Veterinary visit

This has been a rough summer for Gimme. It started in early-mid June and continued through just last week. To recap:

• Starting in June she was unfocused, whiny and showing avoidance during RFE practices. Later in the month this behavior also showed up, to a lesser degree, for tracking. There was also a day when we were doing the Rally-O course where Gimme suddenly yelped and then didn't want to work any more. At the time I thought it was related to her false pregnancy, which seemed to have gone on a little longer than I expected.
• Her chiropractor visit showed she had jammed 2 toes on her left front foot. Right after this she did a little better, but still not her usual. It was painful getting her toes adjusted, but she has a long history with Dr. Powell (and peanut butter which she licks as he works on her), so she was fine when he worked on the rest of her body and only a little tense when he got back to those toes.
• Five days later she had a grand mal seizure. Thank God I was home or I might have missed it entirely - 20 minutes later she seemed entirely normal. I blogged about this a month ago.
• At her next chiropractor visit, he found her atlas was misaligned. Dr. Powell said atlas misalignment (top vertebra where skull attaches to spine) is implicated in seizures, though it remains unproven. He said it also causes migraines in humans (I can verify this) and probably does in dogs.
• Her next RFE practice was about the same and I noticed her gait seemed "off", though not limping. I assumed her toes were bothering her again.
• At the next chiropractor visit, her atlas was only a little out and the toes were fine. Unfortunately her right shoulder was now stuck. Again a big yelp during the adjustment, but ready forgiveness.
• Almost right away Gimme came in season a month early. Normally being in season doesn't affect her attitude, but this time it seemed to. Probably the season just exacerbated the underlying anxiety.
• About this time I started noticing Gimme becoming afraid of things. The first thing was a cane we were working with - which I attributed to the shoulder issue. Then she became afraid of her collar, the couch, the living room and even me! She had lost all resilience, she would yelp and go into hiding in the house for the slightest reason.
• At the next chiropractor visit we learned her toe was still bothering her (toenail has a crack in it) and was probably causing intermittent and unpredictable pains when bumped or catching on something.
• Through this 2½ months, Gimme just had one thing after another. The pains she was experiencing must've seemed like she was being bitten by an invisible monster.  At our last RFE practice Gimme was worse than ever, despite my efforts to help her and stick with easier stuff. I've been trying to counter condition the things she has come to fear with only limited success. During that session she suddenly became afraid of her harness, whimpering as I put it on her.

I was still pretty sure it was just built up anxiety, essentially "all in her head", but it seemed prudent to have our veterinary check her over just to be sure there wasn't anything else. Doc checked her over THOROUGHLY and couldn't find anything physical. He agreed it's in her head.  The 6 pounds she's gained from all the counter conditioning treats is real though.

He did say this could have something to do with the breakthrough seizure in early July. Sometimes the anti-seizure medications lose effectiveness over time. So the dogs can be anxious pre-seizure, even if the seizure doesn't materialize. With only the one known break-through seizure, he doesn't want to tinker with her dosage or add other medications.

We talked about anti-anxiety medication, but he wants to hold off, because they are tricky to use with the Keppra she gets for seizure prevention.

Instead he recommended an alternative based approach.  I am using an Adaptil diffuser next to her end of the couch when I'm not home. Plus I got an Adaptil sprayer to put on a bandana for the days she's spending a lot of time in the car.

He recommended a calming food, but it was prohibitively expensive. A nine-pound bag was going to be $56! Instead I read the brochure and learned its benefit is because it's high in L-Tryptophan, which the body uses to make Serotonin. So I bought ground turkey and added it to her diet. There are many foods containing significant levels of L-Tryptophan, but turkey is an easy source. I made up 1.2-ounce balls of ground turkey and froze them. I am adding one to 3 of her 4 bowls of "soup" (the other gets egg, which also has L-Tryptophan).

Doc said it might take a week to notice a difference, but I was seeing increased calmness by evening. We also talked about my anxiety level from worrying about her anxiety/fears and how it could make hers worse. I noticed in the evening when she was starting to act anxious, if I talked silly to her about it, it dissipated. So I'm really monitoring my own reactions to make sure I don't buy into her drama and unintentionally feed it. I've also been blocking her access to other rooms when I'm not in them, to prevent her from practicing "hiding". My theory is if she's hiding, then it feeds into the emotion of needing to hide.

In ten days she has improved sooooo much. Sometimes I can leave open the access to rooms she hides and she doesn't hide. If she does I encourage her to come back out and then close off access. Her attitude is so much better. Today is the first time I could put her collar on without a treat in sight, though she still got a treat.  I started out having to lure her with peanut butter to put it on, so this is a big improvement.  For other things, I'm taking my time a little more, trying to prevent any tweaks for her to over-react to and feed the drama. For instance in the week before the vet visit, I barely moved my foot and lightly brushed her toe. She screamed and ran from the room. This might seem plausible given the sore toe/toenail, except I brushed against the other foot! Thus taking my time and being a little more careful.

So that's it for now. There has been a lot of progress and hopefully this will be a thing of the past before long.  For training I'm sticking with basics, things she knows well and can get a lot of reinforcement for.

It breaks my heart to see her lose her zest for life - I'm thrilled to see it returning.

Thoughts and Pictures

Several people asked me if I thought Gimme's seizure could have been caused by the stress of showing on Friday. It's possible, but I think unlikely. First, most negative affects of stress come from chronic stress, not acute (intense, but short-term) stress. And second, Gimme has certainly had other intense and stressful episodes over the last three years without triggering a seizure. So, while I'm not saying it's impossible, I am saying I think it's unlikely.

