my best friend bear had a seizure last tuesday.

wally needed a haircut, so I decided to take him to a groomer that a neighbor recommended to me, a plus grooming in gloucester city.  I cannot say this enough… DO NOT GO HERE.  ever!  when I got him back, one of his nails was cut so short that it was bleeding, and they shaved him so short and carelessly on his belly that they nicked his little warts and his belly was covered in blood!  the entire ride home, he was licking, licking, licking himself all over.  I don't know if this was from stress, or from the shampoo they used drying his skin out since he kept licking for a few days.

as I had him lying on his back so I could try and clean the blood off his belly, all his legs started shaking.  then he started drooling a lot and was doing a little of the running in place thing, all the while still shaking.  joe and I were just holding him up so he wouldn’t fall or hurt himself, and when the shaking started getting less, joe called the vet while I stayed with wally.  the entire episode was probably about a minute, give or take a few seconds.

the vet said it was probably stress-induced, but I should still check with the groomer just in case he could have gotten into something while he was there.  the woman I talked to on the phone acted like I was the lawyer cross-examining her in a murder trial.  I explained to her what happened and asked a couple of questions, and she just kept saying, “that happens sometimes, it’s not our fault!”  god!  I kept saying that I just wanted to give the vet an accurate description of what happened when we took him in… the way she was acting completely made me disregard anything she may have told me.

once we got him to the blackwood animal hospital, his overall exam went very well.  the doctor said his heart sounded good, his reflexes were excellent, his pulse was steady… then explained that about 90% of the dogs he sees with epilepsy are little white dogs with curly hair.  three strikes on my buddy bear!  since he didn’t have a grand mal seizure (no loss of control of his bladder or bowels, no eye-rolling, no yelping, etc.), the doctor suggested we simply keep an eye on him for now.  if wally gets them more frequently or if they become more intense, we can think about putting him on phenobarbital, but the vet said that for now the side-effects of the medication would probably outweigh the benefit if he doesn’t have seizures often. he also assured me many times that wally is not in pain or scared when he's having the seizure, he just needs someone to help him not accidentally hurt himself since he won't be able to stand on his own during it.

so that’s what we’re doing – just keeping an eye on him and trying to keep him out of situations that are very stressful.  I will never, EVER go back to that horrible groomer.  yes, they were about $20 cheaper but I’d rather pay the extra $20 at petsmart and get a dog back that isn’t covered in blood and so shaken up that he has a seizure!