Our little chihuahua, Prancer is 15 years old and has canine epilepsy. While his seizures are far between they are have become more violent than the first ones we’ve encountered with a leg freezing up or in a semi contorted position. We’ve made a decision in order to further limit his chances of a seizure we are going to cook his meals instead of purchasing commercial dog food. We know the risks and benefits of cooking for a dog, and have a very excellent book, Canine Epilepsy: An Owner’s Guide to Living With and Without Seizures by Caroline D. Levin, that goes over all aspects of canine epilepsy and cooking for them.
I thought I would take a little time to go over our first meal we have prepared for Prancer. This might be a little different than what i usually write about here on Atomac, but I know there is at least one reader (MegaNice9, I am looking in your direction) that has taken on the the extra care needed for our little friends, the dog.
Continue reading ‘Cooking for a Dog with Epilepsy’
Our good friend MegaNice9 was looking at her site stats for SlimeCulture.tv today and noticed someone hotlinking to one of the hilarious pictures of her marvelous pet, Oogie Boogie. When she checked it out, it was an article on rabies and was using Oogie’s picture with the alt text “A rabid dog”. She also figured out that a Google Image Search for “rabid dog” shows Oogie on Page 1! Here’s some pictures and links as proof!
Google Image Search for “rabid dog”
Rabies Article - WARNING: This site contains graphic images of dog abuse at the top!
It’s funny how catching a picture of an animal yawning makes them look so ferocious despite how gentle (and in this case feeble) they might be. This image was finally snapped by PolyVector today, and he’s been trying for a long time now to get a picture of Prancer yawning.
Yesterday was Prancer’s big day at the vet. He had some dental surgery and a slew of test results came back after Monday’s appointment. In case you didn’t know, that stunning beast portrayed in the image above is Prancer PolyVector and my 14 (15 in November) year old Chihuahua.
The tests we had done were part of a “Senior Profile” our local vet does. It was an amazing thorough appointment. Nothing like the vet experience we had back in Flagstaff. In fact, I would even go as far as saying Willow, if you are reading this, I think it might be a good idea to give another vet a try. Anywho, Prancer had blood taken, a fecal and urine analysis as well as a Thyroid test. Everything came back normal except for a few things that were directly related to his dental disease. Prancer’s vision is going, but he is by no means blind, and his ears look good except for some small wax build up.
Now for the big stuff, the dental surgery. yesterday Prancer went under anesthesia to get a teeth clean/polishing and two extractions. I have also been giving him antibiotics twice a day and now a pain medication as needed since the surgery. The picture above was taken this morning, so as you might notice he is doing very well. Last night he was a little whiney and groggy, but that has all worn off by this evening.
Some little updates on his seizures since some of you might be wondering if you follow up on Atomac. He hasn’t had a single one since moving back to Southern California. So that means he has been completely seizure free for a little over two weeks. We are monitoring him closely and keeping him on his regular diet. So far so good!
Now some apartment news. PolyVector’s Mom was amazingly fast with the couch cover and that has been finished and placed on our couch as of Wednesday (which was also my birthday). Everything is coming along very slowly, but we found a “desk” for PolyVector and our last little obstacle (besides putting the office together) is fixing our internet. But that is another story all together. So everyone look out, we are bound to get things back to normal soon.
It has been a mad house around here with very little time to call our own. I am sure those of you who regularly chat with me online have noticed my absence. We have been swamped with applications for various DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) licensing and registrations, to getting addresses and phone numbers updated with various advertisers, billing, and of course Prancer’s vet visit.
Today is the day we finally got Prancer in to the local vet. Our appointment is at 4:15pm. I am a little nervous. I have not been able to get any solid information on local clinics down here in Ramona. We are going to be taking Prancer to the newest clinic (Adobe Animal Hospital) and see how it goes. Today he is getting a checkup and a nail clipping. We are going to be bringing up seizures and diet along with an eye examination (I wanna make sure Prancer doesn’t have Glaucoma or any other eye problem that could possibly be fixed if caught early on). I’ll give a quick review of the clinic when we get back this evening. I have to say they worked us in quickly. I called this morning and we had the choice of going in right away or waiting for the afternoon. The receptionist on the phone was nice. So I am hopeful.
A sort of fun thing we have been doing around here is furniture shopping. My desk was broken during the move cause of a stupid suggestion I made during packing. All is not a loss I was actually in the middle of deciding on doing a floor setup like PolyVector had in Flagstaff. We finally found something to his and my liking and are in the process of rearranging our office. Another purchase we were thinking about was a couch. Our current couch is from Ikea and the very tailored cover for it has ripped. We have tried patching it and special ordering from Ikea to replace it, but alas, no one has anything. We were just about to make a purchase on a new couch when PolyVector’s mom was kind enough to come over and get measurements. She is going to fabricate us a new cover made out of any material we would like. With the couch currently being a cream or off white a nice dark brown or charcoal is going to be a welcome change. I don’t think we can thank her enough for the hard work she is putting into our silly couch cover.
I know I keep promising pictures, and I think I am going to wait until the apartment is in order before I get anything up. it has just been too crazy around here and I honestly just keep forgetting. once things are in order and we actually have time to kick back some more I’ll have some more freedom on taking shots and not hiding all the havoc.
At around 8am this morning PolyVector and I had one of the biggest scares ever. Prancer had a grand mal seizure. Apparently he has been having very small seizures that we thought were him cramping up. I feel so stupid for not putting these two things together for so long. Prancer back in 2002 had an extremely terrible car accident which resulted in half of his cranium being smashed. The doctors did warn my mom that he would probably end up with seizures or total blindness. This definitely is going to change the way we take care of him, including his diet and exercise. This coming Tuesday we are making the long drive down to California to finish our move and I hope everything goes well.
I know this may be a long shot, but if anyone knows or can recommend anything concerning epilepsy in dogs please leave us a comment. You better believe we are doing all the research we can online and as soon as the move is complete will be consulting a vet.
And I just want to say that seeing Prancer go into a full grand mal seizure is something I would never want to have happen to anyone else’s pets. He is doing well right now and comfortably relaxing in his bed. We have drawn all the shades and keeping a very calm atmosphere.
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