Darlin lived until 14! Nine years on K-D made me a believer.

I do think there is a link between liver function and seizures. I have two Shelties now and Rob has begun in his older age (he’s 10) to suffer petit mals. Just as described in Tanner’s case, he starts/startles and then goes into the cramped position. I know the seizure is ending when he begins to shiver. During the seizure I massaged his back along the spine. He comes out of it quickly and is, as described above, alert.

But here’s the common denominator between Robbie and Darlin’ – the LIVER. Rob has a very low functioning liver and takes a pill for it. I’m considering putting him on K-D. My vet had me try I-D (indigestion diet) and Rob’s seizures are very infrequently, making once every two or three months.

So those of you with dogs who may have this symptom of seizure, ask your vet to look at their liver.

Cathy

I now have a sheltie named Robbie. He

I know exactly what you mean about bracing yourself for a seizure.

My first Sheltie, OTCh Merlin, was about 11½ years old. One day, I was getting dressed to go to work (back in the bad old days when I had to go to an office) and Merlin was standing with me, as usual, in my closet. When I’d grabbed a shirt, I said “OK, let’s go” and he didn’t move. OK, maybe he didn’t hear me, so I said it again. Nothing. He was frozen. No eye movement, no ear twitches, nothing. Completely unresponsive.

I knew right then that my precious boy, my best friend in the world, my obedience partner, was dead. Sure, he was still breathing, and in fewer than 10 seconds, he was alert and hadn’t a clue that anything had happened. But I knew that it was a cataleptic seizure and that something very, very wrong was going on.

I found a vet up in Denver (I lived in Colorado Springs at the time) who was both knowledgeable about canine neurology and sensitive to my own emotional situation. (My own local vet responded to my urgent phone call with “Well, what do you want us to do?” I fired them on the spot!) My new vet did everything humanly possible, but Merlin started having grand mal seizures, more and more violent, more and more frequently. Phenobarbitol was not helping and we were at the maximum dose.

It was obvious to Roger (the vet) that Merlin had a serious brain tumor, almost certainly inoperable, and he scheduled an MRI — back then, 20-odd years ago, that meant bribing some technician at a hospital that had an MRI machine to let us sneak in about 4:00 AM. But we never managed to get that scan done. Three days after Merlin’s 12th birthday, I had to let him go. The seizures were taking so much out of him that I knew he wouldn’t “be” Merlin for much longer.

For years after that, every time one of my Shelties failed to respond instantly to me, I broke down and cried. I just knew that it was happening again.

But, several years ago, we got our first seizure dog in rescue, and I’ve learned a lot more about dealing with the situation. But it’s still heartbreaking.

Strange he seemd to come around instantly. Our Dog that used to have similar episodes was always out of it for a while afterwards.