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Chance had a seizure

Basenji Health Issues & Questions
  • Your other dog may just be spooked by his behavior, he acted unpredictably and she does not understand. We have had dogs with grand mal seizures and fortunately, all the other dogs were very concerned, but with no aggression. Yes, play and long walks together will help re-unite them!

    Most vets tell you to keep a good diary, time the event, what was happening before and after, how severe, etc., and don't treat unless they become too frequent or debilitating.
    Hoping that Chance is OK and that it was just a fluke.

  • Sadly, attacking dogs during seizures isn't uncommon, so glad you are going to separate. Often dogs have one seizure and never have another, so hopefully that will be it. Sending good vibes that the testing is all clear.

  • Thanks for everyone's support! It's about 10:30pm and Chance was under watch all day, just acting normal and playful, we hope it continues that way. Took a bunch of tests at the vet today, so we will see what the results will say.

    Vet recommended to put him permanently on low dose of potassium bromide, as the alternative phenobarbital is more toxic and could cause liver issues. So I guess we have a couple of choices, wait until this happens again and spare him from the meds, or put him on Kbr and hope this never happens again. We will see what the tests say.

    Found a good site with a wealth of related info:

    http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/site_map.htm

  • SO glad to hear that Chance is doing well. Please keep us posted on the little guy's health!

  • So far so good, Chance is acting normal since the seizure epsiode. Our female is still growling a bit, but is less aggressive. Just waiting for test results now.

  • Keeping fingers crossed, Alex. Dang it is so hard when something is wrong. :(

  • Alex I'm so sorry to hear about Chance but happy to hear that he has been ok since the seizure. As others have said, not unusual to have there be some growling going on from Kiya. Based on my experience, time will fix their relationship.

    FWIW, when Brando broke his leg (playing with Ruby), there was some serious hate going on between Brando & Ruby and vice versa (mostly the vice versa :rolleyes:). I was told by my breeder and my vet that it was normal and that the most important thing for me to do was keep Brando safe until he was healed and then worry about letting them be together later. For the 8 weeks that Brando was in a cast, the only true together time they had was a walk in the morning. My brother took Ruby, I took Brando - but we walked together. Otherwise they were separated by a baby gate. At night Brando slept in the bed with me and Ruby was crated. If I needed to leave the room and couldn't keep an eye on them both, Ruby was crated. About 6 weeks in, all the hate and growling stopped. Ruby would start to kiss Brando if he came near the gate. At 8 weeks, the cast was off and they were back together without a hitch.

  • Alex..I am so sorry to hear about Chance…Hoping he has no more seizures and that him and your female gets over their issues and goes back to normal again..

  • I hope that Chance 's seizure is just a one off. I agree with Denra when she says that other dogs will attack a dog having seizures - I do hope the little bitch calms down around Chance soon. It can be such a worry when this happens.

    My thoughts are with you.

  • Chance is doing fine, he is active and is not showing any signs of having any issues. All medical tests came back normal, and his low dosage of potassium bromide is coming in the mail tomorrow. I am still unsure if I want to put him on that, we are going to seek more advice from another vet.

    Chance now tries to play and paw grumpy female, he has no clue about what happened. They share the bed sometimes, now more than before, but Kiya still growls at him on occasion, probably expressing her dominance and discontent with what happened. I think time will heal their relationship, we do have to put her in place sometimes, when she gets really grumpy with Chance.

  • Alex, have you had her thyroid checked?

  • Hers or his? Chance had a full panel done just now.

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    Longtime member, not active. Had a basenji with the same diagnosis back in 2004. He took a tremendous amount of bicarb each day, his Fanconi was being well managed, but he started having seizures at night. Our vet gave us something to stop the seizure that we'd administer rectally. We kept track of the number of seizures and they started becoming more frequent, to about twice a week, if I recall. The final seizure he had he went temporarily blind and howled and howled and we knew that was it was time. I just sat on the floor with him and cried. A couple months later we looked at photos we had taken of him right before and he looked very, very tired. Very much the hardest thing we had ever done was to let him go across the Bridge, but after looking at those photos, we had done the right thing. Our vet had told us that it was possible he would have a seizure and not come out of it, and we certainly didn't want that.
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