Not A Good Day

Reyna is spending the night at the vet school emergency hospital. Shortly after 2:00pm today, she had five seizures in a row, barely managing to come completely out of one before the next started. She had another seizure at 5:10, and the seventh at 5:15. The last one was different from the rest, in that she was laying completely on her side, but her head was twisted around so that her chin was on the floor. It even woke up Duncan. In fact, that’s how I knew she was having one. I was in the kitchen, and I heard Duncan move really quick. When I turned to look at him, he was staring at Reyna with a “What the crap are you doing?!?” look on his face. I called the vet school emergency clinic, told them what was happening, and they told me to bring her in. So I did.

The vet said that her seizures are definitely facial focal (partial) seizures. He also said that seven in three hours is very bad, and the fact the she was contorting somewhat on the last one is even worse. They ran a bunch of blood work tonight, and called me about 9:45 tonight to tell me that those tests came back okay, and that the neurologist has started her on Phenobarbital, and will give her another dose in the morning. I’d mentioned my regular vet’s concern about combining the Pheno and her hip meds, and the response was that most dogs do fine on both, but if she has trouble, the Pheno is more important, and they’ll find her a new pain killer. The neurologist will officially be assigned her case tomorrow morning, and is supposed to call me between 8:00 and 10:00 to tell me what’s happening. Depending on the tests they decide to run tomorrow, she may be able to come home and then go back in Monday morning, or she might have to stay there until sometime Monday. It just depends on what they find. The vet who saw her tonight said he’s pretty sure its epilepsy, but they have to rule out the other possibilities before they can say that with any real certainty. So now we wait and see.