harper

well, if it’s not one thing it’s another. harper, our loveable, if not just a weee bit high-strung, german short-haired pointer has epilepsy. he’s had at least three grand mal seizures in the past 24 hours and hindsight leads us to believe that he’s has a few more during the previous week.

we went to the vet this morning and he said, unfortunately, that there’s not much we can do in the short-term other than keep a detailed diary of the incidents. he had blood taken and will get a panel to rule out any severe metabolic disorders, but in all other respects he appears to be a happy, healthy and vigorous 2 year-old pointer, so i doubt it will point to anything obvious. it’s impossible to determine how frequent the seizures will be in the future. some dogs have clusters of seizures over a few days and won’t have another one for years. other dogs could have them every day. at this point it’s watch and wait. if they are frequent, we’ll have to consider medication.

mauja really doesn’t know what to make of the situation. he wants out of the house – fast – during the seizures, but doesn’t seem overly threatened or aggressive with the situation. the dogs are best friends and i’d be surprised if either would get aggressive, but you never know. the vet said that some dogs will get aggressive in the post-seizure phase, but harper hasn’t shown any signs of abnormal behavior in that respect.

given the fact that we’ve already had to deal with a severe case of early onset hip dysplasia with our malmute, mauja, you have to wonder how we got such bad canine mojo. harper came from a reputable, local breeder and we go to the same vet. we called the breeder this morning and there haven’t been any other epileptics from the litter.

i haven’t witnessed an actual seizure yet. and i’m not looking forward to it. kris witnessed one this morning and was disturbed to say the least.

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