Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Day 2606

Things are getting difficult. It's getting harder and harder to get Dot up in the morning. She used to wake up when the alarm went off and we all started getting ready to start the day. Now, nothing seems to wake her. I have to find a strong smelling dog treat and put it near her nose to wake her up and then gently try to coax her into a sitting position. I always make sure the back door is already open before I lift her to a standing position to guide her outdoors to pee. She still enjoys her breakfast, once she is fully awake, but she is definitely slowing down.

One sick dog is bad enough, but now Dash is a worry as well. He had two more mild seizures today. He was fine when I took him to the vet early in the morning to repeat the blood work for his phenobarbital test. Later in the day I heard a thud in the bedroom and discovered him sitting on the floor, looking completely disoriented. Like his earlier seizures, he was moving his head back and forth. I tried to get a quick video that showed his eye movement while he was undergoing the seizure, but his head was moving too much to keep the camera in focus. I stayed with him until the episode passed and then he was fine until late in the day. A second minor episode occurred while he was walking toward the kitchen while I was fixing his dinner. He didn't fall this time, but just appeared dizzy.

I feel kind of helpless at this point. We can't really do anything until the test results come in. Until we know whether this is epilepsy, vestibular disease, or something much worse like the beginning of encephalitis, it is pointless to begin any sort of treatment. I hope we can find out what is going on soon. I hate to see Dash this way. I have a feeling the the odd behavior I've being seeing on our walks for the past several months is related to these new seizures, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

Our next door neighbors were having a large tree cut down in their yard today. The sound of chain saws and falling tree limbs was so loud that it was difficult to think. The tree trimming crew has been taking this tree down for three days now and hopefully they are finally finished. I didn't think anything could be louder than the chain saws until I heard the noise of the machine they used to grind up the roots. Maybe all the noise and commotion next door triggered one of Dash's seizures. I have no way of knowing,  but the noise certainly irritated me.

I changed anti-virus software today. I was growing frustrated with the auto-renewal policy of the software I've been using for the past three years. They lock you into a subscription and then keep raising their rates year after year. Enough of that. Trying something new turned out to be not as easy as I thought. The first application I downloaded crashed on launch and I never could get it running at all. The second application works fine, but it spends so much time checking things that it slows the entire computer down. I may have to try something else after I figure out how to remove the first two applications completely from my system. Life was much simpler when you didn't need virus checkers at all.

I hope both dogs have a good day tomorrow. Today was stressful. I always thought that Dash would stay healthy while I was dealing with Dot. but like the song says, you can't always get what you want...

Myles is today's Dalmatian of the Day
 
Watch of the Day