Every time I read stories such as these I look up on the shelf above my puter and see my Jesse. How do they steal our whole hearts and souls in such short periods of time? I am glad to read the news, Chad. I was wondering if you had to leave to provide pre-hosp care to the hurricane victims..If you did, that must have been so hard..

Canine Epilepsy
 

Chad,

Please go to the Epi Guardian Angels website ASAP.They are a great source
of information for all dogs that have seizures and epilepsy.They have given me
invaluable support and information regarding causes and treatment.
My baby girl Scruffy is doing so much better because of the help I have
received.

Scruffy's Mom

Well,

I know its been a while since i been here, but little baby Icee is now 2lbs 1oz. The doc says she won't grow much more. She is very very healthy and spoiled rotten. She has not had another seizure since the day she took the phenobarbatol, so it's been great. We are weening her off the phenobarb slowly but surely. We love our baby, and she is great.


Chad

When my son was born, he had seizures. He was put on Phenobarbitol for a short period of time to stop his seizures and to prevent them from coming back. Just like your Icee, we were able to wean him off of the Phenobarbitol. I wanted to tell you though, incase noone had, that Phenobarbitol is probably the reason that your Icee will not grow much more. She has been stunted for the lack of better words during her most crucial growing period. That's the reason most doctors (human and pet) don't like to put them on Phenobarbitol for any long periods of time. It has the effect of physical and psychological developmental delay or depression. (I'm a 10 year pharmacy technician too.) My son hasn't had another seizure since the ones he had when he was 5 days old. No traumatic birth but yet there was a tiny bit of blood at the base of his brain that could have been causing just enough pressure that sent his body into seizure activity. It was never fully determined what caused my son's seizures. We live every day knowing that since his body already knows how to seize, it will be more apt to seize again if ever it needs to fight off an infection. Just be aware of it in the future...it's a learned thing. Once the body knows how to do it, it'll do it again if it sees that it can try that to get rid of other bad things. Hence febrile seizures in patients that have had seizures in their lives before.

Hopefully Icee won't ever have another seizure. And remember, Icee isn't experiencing any pain during her seizures....that's the one thing that got me thru seeing my son have them. Knowing that he wasn't feeling anything that was hurting him. It was so much more painful to me than it was to him.

BTW...Icee is a DOLL BABY! :)

Hi Chad & Icee,

I saw your post for the first time today and I felt like I wrote it. Jewel had very similar symptoms to Icee. We had an MRI & spinal tap done and her doctor told us it looks like Jewel has Necrotizing Encephelitis or GME. Did you post what Icee was diagnosed with? I must have missed it.

To controll Jewel's seizures, we started with potassium bromide instead of phenobabitol for safety reasons. PB takes longer to bring seizures under controll but it does not harm the kidney or liver.

Just in case Icee does have another seizure, here is a simple thing you can do that seems to help Jewel quite a bit. We put an icepack on her lower back between the lower rib to the tail section. It seem to get her out of the seizure more quickly and also seems to curb the frantic running they do after.

I'd like to compare notes with you just to see if there is more I can do for Jewel. It sound like Icee is stable and I'm very happy for you & your wife that she is doing well.

Corinne

Wow that is great news. Im so glad she is so much better. sending her lots of hugs.

That's good news. I hope she keeps getting better and better!

THat's the funny thing. The never diagnosted her. They just sent us home, and told us that she would prolly get worse and eventually die!!!!
Butttttt........................


She is perfect now, and i mean perfect. She is the greatest dog ever. She wakes us up every morning with lots of kisses on our noses.


Chad

Here she is now, looking at me like, "Hey, cook me something!!!"


http://www.chadandkatie.com/albums/M...Image00006.jpg

Oh~My~Goodness~~~~!!!

Can she be any cuter???? Wow! I can't get over how cute she is! I'm so happy for you all that she is well & PERFECT!!!

Please keep her ears that way... It adds so much to her cuteness!


This is Jewel:

1st Picture is on her "Off" day - you can see she is unfocused
2nd Picture in on her "Good" day - The spark is back in her eyes!

Wow, she's cute as well.

We aren't sure how to do her hair yet. We really like it short but we'll see. Thanks for the comments.

Well,

Icee has been officially weened from her phenobarbital for about 2.5 months now. She is absolutely great. She is getting thicker and looking good. So far, there have been no side effects of any kind.............Well we think she is OCD, but u know.

She is doing very well and we are finally starting to introduce her to other dogs for about 4 months now. Originally we couldn't put her around other animals cuz she wasn't properly vaccinated, but now we're good to go. She is a mess when she gets around other animals, so we're starting with just one dog, lol. It's funny.


Chad

How wonderful

Wow, Chad, that's FABULOUS!
 

To go from dire prognosis to no phenobarb is AWESOME! Congrats on your girl's great report, and I would love to see new pictures!

:D

Wow, Chad, what an amazing story. Icee is sooooooo cute. I absolutely love her ears....they make her extra adorable. Thank you for all of the details...this will help others :)