SEIZURE!!!

On Sunday I noticed Gimme getting off the couch, probably to go lay in front of the fan. As she moved in front of me I saw she was walking weird, her legs were moving stiffly and she was sinking to the ground. I realized she was having a seizure and jumped down to hold her. It's all I can do, hold her until it passes. It felt like an hour, but was really only a minute or two. Afterward I called the ER vet and they didn't think she needed to come in - unless she had another. 

When I called my vet the next morning he didn't need to see her. He said there is nothing he could see or test to get more info and the best I could do was continue watching her. It's been 3-years-3-months since her last seizure, so at this point there is nothing we should change. Poor Gimme - she could've gotten a new toy if she went to the vet.

Gimme recovers completely in twenty minutes.  So if this happens while I'm away I wouldn't know, which makes me wonder if there have been others I didn't know about. Until this episode I've assumed we had the whole seizure thing well covered. Gimme gets "Keppra" three times a day - it's the generic name for Levitiracetum. It has worked well for us and thus far (her first seizure was spring 2014) her body is tolerating it well.

I reread my earlier blogs about prior seizures and medication and one entry said she had been on Keppra extended-release for two months when she had the last seizure. I checked our pills and they are not extended-release. I went to Costco and talked to the pharmacist and he checked their history for her prescriptions, as far back as it went, (which wasn't to the last seizure in 2014). He was able to show she's been on regular Keppra for almost 2 years. Then I spoke to the vet's office and with the additional information, they went back through her records and found she only took Keppra E-R for the last six months when I was getting her prescription at Shopko. So this means she's been on regular almost 3 years - obviously not the cause of this seizure.

Today I got her into see Dr. Powell, the chiropractor. He found her atlas vertebra (the top one) was out of alignment in two directions, but not badly so. He says most dogs have atlas misalignment just from pulling on the leash and other life stuff. Before he told me there is a connection between atlas misalignment and seizures. Today he explained the spacing for the spinal cord going through this vertebra is already really tight, so when it's not perfectly aligned, the space gets even more restricted.  He says most dogs can tolerate a little pressure on the spinal cord, but a dog with a seizure history will be more sensitive. It's entirely possible as she got off the couch she turned her head in just a minutely wrong way and it was enough to trigger the seizure.

Dr. Powell comes to Pawsabilities every two weeks, at the same time I'm there to teach classes, and he's squeezed her in before when I had concerns. He is really wonderful and doesn't charge me for checking her unless she needs adjusting. Today he only charged me half since he only did the one adjustment and checked her sore toes (much better now). I'll definitely have her checked more frequently from now on.

BTW, the most dangerous thing possible is if a seizure doesn't end on its own. For those with really serious disorders, they usually have a kit with a special enema to get medicine in the dog quickly to stop the seizure. We aren't there - Thank You God! If Gimme had a seizure that didn't resolve on it's own, I'd take her to the ER vet. So it makes sense to put the address for the local emergency veterinary clinic in my van's navigation system. I don't need to be trying to get the address and such in the middle of an emergency. Probably every pet owner should do this...

If this is truly her first seizure in 3years-3months-1week, then it's not a huge deal. If she's having other seizures while I'm away, that's obviously not good.  This break-through seizure could be a precursor telling us the medication is becoming less effective.  This we won't know unless/until there are more seizures.  So keep us in your thoughts and pray that we don't have any more episodes. I'm pretty certain I aged ten years on Sunday...