Is my German Shepard dying - Page 5

Great site on epilepsy, Stinky. I've been lucky not to have had a dog w/epilepsy so far but I didn't realize it was so complicated.  I would suspect a neurological "glitch" of some kind now since the poor dog seems only to have the problem when falling asleep, as I read enlosandes' description. Seems like a disease of outside origins (infection, toxin, parasite) would present at other times too.

Best wishes to you and your dog, enlosandes and please keep us posted.

First off, best to your family and most importantly Suerte!

I think that Hodie probably isn't far off. It seems that this is some sort of seizure like activity. With it coming on so quickly I would think that it is due to a bite, poison, or some other trauma to the dog which could even include change of diet. I would look strongly at finding the cause before doing too much treatment. If you really do not know what is causing this you run the risk of potential harm to the dog by improperly treating him. Also take a look at the G.A.R.D. Diet. This is a diet that is used to treat both humans and dogs with epilepsy. I believe that it includes removing all grains from the diet.

Epilepsy gives no warning signs either, the seizures just suddenly happen. One minute the dog is fine, the next it is not. Age of onset is generally between one and five years. The good news is most dogs can be controlled with meds should it turn out to be epilepsy.

Mobjack, I have had 1 dog with tetnus after he got up against a nail that was the result of hurricane Rita. His symptoms tho were nothing like what is described here, he had a suprised look on his face all the time..... hm.. I did catch the illness already into it, I had just had major surgery and wasnt able to spend time in the kennels, when I did go out to feed I saw the suprised expression and he sucked up his water instead of lapping it up. I took him to the vet who prescribed antibiotics.... trouble was I couldnt get his mouth open to put the meds in. Did some research on the web and went to a different vet and she agreed it was tetnus, she had only seen one other case in her career. She worked on the dog for almost 2 weeks, he would rebound and we would think he was pulling out of it only to crash again, we finally had to put him down. It was her opinion the reason he did get tetnus was because he was a parvo survivor and had a repressed immune system that allowed the tetnus to take hold.

It still sounds very similar to the neurological symptoms caused by the toxins in poisonious frogs

Therese

Just got a call from the vet the lab wants more blood, which the vet thought might mean they found something.

Thanks to all the input. I will give our thoughts on the latest input. This is by no means to say we no more than you (we certainly don't), but to talk outloud in hopes of getting to the bottom of this.

Seizures, we don't think it is them because they last for 20-30 minutes or more and he snaps out of it when we call him.

Tetanus, doesn't appear to be because he has energy, can see fine, and his jaw opens and closes more than locks down.

OGBS, we are on the same page. We are only giving him homepathics medicine until we can identify the actual problem.

Suerte has shown signs of his old slef a little, playing with his sister, smiling and wagging his tail, for short spurts. He is still really scared and skittish, can't say I blame him. He has defeintly lost some weight, but has an appetite and his vitals are all working fine.

wow what a stressful time for suerte & you!  good to hear he's is showing signs of some improvement.  it's great you are using homeopathics as well as allopathics at the very least the homeopathics are buying you some time.  i'm thinking your intial take of toxins is what's happening and that therese's idea of a poisonous frog or some other skin to skin contact might be close to what's going on. i would recommend talking to your homeopath specially about poisonous frog or other plants & animals that are poisonous to touch because suerte may have steped on something - dogs pads are very absorbent - and see if the symptoms match, though he's is probably passed that phase now and in need of new remedy now that his symptoms are changing. i've had great success with dogs and homeopathic and highly recommend having an emergency kit on hand.  best of luck and my thoughts are with suerte & his family:)  - oh don't forget to help out your other animals they are surely stressed over suerte's plight - flower essences might be helpful.  - be well susan

Just got a call from the vet the lab wants more blood, which the vet thought might mean they found something.

Thanks to all the input. I will give our thoughts on the latest input. This is by no means to say we no more than you (we certainly don't), but to talk outloud in hopes of getting to the bottom of this.

Seizures, we don't think it is them because they last for 20-30 minutes or more and he snaps out of it when we call him.

Tetanus, doesn't appear to be because he has energy, can see fine, and his jaw opens and closes more than locks down.

OGBS, we are on the same page. We are only giving him homepathics medicine until we can identify the actual problem.

Suerte has shown signs of his old slef a little, playing with his sister, smiling and wagging his tail, for short spurts. He is still really scared and skittish, can't say I blame him. He has defeintly lost some weight, but has an appetite and his vitals are all working fine.

Good luck with him, I do hope the vets can determine what it is and treat accordingly.

You might want to suggest to your vet that he/she draw a sample of lymph node fluid.  There might be clues hidden in there that may not be apparent in the blood sample.  Just a thought.... 

Hi I read about your dog and really felt bad, real bad. My take is some sort of cranial cyst or he is recovering from some head injury you have overlooked, maybe just a tap but has created some injury and maybe, just maybe the nerves arbeing subjectected to some intra cranial pressure. Any place you get his head scanned. My prayers for Suerte.