Canine epilepsy and quality of life questions, update
Last edited Sun Jan 10, 2016, 06:45 PM - Edit history (1)
So, I have a 10 year old boxer/vizsla mix that had sudden onset seizures beginning in November. He had one Thanksgiving night and then 4 more Monday. We rushed him to our vet, who examined him and sent us to the emergency hospital (since they could monitor 24/7 and they have injectable meds that my regular vet doesn't). He was exhibiting partial right-side paralysis (eye-twitching, stiffness). The emergency vets phenobarb-loaded him and as with our regular vet, gave us the grim news: likely these seizures were caused by brain tumors, but the only way to find out was to do scans or spinal taps.
The next question was: what do we do with that information? My husband and I agreed we would not do surgery, chemo, or radiation thus no need for scans. I have two other dogs, it would not be fair to the sick dog to put him through such an ordeal.
At any rate, we brought our dog home from the hospital yesterday. He is showing signs of either: severe post-ictal symptoms or I suppose, advanced brain disease. He smashes into things that have been in place for more than 2 years. He is unaware of his brother-dogs' presence, which is going to precipitate a fight at some point (we'll keep them separate when we're not at home). He's peeing in the house constantly (because of the phenobarb and prednisone).
I'm worried for his quality of life. I had a dog who had doggie dementia. We let him hang on far too long. My fear with this dog is that, because of our experience with our previous dog, we'll let him go too quickly. But I know his brain is so rattled right now and he is certainly NOT the same dog. It's so heartbreaking. My other dogs are totally freaked out too, and are much smaller than him (he's 60#, the others are 20# and 5#). My question: has anyone experienced anything like this and if so, how did you handle it?
Thanks in advance.
Update at a week out: he's doing much better. He still pees all the time, but his gait is better and it seems as though some vision is coming back. Thanks for the good thoughts.
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