Doing Battle With Seizures

Wally has been having issues for some time now and he's going in for bloodwork in the morning. He's been having seizures and attempts to control it have been mixed in effect, so he's going to go in to see if a cause can be identified and all that.

Sigh, something else to have to be concerned about, but hopefully it will be something that is "easy" to deal with and not an indication of something severely wrong in his mind or body.

Fortunately, the seizures are over quickly and he's back to normal rather quickly. His personality or ability to learn and understand have not been affected, which is probably another good sign - or at least I hope it is.

A Nightmare of a Night, Literally

I don't know what his nightmare was about, but whatever it was, it gripped him hard.

Poor dog was thrashing around, not just the twitching paws but his body flailing around, growling, biting at the air, it was intense. Took several minutes just to wake him from it, and when he did, he wasn't aware of anything in terms of where he was or who I was - even growling at me while I was holding him.

He settled down a little bit and started to recognize where he was and who I was, but he was still terrified. I set him down and gave him some room as he was panting very hard and visibly shaken up. He started looking at me as I moved, but he still didn't want to get up. When he did, he wanted to go hide in his other spot in my room.

Whatever it was scared him so much he had peed on himself and he had an accident trying to get outside. Still scared and skittish, but moving around and following me a bit. I took him out for some air and to let him just clear his head. The walk eventually started settling him down and he got back to his usual self more.

While outside, just wanted him to get back to his usual self and we played some and such. He started relaxing and shaking his body (calming signal, usually a "whew, that was intense" or "glad that's over" type signal) and quickly started coming around to himself again.

I hope he doesn't have to go through that again, though I guess if it happens again, I know what to do to help him out of it and settle his mind.

Scary Moment With a Harmless Cause

Just got a scare not long ago - thought something was going majorly wrong with Wally. He was thrashing about, freaking out, never seen him do anything like that before.

I was thinking he was choking on something, maybe sneaked and ate something or something had gotten in his throat and couldn't get it out, and any number of things.

I got him still enough so that he wouldn't hurt himself with all that thrashing and looked in his mouth. Turns out it was nothing more than a strand or two of his hair had gotten inside his mouth and it was a longer piece so it must have tickled his throat and was triggering some reflex and serious frustration in trying to get it out.

Never before seen him do anything like that! All these years of having long hair everywhere and nothing like that happened and now it does. Scared me out of my mind.

Suffice to say that I got the scissors out and trimmed that hair down and will do so from now on. Every time I give him a bath or a good brushing, I will be checking the length of that hair around his muzzle and jaws. 

Ugh - don't scare me like that, Wally!