Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Crazy-A**ed Dog

I got an email this afternoon from Ross saying that our dog Shooter had another seizure. Shooter had his first seizure at 4am one morning in May. After frantically taking him to the emergency clinic on Cary, we chalked it up to a freak thing and moved on. Well, I called Ross after getting the email, interrupting him as he nursed Shooter through his *second* seizure for the day. If you've never seen a dog have a seizure, it's one of the most pitiful sights imaginable-and Ross had to watch it twice today. If you know how much Ross loves Shooter, you understand that this was heart-wrenching for him.

Anyway, I dropped my kids off at resource and left work early so we could get the ol' pooch (who was inexplicably drooling so much that his entire upper-half was soaking wet) to the vet. They checked him out, did some blood work, and $240 later, told us that his seizures weren't frequent enough to put him on meds, and we should just keep a journal of his behaviors and contact them if it happens again. A lot of good that did. However, we did receive confirmation for something that we have believed for a long time: it is highly possible that Shooter is clinically OCD and that his symptoms flare up like crazy before he has a seizure. Allow me to list some of Shooter's "quirky" habits that indicate a true medical condition:

1. Sniffing the doorknob in our bedroom every two minutes. He will seriously leap up off of the bed and fly to the doorknob about 10 times before he will settle down for the night.

2. Whenever someone gets up from the desk chair in the office, no matter where he is the house, he will run for it so he can sniff the edges.

3. He will step up and down on the loveseat in the living room several times before actually coming up to sit with you.

4. For a two day period last winter, he would walk in circles in his crate, nipping at "something" in the corner as he passed it.

5. He once chewed on his feet so much that we had to bandage them up. He looked like he had been in a war.

Sigh. At least our other dog is ridiculously normal. But I mean, we love Shooter like crazy, OCD and all. It's just been a very long day.

5 comments:

mbs said...

tara had a seizure once on the back porch. it is pretty terrible, you're right. :(

Maura said...

my sisters dog is on anti-anxiety medication.

Robinitaface said...

Let me just say, seizures are no fun in general...canine or otherwise.

Val said...

I meaaaaaan, you guys should probably hang out. Share some tips, etc. jk jk

Amy said...

sniffing the doorknob? That *is* OCD. Why did he ever start? I hope that he is feeling better... :/