Peace of Mind

Hello just wondering if someone could I guess give me their thoughts and maybe answer some questions or give advice for some closure for me. We had to put my dog down this passed week. She was a healthy little Boston terrier who was only seven. She had no health issues regular checkups and all shots, ate well and was very active. Everything happed so fast. New years day she was going for a walk and started to foam from her mouth, we stopped. Later she ate and we played fetch and after about an hour she sat up from laying down and foamed from the mouth and had a seizure sitting. From there she had about three more each hour on the hour. We were out of town and rushed her to an emergency vet and they kept her for two days to monitor her. While in there she had a few more at random hours. We were allowed to pick her up and they advised us to go to our family vet that was open once we picked her up and gave us valume to give to her if she had a seizure over thirty seconds. Once at our vet, we were told that it appeared she had epalepcy. Had to decided on phibobartbatol or Keppra, then it dawned on us about two years ago on a walk she fell over during the walk and now we were convinced this may be part of what was happening now and that she could of had a seizure back than. We went home with her on phebarbatol and said it may take some time to get in her system. Next day she had about two seizures and then the next day had only one. We thought it was working. Our vet than put her on Keppra as well after another visit to see if it could get in her system faster. Then maybe wheen her off one of the drugs in the future. After about a week of dealing with our dog and meds and valume, she was still having a few a day. Only spanning about 10-30 seconds. Taking alot out of her each time. Last Saturday, when we all went to bed she had about seven. Every hour and every time she started to sleep and get into a deep sleel She started having a seizure and would wake up. It was horrible, all very short. Heartbreaking. Once again we went to emergency vet once we could get in early morning. She was put on an iv and monitored again for a whole 24 hrs. She had a few sezuires while in there. We picked her up once again for an appointment at our vets after this visit, they said that the meds should be working and arnt for and that it may not be epalepcy. Also said they noticed she was a bit aggressive from the prior visit days ago, which was thought because she had enough of all these vet visits and was traumatized. We were told it could be a tumour and that an mri and chemo may help but most people don't go down that route. The hardest part of my life was this decision with my family. We decided to put our dog down and save her suffering and what these sezuires were doing for her. All the trauma all the meds and after each sezuires she was skiddish, tired, wasn't to active and just doppey. My questions are I guess. Do you think this was epalepcy if meds never worked? Do you think it was a tumour or something on the brain? And can a tumour come on that quickly all within week and make a dog have that many sezuires. I've read alot of things and never seen a story where a dog has about 20 sezuires in a week. We noticed that when she layed around on her last day her nose like went back and fourth and her eyes moved around throughout the day from side to side. Thought it was a mini seziure Any advice would help, I know it won't bring her back but would just help my mind. Thanks

Hello!  I'm sorry that you lost your lovely girl so young and that you are, quite obviously, devastated.   There is a website called The Ralph Site which you may be interested in, about losing a pet and there are some blogs in our site blog, perhaps under 'when is it time for euthanasia' or along those lines, which may also help.  More to follow.

The death of a dog has been shown time and time again to be as upsetting as the death of any other family member, particularly at the time that it happens.  I don't think that any vet would expect you to take in anything but the main details at that point, so it is always reasonable to ask them to talk things over again with you later if it helps. I find that some clients like to write a short list of questions that they'd like answered regarding difficult cases.  I don't know enough about your girl's symptoms to explain what kind of seizure-like activity it might have been, but it sounds as though you and your vets witnessed enough of these events to put together a good idea.  Epilepsy is only one potential cause of neurological problems with a 'fit' like presentation and to my understanding epilepsy usually shows up in younger animals and is generally responsive to medication.   A lump in the brain cavity could be one explanation, although most recently I heard thinking that these cases may be over diagnosed.  However, there are a variety of other causes and some breeds have typical, inherited patterns which could be useful to investigate.  Your vet will hopefully help you to talk through their main suspicions and furthermore (although it isn't for everyone) a post mortem may still be a possibility if your vet feels that it would help.  Best of luck and I hope that you find the answers or reassurance that you seek.

To go back to your point about whether it's possible for a dog to have so many seizures, I'm afraid that as a one-time night-vet (ie emergencies) I witnessed this many times; often, a dog will suffer cluster seizures, where they recover after a fit and then go into another, but worse than that is the perpetual fitting state known as status epilepticus, which can come about if the fits continue to increase in frequency until resting time between them is diminished.  Most of these patients do not wake up or, if the seizures are controlled with drugs, may rest for a while but if the cause is not allayed, start fitting again on recovery.   MRI is not readily available or easily affordable so it is difficult to know in what proportion of recurrently fitting dogs a tumour is present.

However, it is conceivable that a tumour could grown undetected for some time, until suddenly hitting a point where it was big enough to trigger fits; once that size had been reached, or that level of pressure in the brain had been reached, further seizure activity may typically follow it in a short space of time.    I think I have now answered all of your questions, but please come back with any more concerns.   I think that fitting is an incredibly hard way to lose a pet, especially since they appear so perfect on the outside and the signs are so dramatic with such a fast onset.   Don't forget about the Ralph (web) site especially for bereaved pet owners, and wishing you all the best at this hard time.

Thank you so much Liz, I really appreciate it!  Honestly