Chance has not had any more seizures since the last episode on February 9th. We are so glad! His first seizure was on January 28th. It was a frightening thing to witness (I would have freaked out if Ken were not home that day. Seeing him take control helped me react in an appropriate, calm manner on his second episode.) We have since had his blood work done, and of course our local vet advised to have him take some medication to help maintain his seizures. I did not feel good about that, and got a second opinion from his breeder (who is also a vet.) I felt much better about the recommendation she offered, and that was, he may have low blood sugar which would cause seizures. Also, his liver enzymes were slightly elevated which could indicate a toxic insult of some kind. I could not think of any toxic insults he could have encountered so I went with the low blood sugar thing as the possible cause. She recommended not to do anything yet, rather watch him for a while and see if they get better, worse or hopefully stop all together. Well, it appears they are getting better since he has not had one since then.
I have been monitoring his eating more closely. We stopped feeding him in his kennel where he was burying, and knocking over his food almost every time. When he first came to live with us he loved food and sniffed it out any time and any place he could. Since then he has slowly been less and less interested it seems. He still comes any time we are making food, and sniffs around like crazy. The strange thing is that now when we feed him he doesn't scarf it down immediately. For the last two weeks I have been adding a calorie booster to his food (Nutri-Cal). He loves that and scarfs it down. I do not understand why he does not eat like that all the time. However, I do have some theories;
- First, Maybe he is being bullied by the cats not to eat?
- This seems silly since they are usually nowhere near when he eats, and if they are, he seems to eat a little better if anything.
- The second theory could be that he is not getting enough exercise.
- Over the winter it is hard for me to take him for walks as regularly since he HATES being in the cold, even with his coat on he hates it.
- During the last two weeks I have taken him on walks almost every day. There were a few snow filled days, we took those days off!
- When he exercises, he seems to eat better those days as well.
- Finally, he could be depressed.
- I know that many people get seasonal depression, I assume it could be the same for dogs.
- Not only that, but he did leave all his family at the same time it started to get colder.
- He also has fewer friends to play with. Kisses will indulge in his playful spirit, but Daisy and Tigger are just not as playful. He needs more dogs, not cats to play with. We try to get him together with our friends' dogs when we can, but that tends not to be as often as we'd like.
With the warmer weather we are starting to remedy all these issues. I think the combined efforts are having a positive effect on him overall.
That's about it for that subject, now on to brighter thoughts. Every time Ken comes home, Chance will run to him and try to jump up on him. Today, Ken even said come on Chance and he fully tried to jump up in Ken's arms. He loves it when Ken picks him up and pets him and loves him. Almost as much as he loves to snuggle on someones lap, or in between your legs, or under the warm covers. He is such a cute little snuggle bug.
Every morning after Lexi heads to school, Chance goes in and snuggles with Zac for another hour until he has to get up for school too. Zac told me the other day that he loves it when he wakes up and finds Chance right next to him, curled up in a ball. "It is the best thing to wake up to" he said!
One of Chancey's other favorite spots to be is in the front window on top of the couch. I used to try to keep him of this part of my couch, but he loves it so much I finally gave in. It is his spot.
