Day 2607

Poor Dash. He had a massive cluster of seizures last night that quickly became a medical emergency. By the time I was able to get him to the vet, he was unable to walk. We debated whether to drive him to an emergency vet while he was having a seizure last night, or try and keep him as calm as possible and take him to his regular vet when they opened the next morning. Since each seizure seemed a little less severe than the previous one, we decided to wait. Eventually, the seizures subsided. Dash went to sleep and started breathing calmly again. We didn't discover that he was unable to walk until the next morning.

I carried Dash into the veterinary clinic at 7 AM this morning, hoping that the doctors could quickly stabilize his condition. It wasn't meant to be. It quickly became obvious that he needed to see a specialist. It wasn't clear at all that he was having an epileptic seizure. He could have had a stroke, be suffering from a brain tumor, have vestibular disease, or even have encephalitis. It is not easy to diagnose any of these conditions. You have to go through a process of elimination, evaluating for the most likely condition first, and then go on to the next condition if the tests aren't conclusive. To figure out what was going on, Dash needed a brain scan. There was a chance that he would need a spinal tap as well. I could take him to the regional neurology center 35 miles north of us and get an MRI tomorrow morning, or take him to the cancer center and get a CAT scan today. The second option seemed better, even though an MRI provides a superior image of the brain. Dash is well known at the cancer center and he would be seeing doctors who are very familiar with his condition.

I think I made the right decision. The oncologists and internal medicine specialists at the cancer center are among the best in the country. Whenever I take one of my dogs to this place I see people in the lobby who have traveled with their dogs from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and even further to see one of these doctors. We are very lucky to have some of the best specialty care for dogs in the entire country right here in Dallas.

So far, so good. The initial CAT scan showed that there were no lesions or tumors in his brain. It doesn't look like there is an inner ear infection either. Since Dash is not showing symptoms usually associated with Encephalitis, his doctors think it is likely that he has idiopathic vestibular disease. This condition is often called old dog vestibular syndrome, for obvious reasons. Young dogs rarely have these problems. Dash is spending the night at the cancer center's ICU, receiving steroids and anti-nausea medication in an IV drip to reduce the inflammation in his brain and help control the severe nausea that makes it difficult for him to stand. Hopefully, we will see some improvement in his condition when we check with his medical team in the morning.

Keep in mind that while all this is going on, Dot is still sitting at home, unable to do much of anything. I spent the day going back and forth, trying my best to monitor the condition of both dogs. It has been a very long day. Janet and I got virtually no sleep last night. Trying to arrange for emergency care and sophisticated imaging in a city full of sick dogs wasn't easy either. As bad as Dash's condition was, there were other dogs with even worse problems. While I was at Dash's regular vet this morning, a family came in carrying a dog that had just been run over by a car. They were all crying. The injured dog was their family pet. Even though the vets tried their best to save it, the dog died on the operating table. Later at the cancer center, I visited with people who had driven their dogs over 500 miles just to see the oncologist. One lady told me she made this long trip every single week.

We made it through the day. Dot is resting now. I hope Dash is resting too. Life is definitely full of surprises. I never dreamed that I would wake up one morning and find that Dot was the healthy dog. With all her incontinence problems and severe mobility issues, Dot is still in better shape than Dash right now. I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I will go to bed tonight knowing that I did the best that I could today.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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