Jasper
| I
think it's pretty safe to say that Jasper is the biggest mama's boy... Our little puppy came to us in July 1999, just two months after we adopted our fist beagle, Daisy. He was so cute! We saw an ad in the newspaper for him just a few days before we picked him up. |
 |
 |
Since
he had never been crate-trained and had potty-training issues, that
first ride with him in the car on the way home was a nightmare. He barked
and howled and peed all the way from San Francisco...longest ride of
my life! And don't even get me started on the traffic and the amount
of people who kept looking over at us as though we were torturing him
in the backseat somehow! |
| To
crate-train/potty-train him quickly, I slept on the floor next to his
crate for the first few nights. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep.But,
he eventually got used to his crate and slept soundly in it every night
until we decided that he could start sleeping on our bed. I taught him
to sit in about 5 minutes! So smart! |
 |
 |
The seizures came regularly every month or so for awhile and then they started getting closer and closer. Our regular vet prescribed phenobarb in a low dosage to see if it would have any effect. Jasper went about 3 months without seizures and then they came back again. We kept having to increase his phenobarb intake and began to give him valium during his episodes. |
|
In May of 2002, he began having clusters of three or more seizures in a row and we would have to take him into the emergency vet or our regular vet, whoever was open, so that they could administer large doses of meds. and then he would stay there for half the day/night while they monitored him. Michael
had been doing a lot of research on epilepsy and we decided to give
acupuncture and hollistic medicine a try, but they didn't control
the seizures enough. The vet taught us how to administer valium rectally
with a hose so that we could do it at home instead of run to the office
as soon as he would cluster. By now, my poor puppy was on a lot of
medication and seemed drugged out alot. Jasper was always kind of
a lazy walker but now he drug his paws until his nails wore down and
bled. Capping the nails seemed to work. A neurologist was not able
to provide much more information than we already had. As of today,
he takes phenobarb and potassium bromide on a regular basis to help
control the seizures. He's on a monthly cycle now, almost to the day.
In fact, I am writing this story on three hours of sleep due to Jasper's
monthly episode last night. |