What can I do to stop the convulsions until the lab results came back on Tuesday, we are testing her insulin to see if she has an insulinoma. My vet told me to give her a little sugar every six hours, an other vet told me to give her lots of sugar every now and then. The first vet is afraid that if she raises her level of glucose, the insulin will raise too… So what should I do???? This last week she haven’t had any seizures, but tomorrow morninng she had one. We used to give her Diazepam while she was seizuring, but now the vets tell me that if she is hipoglusemic, the Diazepam will do no goo. Nevertheless she is taking Phenobarbital, until we are completely sure that her seizures are because of the low sugar in her blood.
So if she was your dog what would you do to help her. And please don’t tell me to ask my vet, because I’ve done that, thousands of times, they don’t seem to come up with an answer, and they are the bests of the city. I live in Argentina, so sorry if my english is not that clear. Thanks for your help!!!!
I forgot to tell you that she’s eleven years old, and is a Vizsla.
We never leave her alone now because we’re afraid she would have a seizure. It started last february, but the convulsiones were very few, three in 9 months, but everything went back in December, she seizured a lot, so we started with the Phenobarbital. I did some blood tests (we did test her blood the first time she had the seizure) because I saw her kind of depressed, and her glucose was even lower. Now we’re trying to find out how to stop that.
Thanks for your answers, I do think she’s a happy dog, I treat her like a princess, we even spoiled her too much. Whenever she has the seizures, my whole family suffers a lot, the only confort I have is that she doesn’t feel pain, because she’s unconscious. But right now she seems like a happy dog, I mean, she has a normal life for an old dog, so that’s why I’m trying so hard to find a way to control the convulsions, and not simple give up on her.
Can you get her to take a teaspoon of honey or pancake syrup every hour or so? It’s better to give her a little sugar at intervals than to give her a lot all at once. I kept a very small elderly poodle going this way for several weeks. Without it he became almost comatose. Frequent small snacks of cheese and/or canned dog food will help sustain the glucose levels.
When I rushed my greyhound to the vet while she was having a seizure, besides giving her valium to bring her out of the seizure, the vet rubbed her gums with corn syrup. Perhaps you could try that – rubbing a little corn syrup on her gums. Also – ask your vet to give you valium to have at home in case you need it.
One other method I read about that my vet thought had merit was putting a bag of ice on the dog’s back from the 4th to the 10th vertebrae. You need to get the ice on immediately when the seizure starts and it’s supposed to either stop the seizure or lessen the duration.
Also, google ‘Tellington Touch’ – it’s a whole series of touches that you can easily learn to do yourself that help a dog a huge variety of ways. There are different touches that I think will help your girl – particularly the ear slides which are extremely easy to do.
Forgive me, but haven’t you asked this question before? (yesterday). As I answered then, you have two alternatives as I see it (with the acknowledgement that you are in Argentina) – change your vet/get a second opinion, or frankly if your dog has poor quality of life, and that means more down days than up days, you may have to quietly end her suffering, with the dignity she deserves.