However, today I had a thought related to what Dr. Powell said about the Atlas vertebra getting misaligned as a result of dogs pulling on leash. Most of Gimme's activities are done with a leash attached to a harness: walking, tracking, nosework, barn hunt (in the blind and to the ring), weight pull, etc. At the show Gimme wasn't in harness and she did do a fair amount of pulling due to the distraction. She didn't pull against her collar in the ring because I was avoiding tight-leash faults and gave her the whole leash whenever she was forging, etc. She could have been in harness when she was walking around, even up to just before going in the ring. There wasn't any reason for me to not put her in harness, I just didn't.

So, I want to make a special effort to put her in her harness when she's out and about. As much as possible I want to reduce the likelihood of her pulling against a collar. The little twit even pulls me in to see Dr. Powell and then again to the car. If I really can't do the harness, at the very least I can use treats to keep her from pulling. Otherwise, she's so good about getting into her harness; there just isn't any reason not to take the extra 10 seconds to put it on her. Especially since I now realize the importance a harness might have in preventing seizures.

I saw these pictures which were taken in Gimme's first search at the L3I trial and couldn't resist sharing.

She's really such a beautiful girl. Just ask me.

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...

Good Anniversary

Just checked the calendar and as of Saturday (March 25th), Gimme has been seizure free for one year!!!  Needless to say, this makes me very happy.  She seems to have adjusted to this dosage and there aren't any obvious signs of it affecting her thinking.  So she's still twice as smart as any dog we know.  Just sayin...

Damn Seizures...

On Friday I took Gimme out planning a short walk and some video taping for a Parkour training-level title.  We'd only walked a short distance when I stopped to use this empty planter for a 4-in behavior.  I had the camera all set up, then we practiced doing the behavior a couple of times.  So I turned on record and cued Gimme to "box".  She got right in, but didn't stop.  I moved her around to do it again , when she started moving odd and I realized she was having a seizure.  

All I could do was hold her until it passed.  Fortunately I was so close to the car and where we were there was an elderly man working in his garage.  I yelled to him that my dog was having a seizure and I needed to get her to the car, could he watch my stuff.  Gimme was still a little unsteady on her feet as we started walking back to the car, but I was able to support her with the harness and she was moving under her own steam after a couple of steps.  After 50 yards she was herself again. 

I spoke with my vet and he said to put her back on 500mg of Keppra three times a day.  I was hoping to keep her at 500mg twice a day, since it doesn't impact her thinking as much.  <sigh>  The prior seizure, was on the fourth day after I reduced her meds from 500mg twice a day to 250mg twice a day.  With such an immediate reaction, it was clear she needed a higher dosage.  Prior to that reduction, she'd been on 500/2x for 3 months with no problem.  So after that seizure we went back to 500/2x and after I had ran out of the regular Keppra (about 2 months ago), I changed to Keppra extended release, which should keep her blood levels on a more even keel.  This seizure came pretty much out of the blue after 4 months on this dose.

We were scheduled for a barn hunt trial Saturday, but Doc advised against it.  First, changes in dose take at least 3 days for them to adjust to, so her balance could be off.  And second, they are more likely to have another seizure in the first few days after having one, so he didn't think she should be exposed to stress. 

Gimme was pretty disappointed about missing the barn hunt trial, but I promised her vanilla ice cream with peanut butter drizzled over it.  She thought this might be an adequate substitution if she got it every couple of hours.  As it turned out I was able to get her some Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.  I didn't realize it would have these big chunks of chocolate, so I had to eat those.  Gimme reeeeeeally enjoyed peanut butter flavored ice cream.  After I finished her chocolate chunks, I ate a whole carton of the Ben & Jerry's Chocolate and Carmel Swirl.  Yesterday we finished off her peanut butter ice cream and again I was forced to protect her from the chocolate chunks. 

Gimme used to say she should get vanilla ice cream every day to prevent seizures.  Now she says she was wrong and it needs to be peanut butter flavored ice cream.  Since I wasn't giving her ice cream and she's now had four seizure episodes (in 16 months), she's sure this constitutes proof for her peanut-butter-flavored-ice-cream-prevents-seizures theory.  If I thought it would work, I'd happily do it.

All the anti-convulsants affect mental clarity and I know Gimme gets really frustrated by not being as brilliant as she is accustomed to.  I keep telling her not to worry about it, even with reduced mental clarity, she is still twice as smart as every dog we know, eh...  Right now her mental clarity is out the window, along with self-control - its very much like when I first put her on Keppra.  

Today we went for a walk and I had her do some Parkour stuff and was surprised to see she didn't have the same sense of balance and confidence on a couple things she did easily just last week.  So she's still adjusting and this is day four.  She still wanted to do it, but I could see there was a difference and its going to take a bit I think for her body to adjust to the higher dose again.  Sure made me glad I heeded Docs advice and didn't go to the barn hunt trial on Saturday - I wouldn't want her to have a bad experience.

I want to get her dose as low as it can safely go and still keep her seizure free.  I think it will be better for her physically and mentally, even though Keppra is really safe.  I'm going to keep her on 500/3x for 9mos to a year before I try reducing it again.  If we can't go that long at the higher dose without a breakthrough seizure, then I won't even consider a reduction.  If we can go that long, then I may try 500mg twice a day, with an additional 250mg right before bed.

One thing I've found really interesting is how superstitious I am.  I've had a real hard time getting out for walks since the seizure on Friday.  And, I really have anxiety even thinking about going back to where it happened.  Logically I know there is no connection between walking or that location and her seizure, but the feelings persist.  It gives me a real appreciation for the superstitious behaviors dogs develop.

