(Posting for a friend)


On Tuesday we had to put my 4 month old German Shepherd Puppy down after he began seizing uncontrolably Monday evening. His story follows below...Any information from anyone who has experienced anything like this or heard of anything of the sorts would be greatly appreciated. I'm desperate at this point for ANY information that anyone can give.

Ratu was let out around 2 p.m. to go potty Monday afternoon. He was completely 100% fine at this time contemplating whether or not the lawn mower was a friend or fo :-), chased bugs, picked up sticks, etc...all typical puppy things...supervised the entire time. Ratty was brought back into the house and crated then let back out to potty again around 6:00 just before training. At this time his body seemed to be trembling a tiny bit however Ratty had a tendencey to occassionally get excited and hump the air a bit so we wrote it off to excitement loaded him up in the truck and headed off to training just a few miles down the road. He seemed fine upon looking through his crate when we arrived at training. Puppies go first and Ratu was at the top of the list. I brought him out around 7p.m. and he was trembling again so my thoughts were to walk him out to the field and see what everyone thought was going on or if the tremors were just my imagination. On the walk out, despite the trembling he is still totally himself trying to grab everything he could esp. his favorite trying to grab the leash to walk himself. As soon as we got to the field and everyone gathered around to concur that yes he was trembling and needed to get in to the vet, Ratu went into a full blown seizure. We called our vet and she met us up at the office straight away. Between the time we called her and she arrived at the office, Ratu had 5 more seizures each more violent and extreme than the last...eyes fluttering, all legs paddling profusely and his head bobbing so much we had to hold it so he'd not slam it onto the ground causing more injury.
All bloodwork showed no signs of any toxins in his system and showed all organs to be working perfectly...nothing showed out of line other than a temperature of 105.7 which our vet mentioned was from all the back to back seizures he was having. 2 doses of Valium did nothing to stop the siezures. As soon as Ratu had the slightest bit of stimulation he went into a seizure so my vet sedated him. She had us leave him overnight with her and we went home under the assumption that it was most likely going to be epilepsy. Our vet stayed w/ him until he awoke but said he went straight back into another seizure as soon as he saw her. He stayed at the vet overnight and started seizing as soon as the vet techs walked in to check on him in the morning. They called and had me take him up to Texas A&M Univerisity for further testing fearing that maybe he had a rare case of distemper where no other symptoms were present. Medication was given to keep him under for the drive there for 1.5 hours. We arrived @ A&M at approx 11:30 a.m. and after examinations by the staff there and much discussion we decided it would be best to euthanize my boy. All options and possibilities given were things that he would not recover from. Rabies (he did test negative for), distemper (no other symptoms at all...no snotty nose/eyes/vomiting/diarrhea, etc..nothing), meningitis (although we were told the tell tale sign for that is a very stiff neck so that the pup would scream if we tried to pet him...none of that either), liver shunt, brain tumor and a few others I can't remember. A neurologist examined him and confirmed that whatever it was (w/out further testing) was definitely affecting his brain function and at that time there was not very much function going on at all. Ratu couldn't stand up at all. They brought him in to Darryl and I to say our good-byes and upon hearing our voices Ratty tried to get up, wagged his tail and licked us but couldn't even so much as hold his head up w/out it slamming back down on the gurney. After that brief greeting, he was out cold again and no amount of noise or coaxing could get any rise out of him-not even so much as an eye flutter or anything. By the time they came back in to euthanize him his breathing had slowed down to the point that a few times we thought he had already passed on his own.

They are performing a necropsy on him but so far have found nothing out of the ordinary. Small tissue testing will take approx. 6 weeks to get results back so now it's just a waiting game although we have been told they may never find a cause at all. Also the rabies test came back negative yesterday as I knew it wouldl. We have no toxins here at the house unless there is some fluke something in our yard that is unknown. We have no pesticides, fertilizer, weed killer, plant food, rat/mouse poison or ANYTHING like that here and Ratu was never out of his crate unsupervised either...besides the fact that no toxins have shown up in his testing anyways.

I would personally like to hear from anyone and everyone that has heard of anything of the sorts that may be similar before I second guess myself into insanity with 'what if's '. There has to be someone out there that has experienced this before...a completely healthy pup, up to date on vaccines, perfect stools, etc....with a sudden onset of continuous seizures. Anyone???? I can be contacted at tammy@tricountyk9.com .

Thank you in advance for any information or ideas that can be provided.

Tammy

I just wanted to say one thing re: seizures.

Raw beef heart is rich in Taurine – an amino acid that has links to helping control seizures. Just something to know for later on.

PLEASE stop second-guessing yourself into craziness. It's so hard to stop the racing mind and the overwhelming emotions, and we all find ways to blame ourselves or SOMEONE, ANYONE, when there just is no one to blame. We do what we know; if we knew better we would do better. I'm emailing you at the address you posted, and giving you some info about grand mal and other seizures...........and the info will assure you that you did all you could do.

We are blessed to have in our grasp the gift of a painless end with friends nearby. Try to focus on that.

I am so sorry that you lost your boy so suddenly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />. I wish I could give you any ideas but I have none. Don't you blame yourself or second guess. You gave him a good life in the short time he was here.

So sorry to hear this! Please accept my condolences. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

It could possibly be vaccine induced encephalitis... especially if toxins and distemper are ruled out.

if you google vaccine induced encephalitis in dogs or vaccine induced seizures in dogs you will come up with a lot of info.


Again, I am sorry for your loss....it's always hard to lose them but a puppy is ESPECIALLY difficult.

My deepest condolences to you Sammy, I hope you find the answers you are looking for, and sincerely hope you dont go through this experience ever again!

Sammy - listen to Cindy on this - vaccination vaccination vacinosis - read the article on my web site. Vets are not going to want to point finmgers at vaccinations that they recommended.

I will certainly pass the message on to my buddy whose dog this was.

I know that he had his last shot about 4 wks ago (at 12wks) and was due his 16wk booster.

Thanks guys!