Monday, June 18, 2012

Scary weekend

Good Morning. I am sure you are wondering where my House Mouse and Friends blog challenge card is? Well to tell you the truth I had my card done, yet didn't have time to get my post ready for today. Our family had a rather scary weekend. I took this pictures in May when I was outside with Ranger just playing around. He doesn't sit usually for pictures, rather he comes over and licks the camera instead. Here he was sitting and I snapped a photo quick.
So about our weekend. As some of you know my SIL wedding was Friday night. We started decorating and getting stuff ready on Thursday. Well Friday morning the church was our main focus at the reception area etc. DH was going to walk Ranger before we left to the church and I was going to run to his parents for a second. As I was driving I came along side them walking and noticed Ranger was walking funny acting strange. Just as I stopped the car DH noticed and that is when it started. Ranger was on the ground in a full on seizure attack. I have never seen something this scary before. DH was trying to keep him from banging his head on the cement, he is foaming at the mouth and not responding to us. DH picked him up the best he could, I then helped as he is 90 lbs and flopping around and we put him in the back of the tahoe and rushed to the vet. One of the boys was in the back holding him so he wasn't thrashing around and hurting himself while we got to the vet. The ride to the vet took about 4 min as DH drove faster than any law would permit (no one tell on him) and when we got there the seizure had stopped.
The vet drew some blood for a panel of his organs etc. Did an exam on him and nothing was out of the ordinary asked all sorts of questions. Did he get into any chemical, did he sniff anything like lead, did he injest any dead animals etc etc. Nothing. Ranger is healthy, active and on a routine daily. Nothing I mean nothing so odd. Vet said this could be a once and no more thing. He went on with some other info and all just a heads up thing. He said if there is another one call us etc. We went home at that point and Ranger was acting like nothing ever happened, took percaution and kept things calm and low key for him just in case.
We then had our weekend begin as he had another seizure, not neither as violent or long thank goodness. This lasted about a minute, yet after he seemed very confused and dazed not like the first one. Immediately went to the vet and from then it was coming and going they would not stop. They were giving him med's to try and stop them and it wasn't working. Ranger was awake and pacing for 16 straight hours, this is not normal for a dog let alone for him. He would not sit down, they tried to get him to sleep as the med's are either a downer or upper depending on how you respond to it. Well neither was happening other than it slowed down how often they were happening. Finally got it down to about 2 hours between the seizures.
Come Sunday morning he had not had one in about 10 hours and he finally laid down for about an hour at that point and slept. If anything from pure exhaution I think. The waiting game we were playing gave us time to research about this and what was going on. Lots of info out there and not uncommon in shepherds, labs, retrievers and other big dogs. This is a degenerative gene that can stay dormat and never appear down the line or appear. Some its a major head trama or accident that will release the dormat gene. Some its totally healthy and then one day seizure. Some never have it again, some are on med's have it controlled and live long happy lives. We contacted the breeder to make sure no others in the litter have called about similar things. The parents of Ranger do not have them or up the line etc.
As of now we are home and waiting to get the blood results back and to see if anything comes up there. From what we read it will be negative and won't show anything. The vet will be going over what our next step is with the med's Ranger is on as to slowly take him down and off them and see what happens if anything. Our prayer is that he is fine and nothing happens. That it was a fluke and now he will be fine. If he infact has to be on the med's it will be a matter of what dose, how long etc. We have a lady in town that the breeder knows of that her shepherd started with them about a year ago and is doing fine on med's. Hers is 5 years old and from a different breeder.
This was taking a few weeks ago in May also. I thought it was so cute as he looking like he is winking at you. Well my hair was actually tickling his eye. hee hee So he is telling us he will make it through this and be okay. Never have we been so scared. This fur ball is so much apart of our family I can't imagine him not with us. I was never a dog person persay, I liked cats more. So when we wanted a puppy we prayed about if for a year and researched what type of dog we wanted etc. The minute we brought Ranger home I fell in love. He is my pal through out the day. I walk him rain or shine, we have quite the bond. Not to mention DH and the kids. Thankfully God is with us and gave us his strength through the last 72 hours and I know he will be with us through the results and options today at the vet. Thanks for reading and if you could say a prayer for this fur ball we love and adore that he will be 100% completely healthy for years to come.

16 comments:

Lynne said...