Gimme says more ice cream would help with my anxiety too.  Just sayin...

Seizure Again!

Minutes after my last post about Gimme deciding on her own cues, she had another seizure!

It was the first seizure in 6 months and 8 days.  It came on the fourth day after the recent reduction in medication, so we are back up to the prior dosage.  We started at 500mg Keppra three times a day, then three months ago reduced it to 500mg twice a day.  The emergency vet said we might be able to reduce it over time until we used none.  So this time I went to 250mg twice a day.  I thought it made better sense to have some Keppra in her system at all times.  I've put her back on the 500mg twice a day dose and we have an appointment with our veterinarian Tuesday morning.

When it first started, Gimme came out from under the desk (remember I'd been writing the blog post) and sort of stopped with one foot up on a cushion.  I thought I was in her way, so I moved and encouraged her to come out.  She moved about three feet further and then stopped, looking a bit hunched over.  She'd woken me up in the middle of the night with an urgent need to go outside, so I thought for a moment this was related and she might puke.

Then I saw her trembling and how her body was sinking to the floor.  Realizing it was a seizure, I got down with her and just held her until it passed.  I think it lasted less than 2 minutes.  Overall I think it was less intense than the prior seizures.  It seemed to have a cycle, like waves.  So I think perhaps the reduced levels of Keppra in her system was enough to reduce the intensity, just not enough to prevent it entirely.

I couldn't get through to talk to my vet, this being the day before Thanksgiving.  He had an office full, standing room only, two techs out sick, and had plans to catch a flight.  So I called the emergency clinic where they'd originally prescribed Keppra and asked my question about moving the dose back up, whether I should do 2 or 3 doses of 500mg.  They pulled her file and said twice a day would be good, reiterating how important it was to keep our Tuesday appointment.  About an hour later the receptionist from the clinic called to say she'd talked to Doc and he said to get her back on the twice a day regimen.  So it was good to have both veterinarians in agreement.

My first account on Wednesday is the same place I get her prescriptions filled, so I talked to the pharmacist.  He looked it up online and said it takes about 1½ days for Keppra to completely leave the body.  It took 72 hours for it to get low enough to no longer control her seizures.  Thus, I don't have to panic if it so happens we miss a dose (not that I'd ever skip one on purpose, but, things happen).  I'm on the K9Epilepsy list and there are cases where the owners are pretty much slaves to their beloved dog's disease.  So I'm thankful on this account, since my life is pretty chaotic much of the time.

Although I was in panic mode most of the first few days, I've settled into this new reality.  Gimme will need to be on medication for life.  The bad news is, this shows her seizure disorder has progressed.  Between her first and second seizure with no medication was 6 months and 4 days.  Between the second and third seizures was 6 months and 8 days, which looks okay until you consider this was with a reduced level of medication.  It only took 72 hours of reduced meds for the seizure to occur.

The good news is, her seizures are controlled easily with a medication which is low risk, has minimal side-affects and is inexpensive (about $20 per month).  Twice a day is a regimen which fits well into my day, even on the more hectic days, so I can keep things regular for her.

Another interesting outcome - The first episode was during a RFE class and the second was minutes after a RFE practice.  In this case, it occurred during our typical morning routine.  I knew all along it was crazy, but there's been a subtle tension when we go anywhere to practice/train RallyFree.  So now I can now let go of the superstition that it had anything to do with RallyFrEe or Obedience type training.  Woooosh - that's me heaving a big sigh of relief.

I should point out, within 20 minutes after the seizure Gimme was her usual self.  She was bouncing around, cavorting, bringing me toys - all as if to say, "I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry, quit obsessing, let's play".

Last time she had a seizure, Gimme told me ice cream prevents seizures.  Now she claims peanut butter is also a seizure preventative.  Obviously she should get plenty of both.  She's also been telling me that some day she is going to die and if I didn't play with her, I'm going to feel very guilty.  Then she adds, we should play more often, probably several times a day.  She's my girl - always working the angles...

What Does It Mean?

Yesterday we went to DaPaws to practice, getting ready for the upcoming RallyFrEe video event.  I have a video partner who will meet me at Pawsabilities next Thursday so we can video each other's submissions.

 

During the last two practice sessions there, Gimme didn't do as well as I expected.  I'd give her a cue and she'd move forward as if to do the behavior, but then she got "distracted" or "got stuck".  It looked a lot like she was distracted and unfocused, but doing focus training didn't seem to help. 

 

While yesterday wasn't our best practice, at least I figured out what has been the issue recently.  Now I know it wasn't a focus issue, it was her not knowing what I wanted.  She knew I wanted her to do something, moved forward to start, but then didn't know what to do next.  What I discovered is, basically Gimme needs me to "remind her" a couple of times what each cue-behavior is, then she is good for the rest of the session.  "Reminding" consists of cuing the behavior and then helping her do it (usually luring).  When I started by reminding her about each behavior a couple of times, then she went right to responding on her own and correctly to the verbal cue for the rest of the session.  This morning, of the behaviors I cued from the session yesterday, she had "forgotten" again.  So it seems this will be a need for each training session, at least for the foreseeable future.

I don't know what is causing this; I just know its not the way she's been before.  Interestingly, its behaviors she's learned over the last year which are most affected.  Stuff from before then seems to still be very solid.  For example, she aced weave poles on the first cue, even though we haven't done them in nine months.  

