Seizures, wobbling head. What is up with our spaniel? [1]

When your puppy is unwell, it can feel terrifying. You don't know what is wrong or how to fix it. Well that is how we felt, many a time! When she was suddenly being sick, when she ripped her claw out but this was the worst of all.

Roo was around 4/5 months old, she had been out for a walk and was chilling on the dinning room floor. We got up and Roo lifted her head to look at us and it was wobbling, rocking from side to side. She looked dazed and didn't move. She was responsive but slow. We watched her for a minute or so trying to figure out what was happening, then we called the vets. We explained what was happening and they got us booked in an hour or so later. Roo's head was still wobbling and she was unstable on her feet.

The vet said it could be a number of things but that it looked like she was having a seizure and suggested we bring her in the next day to run blood tests to rule out anything toxic and other things such as low blood sugar. Her kidney function was also tested. All the results came back clear. We were advised the next step would be an MRI but that it would be best to wait and see if it happened again as there was a small possibility this was a one off. MRI's are very expensive and they didn't want Roo being sedated unnecessarily. We were happy to wait it out, hoping it was a one off!

That first siezure lasted 3 hours!

Months went by, maybe a slight head wobble for a minute but it was hard to tell if it was just her moving or another seizure. We had put it all to the back of our minds, we had lots of other issues to be dealing with like reactivity and anxiety.

Fast forward to June 2021, our first night of our holiday in Dorset. We had a busy day of travelling, 5 hours in the car, a couple of wee stops and an hours walk in a new place. It got to the evening and we put Roo in her crate to rest. She seemed fine, sleeping. We looked over to check on her, she lifted her head and it was wobbling again, only this time worse. We sat looking at each other both unsure what to do next, thinking no this is not happening again. Suddenly we were trying to find an out of hours vet nearby. Luckily we found one which was a 20 minute drive away, they suggested we bring her in straight away and to put a towel over her head to reduce her stress levels.

The vet took one look at Roo and said it looks like epilepsy. We were told that we could continue our trip and do things as normal as long as Roo's seizure had stopped and she didn't have another one. Roo was given Diazepam and we were given a couple to take with us incase she had more. The vet advised we make an appointment to see our own vet when we got home to be referred for an MRI and further testing.

We got back to our holiday cottage, Roo was still seizing and it ended up lasting around 3 hours again. But she woke up the next morning as if nothing had happened. We took things easier than we would have done but still continued our trip. After an email exchange with our vet, an appointment was made for the following week for them to see Roo.

Over the next day or so, Roo seemed fine but we decided to cut our trip short because of her behaviour (there is post up about our holiday from hell, you can read it here). Roo was chilling in her crate whilst we started packing up, we looked over and again her head was wobbling. We kept an eye on her but after 30 minutes we gave her another Diazepam. We packed up quickly and hit the road. Roo slept for 4 hours and when we stopped, she seemed back to her usual self again.

Once we were home, she seemed fine again.

Next came our telephone consultation with our vet to see what we had to do next. We ended up speaking with a vet who had never seen Roo before and didn't seem to even know how old she was. This vet said, it didn't sound like epilepsy and she was probably dizzy and if she was, she would also most likely be sick after her episode. Which Roo isn't ever and we tried to explain this but were talked over. The vet said for now, there as nothing to be done and to just wait and see if it happened again. Safe to say we were very unhappy with this. Both times when she was having her seizure, the vets that saw her said epilepsy was a possibilty.

We requested a second opinion from a different vet at our practice who called us the following day to say that Roo was going to be referred for further testing as this needed to be investigated. This vet did say that it doesn't present as typical epilepsy and it could be an involentary muscle movement or lots of other things. We were just pleased that it was being taken seriously. These are the videos of Roo's "episodes" that were shown to the vet.

Roo has been referred to see a neurologist at Dick White referrals in Cambridge on 11th August. After chatting with them, on the day we will have a consultation and be advised what tests need to be ran, given the estimated cost of it and then if we agree, Roo will be kept in most likely overnight for them to take place.