Old Dog

This has been a long, dog week.

Last Sunday night around 8 o’clock, Parker, our faithful old Golden, had a sudden, unprecedented seizure.  It was terrifying.  As his usual posture, he was napping in the hallway, his head resting at the threshold to the downstairs office.  Joe was working at his desk; I was upstairs helping Joey with his nighttime things.

All of a sudden, Joe yelled for me to come down… quick!  The dog was on his side, convulsing and running in place, legs paddling madly.  He lost control of his bodily functions and there was blood smeared on the white tile floor underneath his head.  He must have bitten his mouth or tongue.  The seizure lasted about two minutes and he was extremely weak and disoriented for a long time afterwards.  We called the emergency veterinarian clinic and they recommended bringing him in right away.

After tests, they narrowed the possible causes down to an infection (not probable), epilepsy (not likely to onset in an older dog) and a brain tumor (most likely to occur in an older dog).  The only way to really be sure of the cause is to have an MRI done at the regional go-to experts for veterinary care, the University of Penn.  But, we started him immediately on the antibiotic sent home with him that night.

I stopped in at our regular vet’s office on Monday morning, the next day, without Parker, to drop off a poop sample to check for parasites. This was also suggested as a possible cause (it was negative).  Parker was still shaky and in a weakened state.  Later that afternoon, he had another seizure, so I called our vets and they had me start him on potassium bromide right away, an anti-seizure med.  However, this would not reach effectiveness for two to three weeks.  I brought him to our vet for a follow-up on Tuesday night.  I left there with the tearful prognosis of brain cancer.

But here is the good part.  He has been seizure free since Monday afternoon.  He is slowly regaining his strength, although his back legs are still very weak.   This leads us to think that it may have been an infection (since it appears that he has responded to the antibiotics) and not the dreaded brain cancer that we were prepared for by the doctor.   

Parker is still struggling in the hind leg area when trying to get up, but he is so much better and he is surely returning to his former self.  It now seems possible that he will be with us for a while longer.  

Our pets are so much a part of our lives, our babies, even when they are old and gray-faced.  They need us and we need them.