 

I don't know if this is from the seizure, her medication (Keppra) or a combination of both.  If its a side affect of the seizures, hopefully when Tonya has done enough energy healing sessions this will start to get back to normal.  If it has to do with Keppra, then I hope it will get back closer to normal when we start tapering off her dose.

In my online research focusing on seizures, I found interesting stuff - though I would have expected changes related to damage to be more immediate.  Her best session of the 4 we've done at DaPaws was the one 3 days after the seizures.  Here are the applicable (edited) notes:

• memory may be adversely affected by a generalized grand mal seizure
• may increase ADHD, which Tonya thinks Gimme has
• may increase inattention and impulsivity
• inattention includes: being easily distracted; forgetfulness; and difficulty following directions
• tasks that were previously routine may become more difficult
• it may take longer to process new information or to complete tasks - I am teaching her a new behavior and we have had to almost start over at each session
• seizures disrupt connections between nerve cells, which may make retrieval of memories and information difficult and may also inhibit the formation of new connections
• re-learning process takes time
• diminishes "working memory", which is the ability to access information previously acquired and to make generalizations about this information, most likely because seizure activity disrupts the storage and/or retrieval of information

In my research about Keppra I found interesting stuff as well.  There is commonly a short term period of drowsiness when one first starts taking the drug.  While the whole list of potential side affects is extensive, Keppra is well tolerated by most individuals.  For those with side affects, some are simply tolerated, some get better results with a higher dose while others have to go off the medication.  Here are the applicable (edited) notes:

• Applicable side affects include: aggressive or angry outbursts, anxiety, irritability, quick to react or overreact emotionally, rapidly changing moods, mood or mental changes, problems with memory, and/or trouble concentrating
• Wording from reported experiences: 
• "feel very tired and spacey. I am having trouble remembering what i've read and giving feedback to my professors." 
• "mind was in a total fog, I was easily confused, I couldn't read because I couldn't comprehend what I was reading!" 
• "spacey, foggy feelings went away after a while" 
• "hard for me to remember what I read and studied"

So, there is a whole lot of "don't know" and "time will tell" in this, which is starting to feel very familiar.  <sigh>

Seizure Info & Nosework (4/10)

We had our follow-up appointment at my vet's office, however not with my vet.  Dr. Kiefer is out on medical leave (since April) and brought in someone from Bellevue to cover the office.  I was unimpressed with her.  $50 and 40 minutes later I walked out with a prescription to continue Gimme's anti-convulsant and knowing nothing more about seizures in dogs than when I went in.  I didn't expect an answer/cause, but I did expect someone who knew more about the topic than I did.  I was not reassured when she told me she'd recently done a bunch of reading on it because 5 days earlier they had another client come in with seizures.  Maybe I'm taking this wrong, but I expected her to already know the basics - she didn't describe her reading as if she was looking to see if there was any new info, rather it sounded like she gave herself a refresher course.  The staff at the desk didn't know when Doc will be back.  So, if he hasn't returned when the time comes for our next follow-up, I'll be shopping for another vet.

I am on the k9epileptics yahoo list and, as much as I worry about the future, we have it easy thus far.  There are many people with dogs with seizure episodes every couple of days.  I'd be a crazy-woman...

I posed a question to the list and learned a couple of things about Keppra (levetiracetam).  

• It is the better drug to try initially, less side affects, but more expensive.  My first 30 days worth cost me $108, but today, after shopping around I got it for $28.  
• It takes about 3 days to stabilize serum levels when you start out, but it can take a few weeks for the dog to acclimate to how it makes her feel.
• In humans there is a side affect known as Kepprage - increased agitation and/or emotional outbursts.

I've also learned the clingyness and slow responses to cues is pretty normal following a seizure episode and it takes awhile for things to return to normal.  I would say in respect to clingyness and slow responses, getting to normal took about 10 days.  I did notice both came back when I first reduced her false pregnancy support package and then when I rechecked and put it back up, it took a couple days for her to get back to normal.  Several of the things she gets for the false pregnancy have mood stabilizing or improving affects, so it stands to reason they would benefit her now as well.

Gimme is still a bit more reactive regarding other dogs - not hugely, but definitely notable.  As I said, I was seeing some of this before the recent seizure episode, it just seems a little more so since then.  I had planned to do some work on this over the summer to get ready for Fall obedience shows.  I think for the time being, I'll take it slower, until I know if Keppra will be a good fit for Gimme in the long run.  In a couple months we'll begin tapering down the dosage, so then might be a better time to focus on such things in training.

Last night's nosework class was interesting to say the least.  We are entered for an NW3 trial this Sunday.  Gimme I'm sure can do her job - me I'm not so sure about.  Still do cross your fingers we get lucky and I don't screw up too badly.  Gimme's job is pretty much the same as it was at NW2 level, while mine has increased significantly.

We started class with an interior search of an area full of chairs.  The task was twofold - leash handling skills and knowing when the dog was done searching.  The dashed line and two orange "cones" shows the leading edge of the search area - thus two chairs were not in the search area.  Gimme found the chair against the wall and the one in the middle, but I rushed her and she didn't commit to the one in the back row.  Gimme did well, but I called "finish" too soon.  

From there we did two searches outside.  One was a largish area with a sidewalk running down the middle of it.  Gimme started out okay and found one hide pretty quickly, but then she became completely unfocused and stopped searching.  We ended the first search and went to the second area and Gimme never did make any real effort to search.  This is so unlike her and we were all blown away by the difference.  We ended this second search after she peed (which, bless her heart, she did leave the search area to do so).