Oh Stacy I do hope Ranger gets better soon. I know how strong the bond is with a dog. They`re not called man`s best friend for nothing. Keeping you all in my thoughts.
Lynne xxx

downrightcrafty said...

oh hun lovely to see the photos of Ranger isn't he gorgeous, love his winking too, hope he has slept a bit and is now starting to settle a bit, and hope you all got some sleep too. Still praying for you all and Ranger of course
Hugs Kate xx

Angel said...

sweet pics!!! Hugs,honey!!!! I'm sure everything will be ok! I'll say a prayer for that handsome pup!

NancyK said...

Stacy - I was so sorry to hear what is happening with your beautiful Ranger. My DH and I had a wonderful German Shepherd years ago named Bear. He was very big and almost all black. He frightened everone who came to the front door but he was a pussycat around us. Anyway, one day when he was a few years old he started having seizures. Scared the heck out of us and the vet diagnosed him with epilepsy - not uncommon for this breed. We had no idea that dogs could be epileptic but we put him on anti seizure medication. He was on this medication until he passed away at age 8. We loved that dog but he died too soon for us. I hope things work out for Ranger.

Kathy said...

Wow, very scary! I pray everything will okay with him. I have a golden, so it's good to know about this just in case. Blessings! Kathy

Allison Cope said...

Oh my Stacy! That's certainly scary. I hope that you get some answers from the results of the testing and that Ranger continues to get better. There is nothing worse than seeing a member of your family sick. Furry hugs to Ranger! Hugs to you and your family.

Elaine coustley said...

My thoughts are with you and your family . I do hope Ranger is on the mend & those episodes are gone. Dogs are a bigger worry than children I think.x

Heather Rogers said...

So sorry to hear about this scary situation. I can only imagine how scared you felt at the very moment. The crazy thing?....my BF has a German Shepard mix and he just had the same thing happen last week! I have not talked to her since then...now I need to call and see how he is doing. I sure hope Ranger will pull though. He sure looks like a sweetheart.

(hugs)

Linda Carson said...

Ranger is such a handsome dog. Bless his heart and yours. I know that was scary for everyone. There's nothing worse than when our pets hurt and we're helpless. I'll be praying for Ranger.

Cindy Haffner said...

Hugs to Ranger
Stacy, hop is is feeling better, how scary for you all!!~

Leslie Miller said...

Oh, my goodness, Stacy, I'm in tears. My heart breaks for you. If that was Wally or LuLu I don't know what I would do. I wouldn't leave their side or go to work or sleep or anything. I know you'll get through this. I'm sure meds will control it or he'll get over this episode and his brain will be shocked back to normal. Heck, I had a grand mal seizure in 1990. Turns out some other episodes I had leading up to it were partial complex seizures. I tried to explain them to a doctor, but he suggested it was just stress and said I needed to have a good cry. As IF! After the grand mal I never had another episode. It's as though that one big electrical zap straightened it all out. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying for Ranger and you all. He is such a sweetheart and I know how much a part of your family he is. Love and hugs to you and Ranger!

Karen W said...

I had a toy poodle that did this, it's so scary. We finally figured out most of them were brought on by using swifters on the floors, it would get on her feet and she would like them. I had hardwood floors that were old and I would use the wet swifters sometimes to get the hair up. Not a good thing. I hope you figure this out.

Denise Marzec said...

I didn't know you had a German Shepherd. We have one, too. I'm SOOO sorry to hear about your scary weekend with Ranger. So strange that it just happened out of nowhere like that. I hope everything is okay with him. He's so handsome! :) How old is he? Ours (Rusty) is 12 now.

Tracy said...

I'm so sorry about Rangers traumatic experience. I hope everything turns out okay and they can get him stabilized with the meds. My lab has all but lost control of her back legs within the last few months and it's so hard to see her going down. At 14 I guess she's intitled to be a bit crotchety, but it's heartbreaking. Meds have helped some but I think it's just old age inevitability. :-( Hugs and well wishes and prayers for Ranger.

michemilie said...

Our furry friends are often times the ones that can make us feel better when we need them to. I'm sure Ranger feels that way about you too! God bless you all.

nwilliams6 said...

Stacy, I have gone back and read all your posts about Ranger. Very touching - the love you two have. You know, the same thing happened to me ... actually to me. Last summer I had a seizure (after 50 years on this Earth). I got on medicine quick to make sure I didn't have any more. I haven't had one since. We (the doctors and me) figured it was an interupted sleep pattern (from working to midnight one night). The medicine makes mre a bit loopy but I was pretty loopy already anyway. LOL! I will certainly add Ranger to my seizure friend prayers! Hugz~