Kusu's having seizures.
At the end of November, and 3 times since, Kusu Akita has been seizing, grand mal and all.
Yesterday's started with her choking on nothing. Then she fell over in my arms.
It happened again yesterday. She's getting phenobarbital, having levels and new thyroid taken in a few days.
She's otherwise a lovely Akita. I had so hoped she would be my 1st healthy Akita.
I am researching and trying to find others who may have had a similar experience.
A breeder and I are researching lines, as well.
My Kalitan Chinook has seizures,too.
Some say it was the bottleneck that produced them, inbreeding, closed lips, of course.
His DNA is at UMO, Purdue, Vet Gen, and in Europe whose name I have forgotten, all for seizure research
I am not trained in science but I wondered if seizures could be associated with auto immune.
Yesterday's started with her choking on nothing. Then she fell over in my arms.
It happened again yesterday. She's getting phenobarbital, having levels and new thyroid taken in a few days.
She's otherwise a lovely Akita. I had so hoped she would be my 1st healthy Akita.
I am researching and trying to find others who may have had a similar experience.
A breeder and I are researching lines, as well.
My Kalitan Chinook has seizures,too.
Some say it was the bottleneck that produced them, inbreeding, closed lips, of course.
His DNA is at UMO, Purdue, Vet Gen, and in Europe whose name I have forgotten, all for seizure research
I am not trained in science but I wondered if seizures could be associated with auto immune.
Comments
Pearly our boxer had seizures at age 13 was very hard to see.
Our vet just diagnosed epilepsy (seizures from unknown cause) because we don't know why they started.
Living with a dog with seizure disorder can be difficult but pheno can really, really help. There's some people--not just me!--on the Shiba side of the forum that also have dogs with seizure disorders. If I can find the links later, I'll post them here. there's also a couple of good resources online that tell about how to deal with dogs with seizure disorders. Epi-angels is one.
I'm sorry to hear this.
Kusu's thyroid is inconclusive, hence, low normal which Jean Dodds claims there is a predisposition in Akitas to that. However, I'm not an advocate of Dr Dodds, to each her own.
In a few days, I hope to get Vet's advice on raising the Pb. and I'll be telling you all on this thread what her result are.
She is almost 7 so this is late onset.
Lindsayt, I'll be reading more about this connection and will tell you all what I find.
Thank you!
Thank you.
Unfortunately, I know how devastating it can be to have a dog with a seizure disorder. Nola was diagnosed in October with seizures caused most likely by a brain tumour. (The vet and I are about 99% positive Nola has a fairly aggressive brain tumour, but we have not done any imaging to confirm due to costs and the fact that certainty would not change her course of treatment.)
Nola started by having partial complex seizures, which are what some people call petite mal seizures. Putting her on a decent dose of phenobarbital helped quite a bit with the partial complex seizures... Until Nola started showing some immune deficiency issues and had to have general anesthesia in order to clear out a highly infected ear. Less than 12 hours after the surgery, Nola had a full blown tonic clonic (grand mal) seizure. A few weeks after that, she had another very bad tonic clonic seizure that caused some severe brain damage and a stroke. That was in November. Nola had another seizure a little less than two weeks ago that caused a mini stroke but did not decrease her neurologic function any further.
Nola has improved after her stroke, but still has a lot of neurological issues, lack of energy, altered mental state, etc. She still has both the complex partial seizures and the tonic clonic seizures, but increasing her dose of phenobarbital has only helped a little.
As a note, Nola's thyroid levels (checked multiple times over the past 5 months) have always been normal. However, my older Shiba, Bella, is hypothyroid, but has responded wonderfully to medication.
I can't see above exactly.
You must be devastated and am sending Nola love.
And yes, things have been very rough over the past few months, but Nola is an incredibly special dog, so I will do whatever I can to keep her comfortable and happy as long as I can. Thank you very much for the well wishes.
It sounds like you are another devoted owner. I am so sorry for Nola.
I will keep her in my thoughts.
I looked at you flicker pics and I figured out she IS a Shiba. You were right, she looks like a Shiboku after shedding.
Warmly,
Britain
Still, I would like to know more about affected relatives, esp if seizures are found in a line.
The COIs on Chinooks are unbelievably bad. Thanks for this, Linda.
I'll let you know what happens on the 19th and with the DLA test, if I do it.
I'll be talking to some Akita Owners about this. Thank you for the info. I hope your dogs are okay today.
I have to get the phono to a therapeutic level.
I can't wait for the visit to vet after tests.