I walked her to let her pee, then we returned to the van to wait our second turn.   The co-instructor came to get us because Dorothy wanted Gimme to get a simple motivational search before trying again.  Gimme rocked it and was very much herself.  From there I went to where I could be handy to go to the startline when the dog in the area got done, but not so close I would see where the hides were.  While we waited, Gimme pooped twice - yucky, squishy, stinky poops. 

When Janet and Moxie finished, they crossed the road to walk, which put them within 50 feet of where we'd be searching.  Gimme was very interested and watching Moxie closely and I wasn't sure she'd be able to ignore her, but wanted to give it a try.  Once I gave Gimme her search cue, she instantly ignored Moxie and went to work.  She found two hides and then I didn't do a good enough job getting her around the area and called finished before she found the third one.  On the second search, Gimme worked and found one hide.  Dorothy asked me, "If you see this in a trial, what are you gonna do?"  I said "Based on her behavior, I think she's done, but I would probably walk her quickly down along this wall again because she didn't really check it at all."  Dorothy made the point, if I have to make her search an area, there most likely isn't anything there.  There was only one hide.

So lessons learned... 

•  Even though Gimme's reactivity is a bit heightened, she is still able to go to work when she has a clear job to focus on.  This is very good to see (and I saw it in tracking this week as well).  I'm trying to think of how best to use this in our walks.
• I think needing to poop while trying to search is another case of divided focus or multi-tasking, which Gimme can't seem to do right now. 

• She completed two vehicle searches at the recent element trial, despite needing to poop.  She wasn't as focused as usual, but was able to do so successfully.  This was before the recent seizure episode, so she used to be able to do it.
• Clearly I need to get her out for a lot of potty walking before asking her to go to work.  This is my job…

So we go into the weekend with a trial on Sunday.  Cross any body parts you can spare for us.  The following weekend we have a barn hunt trial in Oregon.

Nosework (3/10) & Practice

We had an interesting nosework class last night - as always. 

The first search was a group of a 9 file boxes, four were up on chairs, with one odor.  I thought Gimme found the odor right away (a box on a chair), sniffed it, but didn't indicate and continued searching, paying no attention to it.  There were two times when she actually arced away/around it, while tipping her nose toward it.  She does this sometimes, because even with a peanut butter reward, she still sometimes prefers hunting over finding - especially when there is only one hide and more likely for the first search.  I don't know why about the first search, since she knows we are at class and she knows there will be more searches.  

I commented about her pointedly ignoring the hide and both instructors pooh-poohed what I said.  This is really the only thing I don't like about training with Dorothy and her co-instructor.  After all this time (17 months), they still don't think I know my dog.  I guess they don't ascribe any significance to when she arcs away from odor, even when she does it twice.  After checking all the boxes three times, Gimme finally went directly to the odor box and indicated.  She clearly knew where it was, because she went directly to it from several boxes away. 

For the second search, they moved the odor box to another chair and then put food and toy distractions in all the other boxes.  Gimme enjoyed this challenge and sniffed each box briefly (did not get sucked in by any of the goodies) and then indicated on first sniff of the odor box.  Gimme has always liked a good challenge

For the third search, there was one table, a bunch of chairs, three wheelchairs, the red wheeled cart, a toy wagon with a lot of other stuff in a smallish area.  Three odors were set on a diagonal crossing the area.  The hardest one was under the large table at the very center, with a wheelchair pulled up to the table on one side.  Gimme worked very steadily and found two right away.  When she was trying to access the one under the table, the wheelchair was there and she did quite a bit of detailing on it.  Then she whined briefly.  I don't know what the whine was about - she could have gotten under the table next to the wheelchair, so I didn't think it was really in the way.  But then she came around the other side on her own and quickly sourced odor.  Possibly the whine was just frustration, because she may have thought odor was somewhere on the wheelchair and she couldn't find it.

Our last search was just one hide under the toy wagon.  Gimme found this really fast.

Seizure update:  Gimme is doing fine.  We did an energy healing aimed at repairing any damage to her brain and resetting any seizure pathways.  We'll be doing a few more.  Initially I noticed she was pretty clingy, following me every moment and this has returned to normal over time.  During the first week, her responsiveness to cues was slow, but then it seemed to gradually get back to normal.  The lasting issue has been a loss of impulse control when we are walking.  This puzzled me because even when her responses were slow, Gimme was still able to ignore distractions and work with me.  Then yesterday it occurred to me - loose leash walking is really a very different task.  She's allowed to sniff and snoop and pee and poop, but at the same time, she's expected to pay attention to me and not pull on the leash.  Essentially, its a multi-tasking behavior, which of course would be harder than a single task behavior.  So we're working on it and taking our time and I'm sure it'll come back.

Tonight we did go to DaPaws to practice RallyFrEe.  Honestly, I felt like our practice just 4 days after the seizure episode went better than tonight's practice.  Gimme just seemed unfocused and we had to drop back to basics in a couple of places.  I'm not sure what to make of this.  It could be because we just recently changed her false pregnancy support package, reducing a number of things.  I'll recheck them tomorrow.  She could simply be having a bad day.  Or it could be something else entirely.

Meanwhile I've noticed her ability to ignore other dogs has gone downhill, but this actually started before the seizure episode and I suspect is related to the false pregnancy.  Its a little loss from where we were, but nothing like prior false pregnancies, so I'm still really happy with our current support package for the f.p.   Gimme is fine when they are approaching, playing "whazzat" for cheese, but as they pass, then she wants to whip across in front of me and lunge at them as they are moving away.  Some dogs she wants to lunge for sooner.  I've been trying to catch a moment when I could pay her with peanut butter as they go past, without luring, but it hasn't worked.  

