Tested

It all started early this morning when we got Jack, the oldest psychotic dog, out of bed to go to the vet.

His body has been seizing up since last Thursday, at which time Adoring Husband took him to the vet in Howard and they couldn't find any reason for it, so they sent him home and advised that if it continued, to bring him back for an x-ray and a closer look.

This morning, his legs seized up and he collapsed on the floor unable to move. He cried out in pain and I had to massage his legs until he relaxed enough to walk again.

It didn't last long and he seized up again and was in obvious pain.

Adoring Husband could not cope seeing his favourite dog in pain and was pretty messy with emotion.

He didn't know how to physically handle Jack and he was struggling, so I phoned The Motivator and asked her to open the shop - this was supposed to be her first day off in more than 3 weeks - so that I could accompany Jack and AH to the vet.

We arrived at the Howard Vet clinic to discover that they were closed.

Adoring Husband phoned the Maryborough Vets and even though they were completely booked out, they said to bring him in and leave him at their clinic so that they could check him out between consults, then we could return later to pick him up.

He was with them for four hours and not once did he seize up! Not once did he have an episode! They performed all sorts of physical tests on him, followed by blood tests which all came back clear.

Nothing indicates that there are any problems with him, but she seems to think that these episodes are seizures.

Not grand mal seizures, but seizures on the lower end of the scale.

We didn't think they looked like seizures, but what would we know?

The vet suggested that we get video footage on our phone so that we could send it through to her on Monday and that way she could see what we were trying to describe.

In the meantime, the vet offered us two options.

Option One:  Experiment with Valium to see if that relaxed him and stopped his episodes.

Option Two:  Experiment with anti-seizure medication to see if that stops his episodes.

So, against my better judgement and not really knowing what to do next to get a quick result, we took option one.

I didn't give it to him right away though. We all left the house almost as soon as we got home to attend the community Christmas party.

Later, when Primrose and I were almost home, she suggested that I get my phone ready and allow her to video Jack as we opened the door - it was a good idea because the excitement of seeing us was enough to trigger another episode.

That's when I gave him his first dose of Valium.

He was 'drunk Jack' all afternoon, very slow on his feet, sometimes staggering just a little, but he didn't have an episode until 10.30pm tonight. He can only have the valium every 8 hours. He lasted 5.5 hours. Maybe once the valium settles into his system properly, the episodes will stop. Time will tell.

I will continue to research better methods and test those as we go ... like 'stress-less' essential oil ... of which I'll place a few drops onto his bed tonight.

So that was our quite stressful day dealing with a sick dog and getting no answers from the professionals.

In the middle of all that, I did get to work to relieve The Motivator of her duties and allow her to at least get SOME time off on her day off.

While Adoring Husband was performing SES duties at the community Christmas party, Primrose and I enjoyed lamb rack with pumpkin and spinach salad and pickled cucumber for dinner. Primrose prepared a delicious fruit salad for dessert.

Now, as it approaches 11.30pm, I am signing off so that I can give Jack some more drugs and get some sleep myself.

Nite all.