Tommy Coyote

I didn't know cats could get this. That is the first time I have heard of that. Got a text this morning that he is better. Head not so tilted and he kept his food down. Thank you for the input. I just keep forwarding it on to his owner. He just looked so miserable that any good news helps to hear.

Thank you. His owner texted me that he ate a little last nite - some chicken bites and scrambled eggs. She is an ICU nurse practitioner so he is in good hands. It really hurts to see him so miserable. He is such a sweet dog.

Thank you. I will pass that on. He is really wobbly but his head isn't really tilted. Abd he is s drinking and keeping the water down. Not eating yet. I am sorry. I am on my phone and I can't type worth a damn on this thing. Yes. It is vestibular.

One of the dogs I take care of just came down with vestibular syndrome. He is drinking but not eating so far and has meds for nausea. I haven't been over there yet today but the owner says his head isn't tilted but he is having trouble walking. He needs assistance getting around, going down the stairs outside, getting settled up on the couch. Anybody have any information or ideas that could help dealing with this? Sorry. I can't correct the title to correct the spelling.

Gentle Lake: I was not addressing your comment about having to have the dog put down. I have witnessed a dog with nonstop seizures and I would have them put down, too. The vet said that it was the very worst thing they have to deal with. It was awful. We took the dog to the vet hospital in Columbia, Mo and he was there for several days but they couldn't stop the seizures. They would bring him up out his drugged state and he would be ok for about 20 minutes and then he would start seizing again. That said, several of the old dogs I have taken care of had seizures right before they died. Those dogs didn't have epilepsy. It was something fatal that caused the seizures right at the end of their lives. I think that happens pretty often. I was simply talking about dogs like my Joey. He has grand mal seizures but they are under control and his quality of life really isn't any different than any dog. I had a really hard time trying to deal with his seizures before he went on meds. He would have them early, early in the morning. I got so that I couldn't sleep because I was so afraid he would have another seizure. I was constantly listening for the sound of him banging his head on the floor. And toward the end of the seizure he would scream. It is terrible to watch even though the dog is unconscious and not suffering. All I was saying is that I wouldn't put a dog down simply because it had seizures. But I most certainly would if the seizures couldn't be controlled and were happening often. Or like in your case where the dog was old and was seizing. I have had a couple of instances where people were out of reach and something catastrophic happened. The worst was a sheltie. The whole right side of his heart went out. He really needed to be put down. He was in a lot of distress. I did not want to have to make that decision. In that case the vet was able to keep him comfortable for a couple of days until the owner came home. She got to see him. But I really don't want to have to make that decision again. It was agonizing.

I would never have a dog put down just because it had seizures unless it's life was seriously impaired. I have had 3 dogs with seizures. Joey is by far the most serious. He has good quality of life. So far.

Joey just had another seizure but it was completely different. I noticed he was drooling a little. Then his head started to shake just a little. Lasted just a few seconds. Snapped right out of it. We had lowered his meds just a little. We may just need to go back to the original dose. Calling his vet tomorrow.

Sometimes melatonin helps, too. Joey's siezures were sleep induced. I tried melatonin and it made no difference for him. Diet changes didn't help, either. He is still doing great on pheno. it has been a year and a half. No side effects so far. Hasn't affected his behaviour at all. We do have to have blood work done once a year.

I looked into Keppra when I found out about a year ago that Joey had epilepsy . He had just turned 3. Joey is on phenobarbital and has done really well. No seizures since he started. I just have to have blood work done every year to make sure the meds aren't causing problems. His yearly checkup was $294. Phenobarbitol costs me about $35 a month. Keppra even in the generic was $150 plus. When I asked my vet about Keppra his comment was that the cost was so much higher than the other drugs. I heard the same thing about Keppra. That it doesn't have the potential negative side effects that the more commonly used drugs have. I take care of an English setter that was just diagnosed about a year ago. She gets seizures if she gets too excited. She is on phenobarbital and has been seizure free since going on meds. Her blood work has all been good. I also take care of a very old lab that has been on phenobarbital for years and has been seizure free all that time. And I have another lab that takes potassium bromide and she has live to be very old and has been seizure free all that time.

I knew a dog that ate acorns and he had blood in his stools. Those shells are sharp. I wouldn't encourage it

yea!

I am lucky. Joey is perfectly happy in his safe space. He gets tons of exercise playing with the other dogs and he runs up and down the fence with the neighbor's dogs. And I an home a lot so he has lots of company. He doesn't get reactive until he is outside his ok space. He is fine.