So now I'm going to try a different approach.  We are working on our emergency u-turn "let's go" (sometimes without a u-turn) and with a new twist, always paid with peanut butter.  Its a game cue of sorts and Gimme thinks its lots of fun.  We've only used it once for real, when a lady let three dogs out of her car without leashes and they were running in our direction, paying no attention to her attempts to call them back.  (some people shouldn't be let out in public)  We ran right back to our car and Gimme never knew there was an issue.

My plan is to use the "let's go" in conjunction with what I call, the paperclip turn.  Its where you see someone heading toward you with a dog and you turn 180 degrees and walk slow so they catch up to you and just as they do, you again turn 180 degrees and then walk fast.  We'll do the second 180 as a "let's go".  At some point I want to morph this to walking straight and then suddenly dashing forward in "let's go" mode for a few steps.  Of course, this does require careful assessment in real time, since I don't want our "let's go" dash to be a trigger for the other dog to behave badly.

I'll let you know how it goes.  Meanwhile the couch beckons me and my girl for a 007 movie...

Nosework (1/10)

We had some interesting searches.  

The first search was an underwater search - with 1 q-tip at the bottom of a bowl of water.  The breeze should have been blowing the scent away from us, but there was a large log between the source of the breeze and the hide.  So I think it was creating a bit of a swirl.  Anyway, all the dogs found it pretty quickly.  

Something I've been concerned about happened tonight.  I've been training tracking in her nosework harness because the harness I intend to use long-term for tracking still needs alterations.  At first she never peed on a track, but now she does - probably because the others all do and she often follows them.  Anyway tonight, after we'd started the search, she went into the grass and peed - even though she'd had a chance to pee shortly before.  I took her by the harness and marched her off the search area, gave her a squinty-eyed look and then restarted her.  There is no problem with fouling the track, but its an NQ in nosework.  So I'm thinking I'm going to have to nip this in the bud or it could be a problem for our nosework career.  

The second search was three hides stuck to the side of the metal building near the industrial size garage doors - following last week's theme of high-medium and low.  She went by the high and medium, brieftly passed the low, then turned around to nail it.  As she went back up the line she got the medium hide easily.  For some reason the high hide (at about 6 feet) seemed to be a big challenge for her.  Normally she aces high hides.  She finally got it, but it seemed to be a challenge.  I suspect it had something to do with the breeze, since she kept getting caught up on stuff nearby and in particular the door to go in the building.

The third and fourth searches were inside.  The area had a lot of stuff everywhere.  There were three hides.  One was set deep in a drawer near where we entered.  Another was on an expen set in a zigzag.  The other was on the underside of the rolling cart.  The green arrow is a fan - which was off for the third search.  The giant garage doors were open at the end of the room (triple dotted line).

For the third search Gimme found the one on the expen first, then walked around to the other side and "found" it again.  She was quite pleased with her cleverness. She had a little challenge getting to the hide on the rolling cart (pink rectangle), I think because it was a converging odor challenge.  Once she got it, then she went on a direct line to the one deep in the drawer. 

For the fourth search the only hide left out was the one on the expen and then the fan was turned on.  We thought this would be a challenging search, but it seemed easy for all the dogs.  Gimme got it very quickly. 

I had an "interesting" conversation with the co-instructor about Gimme's seizures and medication.  She said there was no reason for Gimme to be on medication because she had a dog who had seizures every couple of months for her whole life.  She said they were grand mal seizures, mostly clusters and she never medicated the dog, which lived to 14 years old and died from something else.  I found it an astounding attitude.  Then on the way home I realized part of the issue is her breed, Belgians.  There are breeds recognized for a high incidence of seizures: GSD, Beagles, Belgians, Dachshunds, Keeshonds, Collies, Goldens, Poodles, Huskies, Cocker Spaniels, Irish Setters, Miniature Schnauzers, Wire-haired Fox Terriers, Labrador Retrievers and Saint Bernards. 

Recently I took part in an owner reported health survey of Dalmatians and it showed 5% of Dalmatians have had seizures.  I looked on line and found two articles, one said 3%, and the other 4%, of dogs overall have had seizures.  So Dals are at a slightly increased susceptibility, whereas the breeds listed above have a MUCH higher incidence.  So for people in those breeds, perhaps seizues are part of their view of normal and so they don't take them as seriously.  I do suspect the incidence in Dalmatians is probably closer to the overall percentage, because those owners who report in a health survey are more likely to keep closer track of all the minor issues and possibly over-report, as opposed to the overall population of pet owners. 

BTW the same survey results showed the incidence of false pregnancy in Dalmatians is only 1%.  I've had about 20 Dalmatians (4 males) and two of the females had false pregnancies, so I've seen over 12%.  Thus I was surprised to find the incidence in Dalmatians so low.  

Gimme is still asking about her daily bowl of vanilla ice cream...

We Celebrated Too Soon!

Today started out just wonderful.  Gimme and I snuggled on the couch for a movie then headed over to our walking place.  We put in 2 miles.  

From there we headed to DaPaws for a practice to get ready for the upcoming regional RallyFrEe video event.  I had planned all the things I wanted to work on and had used an online random integer generator to prepare a gradual and variable sequence of numbers of behaviors before rewards.  

