A rough Friday night...

On Friday night, Tom got home from a pack meeting about an hour later than we thought it would last (9:00 p.m.) and it had been a long week with lots of meetings (he's having to do a bunch of fundraising presentations for the next couple of months). So, we were both excited he was home for the weekend. Around 9:45 (we had been playing a board game) we noticed that our dog Maddie was acting very strange and it seemed like her back legs were bothering her and she was very uncomfortable sitting or laying down. About 20-30 minutes later she fell over on her side and went into a really bad seizure. It was one of the scariest, saddest things we've ever seen. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her tongue dangled out of her mouth, she was foaming and salivating like crazy and her limbs were shaking uncontrollably. We really had no idea what to do so I ran and called my mom b/c she once worked at a vet clinic and my dad's a doctor so I was hoping they could help. She told me to call an emergency vet clinic so I did and they said we should take her in right away. So, Tom managed to get her outside where she continued convulsing like crazy. Our friend/neighbor came over to help and they got her in the car and to the clinic where she continued her seizures until they finally got it to stop sometime after midnight.

Anyway, Tom was there at the clinic until after 2:00 a.m. They had to give Maddie I.V.s and lots of meds and when Tom left it was with the understanding that they would slowly take Maddie off the meds and if she went back into convulsions they may have to put her down. It was a very hard night for us! We've had Maddie since she was 8 weeks old, she's turning 4 in just a little over a month and she's Taylor's best friend. She's such a good, sweet dog and I often feel like she's watching out for us. She's a very important member of our family. So, we weren't sure what would happen and if she'd be okay. We woke up at 7:15 and called the vet and thankfully he said she was doing much better and was feeling much more hopeful about her. She stayed there all day yesterday so they could monitor how she was doing and we got to go pick her up yesterday evening. She was totally medicated and looped up (not herself at all) and the vet prescribed some valium for us to give her all this next week (it makes her VERY loopy). The vet also said we needed to be careful having Taylor and Maddie be so close b/c the medications could make her moods be different and she might snap at Taylor. (Which is quite scary for us)

They don't know why she had this happen. We read up on seizures in dogs and they typically last just a couple of minutes and hers lasted for over two hours! We are having to watch her closely in case she has another one. She could have epilepsy, but they don't think so b/c she's older than it usually appears in dogs. They think that maybe she just got into something toxic but we couldn't come up with anything b/c she's an indoor dog and our toxic stuff is all out of reach. The only thing that it may be is if she happened to eat a cigarette butt that our lovely neighbors threw down from their balcony during one of her escorted outings to pee and poop. The vet said if it had enough nicotine it could possibly have caused it, but who knows?

We are just glad we've got her home and she actually seems to be doing better and a little more herself. I hope so badly that that was her first and last seizure. It was so scary and sad to watch. I'm glad Taylor was in bed and Tom was home when it happened. Sorry this is such a long post and I know it probably seems lame to some, but I know some of you (especially you Mary) understand how hard it was for us. I just hope she stays better.