Duke

Our dog, Duke, is 8 years old. He'll be 9 New Year's Day, 2009. He's rottweiler/german shepherd mix. He's a beautiful medium size dog, and for the most part, he behaves very well. Duke has been with my husband, Russ, since he was a puppy.





09/13/08 Saturday in the morning Russ, Angelle, and I were laying in bed. Angelle & I were kind of awake, but Russ was snoozing. Duke sleeps in the laundry room/back entrance of our house with a baby gate leaned against the open doorway to the kitchen. He is afraid of the baby gate, because Russ' ex-wife used to chase him with it. Anyway, I heard the baby gate get knocked down. I figured he must have bumped into it and knocked it over. I wasn't really concerned, because, even when the gate is laying flat on the floor, he won't step over it. He's really scared of it.
The next thing I know, Duke is running into the baby's room, the bathroom, our bedroom, back to the living room. Something is wrong! He would NEVER step over that baby gate. I woke up Russ and told him that Duke was running throughout the house. He got up and went to the kitchen. Duke growled at him! I followed with Angelle.
Duke had pooped on the carpet in the living room and peed on the kitchen floor. He was running all over the kitchen. He got to the garbage can and his back arched him into a backflip 3 feet in the air. His feet were pointed straight at the ceiling! He hit his head on the refrigerator and then croppy-flopped onto the floor. His feet started paddling really hard and he was foaming at the mouth. Duke had a Grand Mal Tonic-clonic seizure.
Russ was beside himself. He rushed through the pee, poop, and slobber to grab Duke. He held him still on the floor until it passed. It took about 2 minutes, but felt like forever! I called the vet while he was having his seizure. The vet was in Vinton, so Russ made an appointment to bring Duke to LaPorte at 1:00pm. Russ' parents came over and helped us clean up the kitchen. It smelled SO BAD! Duke was wobbly and out of it for about an hour afterwards.
The vet took a blood sample and checked Duke's prostate. His prostate is swollen, so the vet gave Russ some Sulfa to relieve the swelling, 600 mg a day for 6 days. We had to wait an hour for the blood test. Everything came back normal. Duke is a healthy dog... no liver/kidney problems. The vet said that the swollen prostate may have caused a fever that, in turn, caused the seizure. OK.
We gave Duke his first dose of medication Saturday afternoon inside a peanut butter sandwich. He slept the night at Russ' parents' house. We gave him his 2nd dose Sunday morning (09/14/08 ). He was fine all day, just kind of wanted attention a lot. We gave it to him! Poor puppy.
We went home with Duke that evening. He was still wanting attention... sitting at our feet, nudging to be petted, etc. Around 8:00 pm, Duke was laying on the floor just hanging out. He stood up and acted like he was slowly chasing his tail. Russ called his name, but he wasn't ok, his eyes were dilated and he wasn't focusing on anything. Russ got up, went towards him, Duke backed away and croppy-flopped backwards. He lost control of his bodily functions again and peed. He was paddling and foaming at the mouth again. Russ grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the kitchen. Then, he held Duke down until the seizure passed. I was so scared! I called the vet again while it happened, and Russ talked to him. He said that he would give us a prescription for an anti-seizure medication, and Russ could pick it up Monday. If Duke had another seizure that night, to bring him in immediately. Russ called his supervisor to make arrangements for Monday at work and stayed up the whole night with Duke to make sure he was ok. Duke was wobbly and whiny. His right eye was bloodshot. He finally layed down to sleep around 2am, but Russ woke him every hour to make sure he was fine. 
Angelle & I got up at 7:00am this morning (09/15/08 ), and Russ had just fallen asleep on the couch. They made it though the night alright. The vet put Duke on phenobarbitol. Hopefully, it will control any future seizures, or at least make them less frequent and relieve the severity. It has a sedative and hypnotic side effect, but Duke should acclimate himself to the side effects in about a week.

Our old roommates' husky had seizures too. It was scary! Poor dogs, I feel so bad for them. They don't even understand what's going on!  

Wow! Poor puppy dog! I am sorry you guys are going through this, and I hope Duke gets better soon!

Omg that's horrible. I hope he gets better.

Oh my goodness. I'll be keeping him in my thoughts.

I hope you're ok Dukey boy!!

Thanks, gals. I know Saturday morning, he was running through the house trying to find us so we could help him. He KNEW something was wrong.  

My dog had seizures as well. They where pretty bad too. Come to find out was that her thyroid level was way out of whack and that was causing her seizures. It is SOOO sad to see them get like that.

Update: Duke is doing great. No more episodes so far. He's a bit more independent, but stays close when outside. He drinks & eats more (both side effects from the phenobarbitol). His bloodshot eye is a light pink, so it's healing. He has spent the past week at my in-laws' house. My FIL kept an eye on him while my mom & MIL alternated days watching Angelle. I know neither of them would be able to watch her & take care of Duke if he would have another seizure while Russ & I were at work. We're going to bring him home over the weekend. If things are ok, he can stay at home next week  

Our healthy doggy, just not as hyper as he used to be: