Pirate, my medical mystery

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    Pirate, my medical mystery

    *sigh*

    Late Saturday night Pirate has a series of seizures. Aunt Callie picked him up and took him to the e-vet, and the rest of Saturday night/Sunday I monitored him and watched for seizures. He did OK - a little seizury on Sunday but no full-blown events.

    Monday my vet had me leave Pirate at their office for the day, for observation. They took blood to do a CBC and a potassium bromide level. The CBC looks great (whew) but the weird part here is the potassium bromide level -- it's HIGH. TOO high. Now, since I've added chinese herbs and acupuncture his TCVM vet has had me reduce the dose of potassium bromide, to about 1/2 of the starting dose. So, if we're reducing the dose, why is it high? That's 'the question'.

    When Pirate was sick last fall it was because of the phenobarbitol, and now he can't take potassium bromide either. We're going to have to go through the process of finding the right balance of drugs/acupuncture/herbals. If you all could keep Pirate in your thoughts and send him 'anti-seizure' vibes he sure could use 'em!

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    We are sending good wishes and vibes to both of you!

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     Mr. Pirate, you have to get better! 

    :::sticks good vibes and dog cookies in an envelope and sends them to Pirate:::

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     I hope you find the answer for Pirate soon; fingers and paws crossed here.

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    Sending strong "no seizure" vibes from Texas!

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    Oh, Pir!  So many vibes coming from me & my pack to you.  Hang in there lil bud.  ((HUGS)) to Megan.

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    Pirate is SUCH an awesome little dude -- David and I just sorta took the leash from Megan (she was working in a locked down facility and couldn't just "take him" and we had the time and it was no big deal).  But how many dogs do YOU guys know that would go with people he'd only met a couple of times and just let me hold him while David drove and he was happy!  nervous yes, but happy. 

    And going to an e-vet?  That's enough to send most of we humans into over-drive much less the dog (and yes, guess what stress does to seizures?  And it was your typical "jerk" e-vet to be honest).  But David got down on the floor with Pi-man and he was toadally -kewel- about it, jumped up next to David and was fine while there.  And then on the way back he just snuggled down into my ... er ... um .. pillows and enjoyed being petted.

    Here's hoping that some input from a couple of the vets at the Chi Institute will be able to help out and get this leveled. 

    Megan is lucky - she literally lives around the corner from my regular vet's "other" office (me?  I drive 45 minutes to see the guy and she lives around the block!! *sigh*).  But I give her credit folks -- she takes AWESOME care of Pirate -- if he needs it, he gets it. 

    I can't let Pirate's mom get down, folks -- she tries SO hard and is such a great dog mom!!  He had a pretty bad seizure Saturday night and Megan was SO calm in front of him.

    So folks yes, please -- some prayers and good thots for the vets to all work together, be creative and for the hand of the Alpha of all Alpha's to be stroking Pirate's back thru all of this. 

    One bit of the silver lining - the fact that he had this seizure prompted the blood work -- so they *found* the high levels of KBr before it caused problems (and yep, Pi-man gets gobs of milk thistle just like a certain English cocker spanYELL does!).

    So with all these fingers on these electric keyboards with all the good thots and prayers passing thru cyberspace and straight up -- you guys are the BEST at this -- and we'll all send Pirate's Mom some big **hugs** too!!

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    Aw, Callie! You know what it means to me for YOU to say I'm a good dog-mom!

    Thanks to everyone for thinking of us, Big Smile and Callie's right -- think of all of Pirate's vets figuring out the best solution, pretty please!

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    calliecritturs
    So folks yes, please -- some prayers and good thots for the vets to all work together, be creative and for the hand of the Alpha of all Alpha's to be stroking Pirate's back thru all of this. 

    I already posted but I wanted to post again. . .we are sending the prayers and thoughts Callie mentioned above.

    And, Meg, it's so clear to me how much you love Pirate and what a great doggie mom you are.  You've been very supportive of me thru our ordeal and it's obvious you understood and had been there. 

     

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    Pirate, get better soon buddy!

    You guys will defiantly be in my thoughts....(((((good healing vibes)))))

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    Callie, you could BE the vet you know so much, seriously...

    Megan, I'm sending good vibes your way! Hopefully they'll figure it out soon! Oh, and everytime I go to the petstore, I seriously think about you guys....they have a doggie-purse that is all black with white skulls and cross bones....I;ve thouht about buying it and sending it to you, but somehow I don't think Pi is a dog-in-a-bag type of dog! LOL!

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    ((HUGS)) Megan

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    Annie! You hugged me twice! I will take one of those papillons next time :)

    Pirate is certainly not a dog who will be carried. He's waaaay too tough for that! He truly is my heart dog.

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    I figured Wink I still think it's a cute bag....I might buy it and save it for when I'm old and gray with tattoo's that are of who-knows-what, when I get myself a Papillon!

    Hows Mr. Pi doing? Any news?

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    He's doing great -- no seizures today :)

    We've made arrangements to go up to the Chi Institute at the end of the month -- VERY exciting! Hopefully they can work something out.