Riley Has Passed On

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Henry On His Walk

Henry is such a good walker, always stays right by my side. =) A great ambassadog for greyhounds!

A General Update

Hi everyone, sorry to have been AWOL. Thought I'd give everyone a general update. Henry lost a declaw a couple weeks ago. It started out that it was loose, I called the Vet and she said wrap it (not too tight) and hopefully it will callous over. Henry managed to get his vet wrap off when I was not looking, and ended up amputating the dewclaw by himself 95%. By this time it was late evening and my husband was at work, and had the van (our only vehicle) and we were in the middle of a blizzard. I called the vet, and she said if you can pull it off cleanly without traumatizing him, do it. Otherwise see if he can get it off the rest of the way himself. So I waited to see if Henry could get the rest of the dewclaw off himself. He would lick his dewclaw gently, but that was it. Henry started to pant and have Focal seizures from the stress and pain. I gave him an extra grain of Phenobarbital per the Vet's instructions. I then managed to cleanly pull the dewclaw off. Fortunately it came off with ease as it was barely hanging on. I put Neosporin on the area and gently wrapped it in gauze and vetwrap and right away Henry felt alot better. I put him on Cephalexin (antibiotic) as a pre-caution. I am happy to say this antibiotic caused absolutely no problems with Henry's epilepsy, unlike Flagyl, another antibiotic.

By the way, Henry is 88 days Grand-Mal free today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just so ya'll know, I have been doing most of my posting over at Healthy Houndz lately.

Latest Entry At Healthy Hounds

Seizure Monster

Valium Is Our Best Friend Today

A little after 10 pm, Henry started up with the panting again. I knew what was coming. Next would have been crying, and them trembling, and then BOOM, another Grand-Mal. I'm not taking any chances. I gave Henry one dose of rectal Valium at 10:30pm. I was going to dose him per vet's instructions within 30 minutes if pre-seizure behavior did not stop. About 10 minutes after administering the rectal Valium, the panting stopped. Thank goodness for Valium!

I think I may have to keep him drugged up on Valium until his regular meds begin to take effect. Hopefully within 3 days the Phenobarbital will be kicking in.

An Update~

Henry is doing alot better. He is still on the bed and hasn't left it since we got home from the vet this morning around 11am. He is awake, and looking around. No more panting, crying or shivering. He seems unsure. Probably a mix of fear of ever going through that nightmare again, and also the meds probably have him a little loopy.

I'll gladly take loopy over what he was like before we went to the vet, and I'm sure Henry agrees.

In the next few weeks, the side effects of his seizure meds will be at their worst. And as the medicine begins to really take effect, and do it's job at it's best, the side effects will not be as strong become alot more bearable.

A few side effects I expect:

~extreme hunger

~ataxia in rear legs

~extra thirst, that one will stay.

~incontinence.

Within about 1-4 months, there will be improvement both in less side effects and less seizures.

If Henry begins his panting, crying and shivering again, I am going to give him a Valium right then rather than wait until he seizes.

I had never seen him on Valium before, and I really like how it almost instantly cured the panting, crying and shivering, and best of all, stopped the cluster!

You all know I tend to be anti-drug, but sometimes it just really isn't a choice to go without. I'm still going to do all I can in giving Henry the best diet and everything else. I believe it all plays a part and Henry needs ALL the help he can get.

Maybe the drugs will shorten his life in the long run, or maybe they won't, but I sincerely believe the drugs saved his life and he would be dead right now if it were not for drugs.