Saturday, August 06, 2005

Juno's seizures 2

Juno with Almond Butter, July 2005Juno has had a lot more seizures since her first one in September 2004. When she has one, she often has another one within a day or so. They only last about a half a minute or so, but they are grand mal seizures that leave her gasping for breath for minutes afterwards.

Poor Juno. She is scared during and after the seizures. She likes to have Mom or Dad around afterwards to comfort her.

I used to be a little scared, too, when I saw her jerking around uncontrollably. But seeing as how I'm a big, brave dog, it didn't take long for me to get over it. Now when I see one happening, I don't worry so much. But I know it means that once, again, Juno will be getting all the attention, while I sit around like Chopped Liver. Mom and Dad even have a nickname for me: C. L. Very funny. Ha, ha, ha.

Not to belittle Juno's suffering, but her seizures--or even the prospect of seizures--are also taking their toll on certain other members of the family. Mom won't sleep with the air-conditioner on anymore, for fear that she won't hear Juno having a seizure and won't be there to comfort her. We ordinarily don't use the air-conditioner much, but it has been very hot this summer, and some of us have two layers of coat that they can't take off.

Ah, well. There are some advantages, too. After catching her breath after a seizure, Juno is very mellow. In fact, Juno, who does not always appreciate other dogs who come up to greet her enthusiastically, has been calmer around other dogs lately. Maybe this means we can go to off-leash dog parks more often now.

And: Juno now takes phenobarbital twice a day to control her condition. (The vet said that it's not practical to try to diagnose the cause of the seizures; all you can do is treat it with drugs that help prevent them.) Mom says her childhood dog Peabody used to spit out pills they gave him. Juno is less picky about what she eats. But just to be sure, Mom feeds her the pills wrapped in cheese. Mmmmmm, cheese. And--bless her--Mom tries to be fair to me by also feeding me some cheese at the same time. Way to go, Mom!