Idiopathic Epilepsy

...or, what the vet thinks Ryder has.

On October 2 of last year, Ryder had what looked like a seizure of some sort. It was terrifying, with us never having seen anything like it. At that point, Ryder would have been about 4.5 years old.

Amp and I were in the kitchen, and we heard a loud thump from the direction of the family room. We looked over and saw Ryder getting back to his feet from a prone position. We chuckled and thought he must have wiped out coming down the nearby stairs too fast.

Then we noticed he was shaking bit. We thought he scared himself. Then we saw that he was having trouble standing, and he looked like he was going to fall over walking toward us.

Sleeping baby

We went to him, and Grace came running. She sat next to him on the floor and held him, and told us that he was going to fall down if she didn't hold him up.

Amp scooped him up and sat on the couch with him, holding him and comforting him. He promptly threw up all over her lap. He was quivering and shaking, and I'm probably putting my feelings onto him, but he seemed scared.

The quivering and shaking was not severe, and only lasted 3 or 4 minutes before subsiding, but those few minutes seemed like an eternity. When he was done shaking he cuddled into Amp's lap (he's not normally a lap dog), and let her hold him for 15 or 20 minutes. He was as docile as we've ever seen him. At the end of the 15 or 20 minutes, he stood up, jumped off the couch, and trotted off toward the kitchen like nothing had ever happened.

Helping cook

While this was going on, I gave a panicky call to the vet, who said bring him over as soon as you can.

So we did.

They checked him with a thorough physical exam and a bunch of basic blood work. Everything came back fine. His heart and lungs sounded great. His reflexes were good. His lab work was perfect. If you didn't know what had just happened, he was acting and looking perfectly normal.

The vet's opinion, especially given that he was a middle-aged beagle, was idiopathic epilepsy. Her advice was to keep an eye on him, see if it happened again, and stay in touch.

On December 2 (two months to the day) he had an almost-identical episode. Brief. Not severe. Completely back to normal after 15 or 20 minutes of cuddling.

We didn't panic and reported in to the vet. She said one more of these and we should discuss next steps.

Christmas snacks!

This afternoon at about 3:00pm, almost exactly two months (again) from the last one, Ryder had his third almost-identical episode. I was on a work call, and Grace was a trooper. No panic. Scooped him up and sat on the couch and held him steady. Talked to him and soothed him. And it passed, almost exactly like the others had.

Amp got home from work shortly after, and we took him to the vet an hour later. All tests were the same as after the first episode; physically he was great. A preliminary diagnosis of Idiopathic Epilepsy was made. We discussed next steps (all virtual as they examined Ryder in the office and talked to us on the phone in the parking lot). The most reasonable next step is to put Ryder on a drug called Zonisamide, which is a "primary anti-convulsant". It is the best first choice, being well-tolerated with a minimum of side effects. One dose with the morning meal. One dose with the evening meal. Two doses every day. Which means that Ryder will now be taking more prescription medications that the rest of us combined. By a daily score of Ryder 2 versus everybody else zero.

The girls' first question, after "is he OK?", was "what are we going to do, Dad?"

I think they are worried about the cost of treatments, and whether that cost (or cost avoidance) would win out over Ryder...

We are going to do what the vet recommends, of course.

I never ever ever ever ever wanted a dog. I made that abundantly clear. But now we have a dog and I love him with all my heart. According to Lilo and Stitch, Ohana means family, and family means no-one left behind. So we do what we need to do and hope for the best.

If this doesn't work, we'll try the next thing. And the next. Until we run out of nexts.

Ryder is one of us now.