Devastated

Saturday CP and I had a busy day putting together two more raised beds and moving 6 years of compost and topsoil from our driveway to the beds (this is after I ran 7 miles that morning). Fuzzy Britches seemed to be fine, running after her ball every time we threw it and once in a while retiring into the house to hide from the sun and heat.

After eating dinner at home, CP and I headed out to grab some supplies for the puppy and left FB at home because we needed to make sure that we had enough room in the car. When we got home, FB was in a strange mood. She had way too much energy, almost manic. She also kept snapping her head to the side and biting the air. At first CP and I laughed about it. Clearly FB thought that there flies or something buzzing around- but it was too late for insects.

We went inside and FB became even more spooked. Moved from room to room, still snapping her head from side to side biting at the air. Then she started licking her paws incessantly. We tried to distract her with water, her bone, a ball. Nothing. She would hide in the corner of a room completely scared before moving to another corner of a different room just minutes later.

Totally perplexed, we tried to comfort her to no avail. By the time we went to bed she had calmed down a bit and neither of us heard her stirring that night.

The next morning I went to volunteer at Foodshare’s Walk Against Hunger while CP did some more yard work. FB joined him outside at times, but was exhausted and still snapping at the air a bit. When I got home CP showed me a website that described FB’s weird symptoms as canine seizures. We decided to take her to the emergency vet.

Of course while we were there she stopped showing any symptoms, but the vet came in and talked with us for a while.

Based on what we told him, it is most likely that FB had a seizure. Based on her age (7.5) and the fact that she is a large breed, she most likely has a brain tumor. The good news is that most of the time, brain tumors grow slowly in dogs. The bad news is that although we could do an MRI to figure out where the tumor is and depending on its location, perform brain surgery to take it out, the vet wouldn’t recommend it. In his words, “even if you had the surgery, because of her age, she is going to have a whole host of other health problems unrelated to the tumor in about a year.”

We are supposed to watch her to see if she has any more episodes. If she starts to have them more than once a month or once every two months, we could put her on anti-seizure medication, but the vet warned us that the medicine does have side effects.

It took all of my might to not cry while the vet was telling us this. But I burst into tears the second we got into the car. FB slept most of the day, staying downstairs with us only to eat dinner and go to the bathroom outside, but otherwise sleeping upstairs in our bedroom. CP and I were alarmed at this behavior. She usually stays in the kitchen with us while we are making and eating dinner (always hoping for something to fall on the floor) and always hangs out with us when we are in the living room because usually one of us is on the floor with her or petting her. We were hoping that the seizure didn’t change her personality too…..

Thankfully yesterday evening she seemed a bit better. Maybe she was just so exhausted from the seizure that she needed to sleep a lot? She hung out with us last night, but wasn’t interested in playing in the backyard with her squeaky toys. Hopefully that comes back too.

I am devastated. FB’s mortality is not something that was even on my radar screen. She is still playful and has tons of energy for a 7.5 year old dog. I can’t even imagine her dying- neither of us can. This may not be the best time to get a puppy (man I wish we had gotten one last fall), but he’s coming on Saturday nonetheless. Meanwhile I will continue to worry about FB and hope that she doesn’t have any more seizures….