread as I don't have 10 posts, but I posted a thread called: 'Is my dog dying? Please' on December 7 in the same section if anyone would like to read my thoughts on his initial sickness.
Short story, symptoms:
December – he suddenly stopped walking, lying flat on his stomach, he felt extremely weak. Passed after a couple days – he had a moment when he was barely breathing and we thought he is dying, but I do believe it's more because he barely had any sleep for a week or so. When he woke up he was suddenly much better and quickly returned to being a normal dog, just like he used to.
Early March (this week):
I found him lying on the floor at 5pm and he couldn't move. It's his back paws that gave up. I tried teasing him etc – no reaction. It passed itself after an hour or so and when we went outside he was walking normally again.
After that, the very next day at 7:30 am he had his first seizure. Not a long one, but surely looked scary. From this point on he had 1 very short seizure and 4 scary seizures (one of them for like 2 minutes – I had to catch him because he was blindly running around and could smash his head at a wall; post seizure for a minute or two he was like blinded and he didn't even see where he is going – again I had to protect him from smashing his head at a wall). This was the strongest, 4th seizure – he received Luminal quickly after that at a dose of 25mg and he is on it from then. He then had one last seizure at night and no more later. So 5 seizures in 24 hours. Although, I do believe he had more after that but Luminal has prevented them from happening. I do think so because he had periods of being overly reactive and extremely hungry and thirsty to the point of lethargy later on – without seizures, but it looked exactly like he did behave after them.
Today, Friday – he does seem very tired. Could be because of medications. He drinks a lot, but doesn't eat as much as before. He wants to be around people and he is quite energetic first thing in the morning, but the later it is the more tired he is. He couldn't walk again today – I started pulling his back paws and they were like 'flaccid'. He didn't have this typical natural movement of pulling them back in as he had with his front paws. I do understand he may be tired, but temporary, sudden loss of feeling in the back paws to the point of not being able to stand up from a lying position to recovery and being able to walk in a matter of... an hour – I just cannot connect any dots at all. I will try going to different vets and discuss this matter, but what I have learnt so far that there is nobody I can actually rely on this matter. And we have to find a solution of these seizures as cluster seizures at older dogs are almost exclusively triggered by something.
It's quite a long post again – guess I just can't write it any different. I don't expect you guys to read it, so just please if anyone can connect the following information or has some experience regarding this, please let me know – I will try and utilize any information I can to find a solution:
Breed: Schnauzer Mini, Age: 13.5 years, Weight: 9.5kg.
Symptoms: lying on the stomach (not so much now); temporary loss of feeling in the back paws and regaining it shortly after; cluster seizures (stopped by Luminal – Phenobarbital), lethargy and weakness (probably after seizures and intensified by Luminal).
What I'm the most interested at is what may be the cause of him suddenly losing feeling in his back paws and then regaining it quite quickly. There is very little information regarding that in opposition to seizures where I did found tons of useful information. If anyone can make any connection regarding this I would be very helpful. I just don't want to see him go, not yet at least. He was in top shape, still being old, but it felt like he could run marathons and he was just so cheerful. Now he is gloomy, mostly lying, acting like he is 'retarded' a bit. I do rather see him being slow and lethargic than none at all.
I will have full blood work done again on Monday – I just want him to recover a bit as this may be too stressful at this point, especially as his blood work from December was perfect in every regard (slightly elevated liver markers, but slightly). He also had X-Ray scan of liver areas – nothing found. I want to do another for his back and the area of back paws.
Thank you!
