Keanu had what we think was a seizure on Tuesday night. He seemed to lose function in his back legs and he was shaking and drooling and it lasted for about 5 minutes. He’d done it twice before, once a long time ago, and once a couple of months ago. I called our vet yesterday morning, and she had us come right in. Keanu weighed 10 pounds, 1 ounce (he puts on a bit in the wintertime). His temperature was good, and we left a urine sample and a blood sample. Debbie (our vet) said that it possibly could be a lower back problem that hurts when he’s jumping down, but it’s much more likely the he experienced a partial seizure. She called us within a few hours to say that everything looked good with his bloodwork and his liver and kidney function was good.
For now, we’ve got a diagnosis of idiopathic epilepsy of unknown origin (probably familial, which we wouldn’t have any idea about since he was rescued). We need to monitor him if it happens again by documenting in a journal (which is what we should have done in the first place!). Debbie told us that as long as they’re less frequent than once a month and the actual seizure doesn’t last more than 5 minutes (the part that we saw was just the aftermath of the seizure), it’s most likely not a problem. Obviously, if anything changes, we need to go back and try something more, but she said that the changes around here lately with Nicky are adding some stress, which may be triggering the seizures. Once things settle down, she seems to think that it won’t be happening as much, maybe not even at all.
Thank goodness, she doesn’t feel that we need to worry too much. It’s fairly common in dogs and easily manageable even if it gets worse. I know Nicky gets all the press around here lately, but Keanu was our first baby, and we love him so much! I’m so happy he’s going to be okay! 