After a brilliant start with the homoeopathic remedies, we got two whole months out of that. Then he started to have seizures again. If we could catch it early enough we could stop it with the homoeopathic remedy belladonna but we didn't always get enough warning and it felt a bit like Russian roulette so we decided to go down the conventional medicine route.
He started to take a new drug, drug of the year in fact, called Pexion. Without the liver implications and side effects of phenobarbital it seemed like the answer to our prayers.
How wrong can you be?
He went 33 days without having a seizure, the longest he'd gone for ages, I'd have expected three in that time frame. So far so good.
Then we travelled to deepest, darkest Wales for a heelwork to music competition. I knew we were punching above our weight after winning last time and moving up into the next level before we were ready but I thought it would be a nice, no pressure outing with the 'big kids'. After finding a nice dog friendly hotel we practised our routine in the garden and Bentley was amazing; sharp as a pin, funny, engaging and clearly enjoying himself. Wow! " We could actually come away with something if he's like this tomorrow."
Famous last words.
At 4.30 a.m. Bentley had a seizure. As soon as he started to come out of it he had another, and then another. He's only ever had single seizures before.
I truly thought he was going to die. After what seemed like a lifetime but was actually probably only about three minutes, he started to come round. As he did so he peed all over the hotel bed that he'd jumped onto immediately before the seizure and then fell off it, knocking the bedside table, lamp, clock, keys and cup flying. Damn that dog can move fast during a seizure, we had no chance of stopping him falling. I bet the other hotel guests thought there was domestic going on, I half expected the police to turn up.
Why didn't we lift him off the bed? Try lifting a five stone, thrashing dog and you'll have your answer. He was all over the place.
The next hour and a half we spent desperately trying to cool him down and calm him down. That involved standing on a hotel car park in the pouring rain and wind with a howling, whining, pacing, barking dog. Bob desperately tried to find a vet, the nearest one of which was half an hour way. I didn't dare put Bentley in the car in case he had another cluster of fits. We have discovered, the hard way, that travelling, or being away from home, is definitely a trigger for him.
He refused to go under the canopy so we continued to stand in the rain. Sigh. Wet. Cold. Upset. Miserable. Not how I imagined our weekend at all.
At 6.30 he had calmed down enough to get him back inside. Needless to say we did not compete. Instead we paid for the extra night we didn't stay and for the damage to the room and went home.
It turns out that Pexion has been responsible for many dogs having cluster seizures when they have never had them before and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of lots of dogs having to be put to sleep. Apparently there is a call for the manufacturers to withdraw the drug and test it further before more dogs lose their lives. Well. It certainly took a while for that little nugget to surface.
Fast forward to yesterday. We went to our own vet. We have decided that although we didn't want to do it, phenobarbital seems to be a safer option. He started to take it yesterday and to be honest all of the dreadful side effects I've been expecting haven't happened - yet - although he is whiny and clingy and definitely acting out of character.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. Here he is on our walk this afternoon.
And again with our youngest granddaughter.
Sorry for the rambling post.
I just want my Bentley back. 