I've been so busy...

I haven't kept up with my ramblings. Oh well!, I've been busy. Over worked, under paid and getting older has its challenges. September 25th was absolutely horrible. It started out good, but early morning we woke up to a dramatic scene. Ronnie came in the house and woke me up at 5:30 am. He said one of our older dogs wasn't acting right. Slowly rising, because most of the time when he hollers at me about something happening, it's not as dramatic as he makes it sound.

Unfortunately for the dog, this time, it was a matter of life and death. When I dawned the doorstep of the kennel, I looked into Chessies crate and he was foaming at the mouth. He was seemingly calm and lifeless, however when I reached in a dragged him out of the crate, he started seizing. It was a small seizure lasting a few seconds. He snapped out of it pretty fast, but never regained mobility. He had had something similar just a month before.

At that time, I had spoken with our Vet and he said "since he hadn't had any prior episodes, just watch him and see". The seizure then, was mild and regained mobility shortly after and never missed a lick. This time however, was a entirely different episode of continuous seizures. Some of which, lasted mearly 6 minutes. I was frantic, not being able to get in touch with a veterinarian on Sunday morning.

I contacted a local emergency animal clinic with several questions and asked if there was any one who could come out to the house. They were rude and unhelpful. It finally dawned on me to call the equine clinic I use for my horses. I got a recording and a pager number. I left our contact number. It was shortly there after, Chessie started seizing again, lasting nearly 5 minutes this time. After this episode, he was unresponsive and seemingly gasping for his last breath.

Not being able to move him because of possible spinal injuries from earlier, we opted to make him comfortable until we received a response from my phone call. He seemed to be resting, lifeless and breathing as normal as possible at the time. Watching him closely and monitoring his breathing, he went into another seizure. This one lasted nearly 4 and a half minutes, it stopped for 2:58 minutes and then repeated another seizure for almost 5 more minutes.

I knew then, there was nothing else we could do for him. Shortly after, I got a phone call from our equine vet, and he reccomended we make him comfortable by administering drugs that would help the muscles relax. Thank God!, we had some on hand. We finally got him relaxed, though lifeless and unresponsive, he was comfortable and no more seizsures. He passed away before we could load him up for a trip to the vet.