When I got there Chris and I moved some of the equipment out of the way so I could set up a course of sorts.  We were also talking about something which happened recently and I was gesticulating wildly, imitating the person in question.  Gimme came over a couple of times to get reassurance and make me calm down - or so I thought.  I took Gimme outside to put her in the van, planning to leave her there while I set up the course.  

She saw William and started pulling in his direction.  Then she seemed to move unusually and at first I thought she was going to squat to pee as soon as she got on the gravel.  But then her front end got lower too and she started to get stiff and unsteady.  This is when I realized she was having a seizure.  I ran to her and held her until it passed.  

When she was able to walk again, I moved her toward the van.  She started to get in, but couldn't get her rear in, so I lifted her in and then she had another seizure.  Again I held her until it passed and when she was ready I helped her get in her crate.  I sat there petting and comforting her and could see her posture, even though she was laying down, was odd.  It seemed like she was trying to hug the ground.  Then she had another seizure.  It seemed to abate and then started again, so I wasn't sure if it was one or two.  The vet said it was likely one because the intensity of activity can vary within a seizure.

I took her to the emergency vet and they checked her out and after they got done gushing over how gorgeous she is, pronounced her fully recovered.  You gotta love a vet who sits on the floor so he can cuddle with your dog while he's talking.  In any case, Gimme certainly loved him.  I learned several things:

• A single seizure, also known as "breakthrough" seizure, is what we had last November and is less serious than a cluster.  A cluster is 3 or more seizures in a 24 hour period.  Any dog who has a cluster should go on anti-convulsion medication right away.
• I'd originally been told getting past 6 months without a repeat was a good sign and the longer they go without improves the odds of there not being another.  On the surface this seems obvious.  But there is actually a medical reason beyond the laws of probability.  The vet told me, while a seizure is actually occurring, the brain is creating new seizure pathways.  The more seizure pathways the greater the likelihood of another seizure occurring.
• He said some individuals will get to a point where they enter "status epilepticus" (an epileptic seizure of greater than five minutes [or more than one seizure within a five minute period without the individual returning to normal between them]).  In the case of a prolonged seizure, immediate treatment is essential, because the longer they are in seizure, the less likelihood of medical intervention being successful.  This goes back to what I said above, about the brain creating new seizure pathways - since new pathways are being created the whole time of the seizure.  A scary thing I hope to never see.
• A stabilized dog can do anything they would normally be able to do. So there is no reason to change or restrict their activity.  This I'm sure Gimme was relieved to hear. 
• While epilepsy and other seizure disorders are mostly progressive, meaning they get worse over time, the vet did go on to say, once stabilized most dogs go on to live a normal life and almost always die from something other than their seizures.

So Gimme has now been started on anti-convulsion medication.  I had two choices, phenobarbitol and levetiracetam.  Phenobarbitol is effective and inexpensive, but has the potential side affect of liver damage over time and requires regularly scheduled blood workups to monitor liver function.  Phenobarbitol also has a 5-10 day acclimatization period where the dog seems drunk until the dog's body gets accustomed to it.  Levetiracetam is more expensive, is every bit as effective, and has no side-affects or acclimatization period.  I'm thinking the cost of repeat blood workups offsets much of the higher cost. 

So naturally I opted for the more expensive choice.  I got a 30-day supply at Walmart and it was twice as expensive as the vet predicted. I'll be shopping online to find a less expensive source.  Still its worth it to have my girl healthy and be sure her liver is going to be okay.  

Cross your paws and say prayers for her... and for me.  I'm exhausted and am going to go collapse on the couch.

Six Month Anniversary

Just a quick note to say...  We've made it to the 6 month anniversary from Gimme's seizure back in November.  I'm happy to have this milestone behind us.  Common wisdom is, if you can make it six months without another one, chances are it was a perfect storm of factors to cause a one time event.  Of course, my Lucy had a couple of seizures when young and then didn't have another for several years.  Still, she never had any more after the second cluster.

So have a glass of wine to celebrate on our behalf...

RallyFrEe (2/2)

We haven't had classes for two weeks and our last class was the one where Gimme had her seizure.  Believe it or not, I was actually nervous about attending class - looking forward to it, but still nervous.  I was also nervous about putting Gimme in her soft crate.  Now I know logically neither class or the soft crate caused the seizure, but logic didn't help with the ache in my stomach.  So, I can clearly see where dogs might make a completely unrelated emotional association, since I'm guilty of the same. 

In any case, today marks three weeks without another seizure - a good thing indeed.  Now just 21 weeks to go before I can relax a bit.  Trying not to obsess, but still every misstep puts me on alert for a few moments.

Class was good.  Several of us entered the World Wide video event.  So Kathy talked to each of us to find out what areas were challenging and planned class around working on those challenges. 

In our case, the issues were all emotional/attitude/focus, which bled over to cause a big loss in precision.  Also Gimme isn’t too sure she thinks doing many exercises and waiting for treats later is such a good deal.  Heeling has always been really fun for Gimme and so I’m looking forward to getting the fun back.

In class today it seemed to take her longer to get focused and ready to work and most disturbing, we had to repeat the process each time we went onto the floor to work.  This confirms my worst fear, Gimme has a bad association to the work itself, not just work-at-DaPaws.  Fortunately Kathy was very patient and let me work through it the way Gimme needed to get into the game (she’s really a very good and patient instructor).

The exercises the other students were having problems with were: bow, spins, circle around, and to center.  Other than bow, we’ve always done well with those; however, with the lack of focus, today we had difficulty with all of them.  So it was still a great class for us, since we were able to work through them and reward a lot for success – which is exactly what we need to get Gimme’s attitude back.

