Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Flycatcher Seizures
I finally managed to catch a partial video of Flycatcher Seizures. It's a very short video. Please make sure you watch the end of the video, because that's when the Flycatching seizures occur. My camera battery was dying so I could not get more Flycatchers into the video. They are hard to catch on video because the episodes only last a few seconds.
Flycatcher seizures are a very mild form of Focal seizures. They are nowhere near in severity as Grand-Mals are.
I feel this episode was triggered first because I had switched Henry from beef to chicken last Friday, and he had a Grand-mal the next day after doing so well for 23 days on the home-cooked diet. I know now chicken is a trigger for Henry.
Chicken is not a trigger for all pets. You have to do detective work to figure out what meat is best for your pet. This is why Henry and Lucky get different meats in their diet.
I have Henry back on beef now, but I expect him to still be sensitive for awhile.
I also feel this episode was triggered by stress. Me and my husband, we got into an argument this evening, and not the smallest of arguments(don't worry, we'll work it out, all couples gotta argue sometime ya know!) and stress I know is a trigger for Henry. He had been in rescue for over two years, and his records showed that most of his grand-mals occured when switching foster homes.
So, anyways, this is what Flycatcher seizures look like. Henry never ever had these until given Flagyl. Now he is prone to them often. Since I started him on home-cooked July 24th, (when he was on beef) the Flycatchers reduced drastically, to almost completely non-existant. I only just put him back on beef two days ago. My hope is these Flycatchers will once again fade away as he detoxes from the chicken.
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3 comments:
Hi there. Your new blog looks great. I have a question for you~
Do you know any resources that help determine if fly catcher-type reactions are actually seizures or just a symptom of OCD? We're concerned about Stanislaw, who does exactly what Henry was doing in that video. He'll nip at "flies," the lick his lips. Only he'll be moving about and acting uneasy. He's quite OCD in other areas, and slips into these habits when under stress. But the lip licking actions occur even when he's relaxed.
Yesterday, seemingly out of nowhere, Stan started acting very upset and scared. I wasn't monitoring him too closely until it escalated enough for me to realize something wasn't right. He then put himself in his crate and hid in there for quite some time before reappearing. As far as I know (and I work from home so I'm with the dogs most of the time) there's never been any actual, definitive seizures. I'm just concerned for the little guy and want to keep myself educated.
Thanks! You're the resident expert!
There is no real definate way to determine if what Stanislaw is doing is simply OCD behavior, or is in fact Flycatcher seizures, especially as Stanislaw has not had a 'true' seizure.
With Henry, Flycatchers are an indicator I need to remove something from his diet/environment. I'd keep a diary of what he eats, and then when exzactly this behavior occurs. Hopefully this will give you answers.
Also, I read your blog, about how it's been hot where you are at. When a dog has definate epilepsy, it's important to keep them a little on the cool side. (This is why the ice pack is so effective in stopping Grand-Mals) Simply dipping paws in cool water can do alot to help cool a dog down. Also a damp, cool washcloth on the belly.
Henry is not OCD at all in the slightest bit, so this made it easier for me to recognize in Henry, plus the fact Henry had already been definately diagnosed as epileptic.
When Henry gets into Flycatcher episodes, he is spacy and not very responsive to his environment. His eyes look glazed over during Flycatchers. He does not move around when having Flycatchers. I don't think he would be able to due to lack of coherence.
By the way, *if* Stanislaw were to ever have a full blown seizure while you were not home, it would be obvious something was wrong when you came home. Stanislaw would have lost bladder and likely bowel control, he would be panting and he would be extremely agitated.
Riley, our dog who does not have epilepsy, snaps at flies too. But there's always an actual fly around, and he doesn't do the lip licking thing, and he stays coherent and stops the instant I call his name.
Hope this helps!
Emily
Thanks so much. I strongly suspect that it's OCD related, but I'm all for education and preparedness just in case. After all, that little stinker is my baby. :)
He used to do this nose-licking behaviors and be completely unresponsive, but we've recently gotten him to the point that he can be "woken up" from them. Before we'd have to ride them out and so I was concerned. But since they're improving I'll just keep an eye on him. I think the nose licking may just be comforting to him.
His bizarre episode (the "ghost" episode) had me worried that something had happened. He was so upset and just repeating behaviors until he finally hid in his crate. However, as we beat his OCD behaviors, I'd say about 1 out of every 3 is replaced by a new one so that may be what I saw. It caught me off guard. You never know with this guy!
Anyway, we're so thrilled to see that Henry is doing well. We keep up with you guys and couldn't be happier that the new diet has worked so well. I feel like we've "known" you for months now and have read all about Henry at the bad times and it's amazing to see him amidst a promising change. We'll be back soon to check in!
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