The Monster Revisits

Two nights ago, I was awakened by Shyla's muscles jerking. She has had a number of myoclonic seizures over the past 9 months, including two nights ago. Her first one was last July (2016). During that first seizure, we had no idea what was happening when her hind limbs started involuntarily jerking because we'd never seen a myoclonic seizure. We took her to the emergency vet at 3AM but the jerking had stopped by the time we arrived there.

We then had a long relaxed time, with no more seizures. We hoped that it had been a fluke and would never reoccur. We went back to leaping and playing, almost forgetting about it.

Unfortunately, that peace was broken in September, when Shyla had a cluster of those myoclonic seizures over a week. A neurologist suggested that Shyla take Keppra, a seizure control medicine. A good reason for using a strong medicine is that this kind of epilepsy ("myoclonic epilepsy") can develop into grand mal seizures, which are life-threatening. Another danger is that the muscle jerking can become omnipresent, making it impossible for an afflicted dog to move or function normally. By controlling the seizures now, the hope is that we'll prevent worse problems from developing.

Shyla has done pretty well since she started Keppra. She had only one full blown myoclonic seizure while taking it up until a couple of weeks ago. Then, we had the tooth saga. She had a seizure on the evening that she came home after having the broken tooth extracted. Then, she had another one two nights ago.

I normally sleep very deeply so I was surprised that her twitching limbs awakened me two nights ago. As soon as I felt her movements in the dark, I knew that we'd have to wait it out - there's little that can be done to change its course aside from giving an extra Keppra pill at the start (she's fully conscious during these episodes so she can take a pill). I settled in next to her to see what happened.

I have to admit that these episodes scare me deeply. I never know how one will evolve. I wonder whether this will be the one that becomes a grand mal seizure. Despite my best efforts, my mind flits to the videos I've seen of dogs who are literally plagued by these twitches 24/7. I fear for our Shyla but there's nothing that I can do to help. Loving deeply means caring so much that it hurts.

Two nights ago, she really wanted contact and comforting during her episode. I let her rest her head on my chest, and I laid my arm along her spine so that I could feel what was happening with her muscles. After about an hour, the cacophony of twitches started to quiet, giving her longer rests between them and jerking her limbs less intensely. By about the 90 minute mark, both Shyla and I were dozing off because the seizure was ending.

We'd survived another one. I hope with all my heart that these seizures become a distant memory sometime in Shyla's life. I want her to be able to fly high for a long life.