We just found out our Airedale Terrier puppy has epilepsy…a week and a half ago he had two seizures in two days.  We didn’t realize they were seizures at the time, it almost seemed like he had gone mad or something.  He just suddenly started this horrible barking, it sounded pained, and hoarse, gutteral.  At the same time he went absolutely berserk, tearing around the house in circles, over and over.  There was no calming him or even touching him.  He finally calmed down and was completely disoriented and confused and lethargic. 

We brought him to the vet who explained that he had experienced two mild seizures.  We did a blood screen to rule out any other illnesses or causes for the seizures and then our vet advised us to wait and see what happened next. 

Well yesterday he had another seizure, this one worst than the other two, with him voiding his bowels on the floor and foaming at the mouth as well.  We called the vet again and he prescribed a medication for him that should make the seizures less frequent, and severe.  We just feel so sad for our puppy who was so scared and terrified while the seizures were happening.  Looking on the bright side, it could be worse so at least he can still lead a nice happy life most of the time.  We love our pup!  And of course, now we need to start researching canine epilepsy…so if anyone knows anything please pass it along.

Our dog, Gus, has become increasingly destructive in our backyard.  He is 15 months old now, and pretty well trained inside.  He gets a lot of exercise, at least one hour a day, and usually at least 2 hours on weekends.

Last summer, he dug a few holes in our backyard and munched a few things in our garden.  But overall, for our first summer with a puppy, the damage was way less than we expected.

Alas it is only mid-March and he is already more than making up for lost time.  He was outside for I think 7 seconds last night and dug a hole that almost goes to China.  Last week, left unattended for a bit, he stripped off all the bark from one side of a tree.  We don’t think the tree will make it.  Over the last couple of months he has single handedly trimmed back all of our garden plants, some seem to have disappeared completely.

We are now trying out some different things to curb the destructiveness.  We are only allowing him to be out in the backyard when supervised.  We are giving him more chew toys to play with outside.  We are looking for something to protect our tree trunks (let me know if you know of anything good!).  We are also planning to put a little fence around our garden this summer so that we can hopefully rebuild a bit.  I hope all this works…

When we started thinking about getting a puppy, everyone said we should read “Before You Get Your Puppy” by Dr. Ian Dunbar.  I did some searching and found a copy of it free for download on a website and printed it off so my husband and I could read it.  It pretty much saved our lives with our puppy.  Yes he is a bit dramatic in his writing style, and very black and white about how you should raise your puppy.  But his information and advice all makes sense and is very helpful.  We did mostly everything he suggested and our puppy was really easy to handle the first few months we had him.  He never destroyed anything of value and didn’t pee all over the house.  I think the guy is a dog genius!  He also has a book called “After You Get Your Puppy” which is also a very good read.   Right now both books are available for free download at DogStar Daily.  Enjoy!

Not much of interest to write today…it is so cold here that I think I lost a finger on my 2 block walk to the bank this morning.  The real problem is the wind.  I think it is -15, but once the you factor in the windchill it is more like -25, -30.  It is “wow” cold.

This weekend looks quiet, starting with a trip to the vet for my Airedale after work due to a recurring eye infection (everything with this dog seems to be recurring), so any one who knows anything about Airedales and eye infections, feel free to lend some advice.  It is always welcome here.

Then a nice dinner with a good friend, time to catch up and relax.  The rest of the weekend is filled with hockey and dance, and I am even fitting in Bride Wars tomorrow afternoon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

It is so cold that my husband tried to let our dog out in the backyard twice before he left for work this morning. He opened the back door, Gus walked up to it…looked outside…tested the temperature with his paw…thought better of it, and went back to his crate to lie down, probably thinking “Crazy Humans!”

A friend showed me this and I really giggled – click here.

On another note, Mia Michaels choreographed the most beautiful opening number on So You Think You Can Dance last night – I just love her.  I love her even more for taking the time to come to Canada and work with our dancers as well.  They are soooo lucky!!

I have an 11 month old Airedale Terrier who really is the best dog.  He is calm, good-natured, loving, loyal, protective, smart.  He has beautiful caramel and black colouring and the most expressive eyes.  I love this guy.  He is killing me.

He has the most sensitive stomach and we just aren’t quite sure what to do about it.  Everyone has different advice and we are trying out everything.  We researched our food very carefully when we first got him and ended up putting him on Solid Gold Wolf Cub which is an amazing food with lots of good stuff and no bad stuff.  Its main components are bison and salmon.  Gus loved the food and everything was smooth for a short time.  At some point he started having diarrhea and after a few months of trying things we figured out he had Giardia.  Our vet treated him with meds and all went back to normal again.

Until we boarded him in a kennel at the end of June.  After 7 days there, he came home with diarrhea again, which everyone said was probably due to stress at the kennel.  We waited a few weeks and when it didn’t abate we got him checked again and found there was nothing wrong with him other than perhaps a bacterial infection.  Thus we started on about 3 different types of meds and powders until September when our vet suggested we change his food.  He put Gus on Hills Prescription ID as well as another course of antibiotics and after a couple of days his problems were solved.

We don’t want to keep him on this food as it is very expensive and contains egg, which our son is allergic too and we don’t like to have it in the house in any form.  So we started to switch him back to his old food as we weren’t convinced it was an intolerance that caused all the problems.  After about 2 days of the switching, Gus got diarrhea again.  So I started to research a different food, that was perhaps easier on a sensitive stomach.  I chose Wellness Core, which is mainly turkey and chicken.  We did the switch using rice and the new food and all was well.

Until last night, his second full day on only the Wellness food, and he was up all night with diarrhea again.  After a long day of seeking advice and researching on the internet, we are going to give him rice tonight, and start blending the rice and Wellness food again tomorrow for a few days hoping he will adjust.  If anyone out there has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them…