My youngest dog has a lot of issues. He has epilepsy. He has OCD - he spins. And he over reacts to everything. He gets scared and just wigs out. But he is ok as long as he is in his safe space - the backyard and the house. He is very happy there. He is very sweet with me. He is good with my other dogs. He is good with the neighbor dogs. I just can't take him out. I can't take him in the front yard. He just stays home. He is fine there. If he needs to go to the vet for bloodwork I give him tranquilizers. And he does ok. They can do what they need to do. And he really doesn't like strangers. We just make do.

Maybe Liz can comment on that. I recognized it because I have seen it before. My vets recognized it right away . Some of those behaviors are pretty common like spinning or snapping at nonexistent flies or biting at shadows.

Two of my dogs have OCD or CCD (Canine Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Fortunately neither one of them is very severe and it doesn't really affect their daily life at all. Tommy bites at shadows and Joey spins. But I just read an article on a study of CCD. The scientists were conducting the study because they wanted to see if what they could learn from CCD would be helpful for humans that suffer from this disorder. I was really interested in this because I have OCD. Right after the mortgage market crashed about 10 years ago I lost my job. It was a particularly stressful time and my OCD got really bad. I have the kind where I have to check things over and over. I am a pet sitter. I could get into the houses and get everything done but then I couldn't get back out of the house. I would begin checking things over and over and over. Half an hour later I would still be stuck in the house just compulsively checking .. It got so bad that I didn't think I would be able to work. So I went for help. The doctor put me on high dose Prozac. I was taking 40mg a day for 8 months. It was a miserable 8 months because one of the side effects was that I couldn't sleep. But it worked. Ten years later I am still ok. I still have the OCD a little but now I check things maybe once or twice. I can just lock the door and leave. The reason I related this is because in the study referenced above the doctors used Prozac to treat the dog's OCD. And they had good results. It really did make a difference. Prozac doesn't work instantly. It took me about 6 weeks to see any difference at all. But then slowly, slowly things began to improve. I will try to find that article so I can put the link out here. http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/07/dogs-with-ocd-obsessive-compulsive-disorder.html

I am taking care of a smaller golden doodle puppy right now. He looks like a golden. He is a nice puppy. He is very outgoing and not afraid of anything. I also take care of a large something doodle and she is a nice dog, too. But big. I see a few mini Aussies. But I am seeing a lot of English bulldogs. Seems like American bulldogs are getting more popular but I won't take care of them. I almost got eaten my one. They are really strong and can be aggressive. I don't take care of any of the bully breeds any more. except the little ones.

I think the doodle craze is dying down around here. I see a lot of little dog crosses - pugs and chi and Maltese and yorkie crosses. Puggles are big sellers. Now people are getting French bulldogs and English bulldogs. Both breeds have terrible health problems so that craze won't last very long. kind of like the Sharpei craze. That was pretty short lived. They had bad temperaments and bad health problems.

I had a customer with a mostly pit but the shelter told she was a pharoh hound cross. They knew this because her ears turned red sometimes. I guess pharoh hound ears turn red sometimes. I never said a word. She was a nice dog and that is all I care about. I know of exactly one breeder of pharoh hounds in our area and she is in Leavenworth and I am sure her show dogs aren't out running around loose.

They can make too much money. As long as people can make hundreds of dollars the sale of puppies will go on. The pet store here in KC that sells puppies gets up to $5,000. People are stupid enough to pay those prices. Even worse, they have a program now where people can rent dogs. I guess the rental fee goes toward the thousands of dollars purchase price. It's awful. I am like you. It just makes me sick to my stomach.

About 60% of the dogs in our shelters are pit bulls or pit bull mixes. If they could get a handle on that problem the shelters wouldn't be so overburdened. We still have a big problem with the puppy mills here. A lot of their cast offs end up over burdening the rescue groups. I just read an article yesterday about the dog sales at flea markets. Now that the laws for puppy mills are getting stricter more and more of the puppy mill dogs are being sold at flea markets. The rules don't apply there.

Oh, it doesn't hurt to use it like you are using it. It has a very high meat content and is really stinky so dogs love it. I was just commenting that you don't want to feed a steady diet of cat food to a dog. It isn't nutritionally balanced for dogs and the protein content us too high. It isn't good for dogs long term.

Cat food doesn't hurt dogs in small amounts but it isn't nutritionally balanced for dogs. It is too high in protein. It can cause gut problems and a steady diet of it can cause pancreatitis.

You might ask about Metacam. That is what my vet prefers for joint type pain. Tommy gets some every day and she is doing great. And she never misses a meal. Never seems nauseous. She runs all over the place even with her arthritis.

What a lucky dog.

My dogs are great at finding old, buried stuff. But the long plane ride is out of the question. And they don't know how to alert. They just start digging. My backyard is starting to look like an archeological site.