Bow – basically I jumped ahead too soon.  So Kathy had me go back to basics and Gimme was really getting it and doing nicely.  She does sometimes go from bow straight to down, especially when tired, so Kathy had me give her the treat when she was back up in the stand.  Gimme was starting to offer bow to the verbal “salute”.  Kathy says she never does more than 3 or 4 bows to a side in one session.

Spins – she’s always had nice tight spins, but right now she takes a gander in the middle of them.  So Kathy had me go back to luring and then click/treat only after the first step in “heel” or “side”.  At one point Gimme was doing it all wrong – well, until I realized *I* was using the wrong cue.  I was saying “spin” and she was on the “turn” side.  Poor kid.  I apologized and gave her treats for putting up with my mistakes.  After this, I gave her the correct cue and she did a lovely “turn” with a bit of airs-above-the-ground embellishment.  She just had to show us how proud she is to see me learn something – I’m so challenging doncha know.

Circle around – Gimme was doing a gander in the middle of this too.  Part of the problem was my leash handling and the rest was a bit of stress.  Kathy put up an expen barrier for us so I could drop the leash and she had me go back to luring it.  In no time Gimme was doing beautiful tight circles to her verbals “around” and “behind”.  We still have the hand signal back in there, but I’m sure it’ll be gone soon.

To center – Gimme was tending to come in off center, looking toward whichever hand last provided a treat.  So I practiced with the cheese in my mouth and spitting it down to her.   I’m not a very good spitter, so she got quite a few extras.  At least she was happy.  And despite my inaccuracy, she did straighten up quite a bit.

So all in all, it was a good class and we have lots to work on.  I’m looking forward to next week. 

In a strange turn of events, Gimme has rediscovered motherhood.  She brought the baby in from the car and was playing with it a lot to begin with.  However, now she has been carrying it around for the last couple hours.  I’ll let her keep it until she drops it somewhere and then will see if I can sneak it away.  Time will tell…

Seizure! (RFE 1/2)

RallyFrEe class promised to be a good one.  Gimme is responding well to a new supplement for her false pregnancy, so I expected she'd be a LOT better focused in class.  She was better, but not a lot better.  Since I had her on the floor checking out the area, we were volunteered to go first in the course Kathy had set up for us.  The plan was we would walk the course (which I'd already done), do the course with our dog, individually walk the course again with feedback from Kathy - particularly about timing and smoothness, and then do the course again with our dogs.

Gimme did okay, though she was distracted here and there and some of her turns were wide.  Still there were other spots where she did a beautiful job.  I was sure she'd do better on our second turn together.  Gimme was in her soft crate and I was watching the second team, thinking how much better Gimme did, when she suddenly started flailing around in her crate.

It was like she was chasing her tail (which she's never done), while flopping over onto her side and swimming part of the turn.  I immediately got my hand in the crate to calm and steady her while trying to figure out what she was doing... she kept falling into my hand and trembling and I realized she was having a grand mal.  I yelled to the instructor about needing help and directions to a nearby vet.  The whole class sprung into action... I brought Gimme out of the crate and she was still very unsteady on her feet and clinging to me.  Within a minute I was given a hand-drawn map to a nearby vet and we headed out.  By the time we got to the car, she ignored my attempt to help her and jumped in on her own.

The vet got us in right away, but there was nothing to see.  Gimme seemed perfectly normal and was her usual kissy face self.  There was no evidence whatsoever of illness.  They took blood for lab work and it was normal, other than a very elevated WBC count at 20K (normal range is 5-16K).  We were unable to collect urine since Gimme had peed both when we arrived and on the way out of the training building.  The doctor felt a WBC count so high indicated some infection, which might be the cause of the seizure, especially in combination with the stress of class.  Gimme had been pestering me to go out MANY times the night before - so I thought it could be a UTI.  When it was happening I hadn't thought too much about it because Gimme often rings the bell to go outside in an attempt to get me off the computer.

Gimme had also been picky and uninterested in her breakfast, but this isn't unusual when breakfast comes early and especially if I'm rushing about, so I paid it little attention.  In hindsight I think differently.  Of course, since she had her evening soup very early Wednesday night and ignored it Thursday morning, she might have been slightly dehydrated.  Severe dehydration can cause seizures because it throws off electrolyte balance, which the first vet checked and found within a normal range.  Still subclinical dehydration can cause vestibular syndrome, so I'm not ignoring the possibility.

We did get a urine sample analyzed, but it was normal - with just a little bacteria, which our regular vet thought was from contamination routinely seen with free catch samples.  He poo pooed the idea of high WBC count indicating an infection which could cause a seizure.  However, since then I've talked to my chiropractor, who has a dog with a seizure disorder - he said seizures can be caused by a high WBC count, as well as seizures causing high WBC count.  I've confirmed this by information on several different websites. 

I've also considered her atlas vertebrae might be off, so have scheduled her for a chiropractic adjustment.  I know when my atlas is locked up I get migraines.  My chiropractor agreed a misaligned atlas could be a contributing factor for a seizure, but also said it wouldn't be the only cause.

So right now we don't really know anything and I am in wait-n-see mode.  In most cases, if you can get through six months without another episode, there is a good chance it was a one time occurrence.  Of course, this is not a guarantee and there are many exceptions to the rule.  My chiropractor said many times dogs (and children) will have single event episodes which are never repeated - he referred to it as a "perfect storm" of different factors which together cause "disorganized and sudden electrical activity in the brain".   

Needless to say I am on pins and needles...  while Gimme thinks a large dish of vanilla ice cream every day would prevent a recurrence.