Bella had a seizure this morning around 12:59am that lasted about a minute. She then spent almost an hour stumbling around the house. Of course my wife and I were asleep when the seizure started, so we didn't notice any pre-seizure signs. The power went out for the whole block at around 12:30 but only lasted 4 or 5 minutes. It woke us up, and Bella seemed fine - she just laid on floor watching us which is pretty normal for her. I even took her outside to pee before going back to bed. Looking back, yesterday, she was acting a lot more lethargic and stubborn than she normally does.

On July 17th, about a week after starting her on Phenobarbital - a 64.8 MG tablet twice a day - I called the vet concerned that she might not be able to handle the dosage. She was walking around like she was drunk, stumbling and bumping into stuff, and she always slipping on the wood floors. One day, she took a header off the back patio when she decided to attack a tennis ball which was just laying in the grass, minding its own business. Luckily, she missed the cement paving stones that are right off the patio. She got up and heading for the ball again and when she got there, she overshot it, tried to compensate, went into a flat spin, hit the deck, and rolled over a couple times. She recovered quickly and acted like "I meant to do that." I couldn't even laugh because I knew it was the Pheno that has her balance and coordination all out of whack. So, the vet suggested cutting her dose in half - giving her half a pill twice a day. I'm calling the vet today to see if we need to raise her dose back up to 2 pills a day.

No seizures since 5am Tuesday morning, but I really don't like how the Phenobarbital effects her. It's like she's drunk and I can tell she doesn't like it. I might have to talk to the vet about lowering her dose.

Bella had another seizure this morning around 4:55am. This one didn't seem to last as long, but that might just be wishful thinking. For anyone who's counting, that's 3 seizures in a little over 24 hours from a dog who has not had any seizures in at least 5 months. I talked to the woman who took Bella in back in February and she said, as far as she knows, Bella did not have any seizures while she was fostering her.

And, I just got off the phone with the vet and he said the blood tests were all clean so the cause is probably neurological - epilepsy. He suggested prescribing some medication to help get the seizures under control and then setting up consultation with a neurologist.

Okay. I am officially freaked out now. Bella just had another seizure about 30 minutes - less than 24 hours since her last one, which was the first one she's had in the 2 months that we've had her.

During her seizure last night, luckily she was sleeping on the floor in the den. Tonight, however she was on the couch but thank goodness I was sitting there with her. At around 8pm, I decided to play a little xbox instead of going to bed. If I had gone to bed, Bella would have fallen off the couch and onto the hardwood floor. I saw she was about to have another seizure and I scrambled over to her just in time to catch her and keep her from hitting the floor.

A couple people have asked me if she could have gotten into anything toxic and I'm pretty sure she has not. At least, we haven't seen any evidence that she has.

The only major change or occurrence was yesterday when our A/C was out and it got up to 90 degrees in the house. We tried to keep her as cool as possible - I would try to get her to get up and drink water, but was just did not want to get off our bed where she was laying with 2 fans blowing on her. At one point I started wetting small towels and putting them either on her chest or draped over her neck. Those didn't seem to be cool enough, so I put them in the freezer for several minutes and then laid them on her. I kept doing this throughout the day. If her being over heated yesterday is the cause of the seizures I don't know what I'll do. The guilt would probably kill me.

We had a serious scare this morning around 2:30am. My wife woke me up mumbling about noises. When I heard the noise, my first thought was her daughter had some popcorn in the microwave. Turns out, the noise was Bella's paws thrashing against a wall. She was laying on her side, eyes open, body stiff, legs out straight and thrashing - not like in a doggy dream of chasing squirrels - and she was frothing at the mouth. I've never seen one before - either in a dog or a person - but I knew she was having a seizure.

My first response was to call my vet's 24 hour number. Just as someone was answering the phone, the seizure seemed to pass. Bella remained laying on her side, but within a few minutes got up and started walking around. She was definitely dis-oriented and seemed a little out of it. She spent the next 5 or so minutes walking around the house getting her bearings. She would only respond to simple commands - not that she's always responsive to commands - but she was still very out of it and would only let me put her for about a minute. Once she stopped walking around sniffing everything, she just curled up on the floor and stayed there for the next 5 or 6 hours. After that, she seemed to be back to her old "rub my belly" self.

I took her to the vet this morning to have blood work to rule out any internal organ issues that could have caused the seizure and we should hear something back tomorrow. We have had Bella about 2 1/2 months and this is the first time we've seen anything like this.

She looks happy



My step-daughter was in the kitchen making something to eat, so Bella is just sitting there watching her

I'm a little worried about Bella. Yesterday, we came home from work to find a pee spot in our bathroom just inside the door. The previous owner of the house put carpet in the bathroom (WTHF?!) and we're planning on replacing it - we just haven't gotten around to it - but I don't want her to get into that habit. When we first adopted her - about 5 weeks ago - she pee'd in our bathroom once and in the dinning area once. But, that was probably the first couple days we left her at home by herself. I just chalked it up to the stress of being in a new place with new people and all that. I started giving her plenty of praise and a treat every time she potty's outside so she's been really good about it. Although, I've had to scold my wife a couple times for giving Bella a treat after she went outside but didn't do anything.

My two teenaged step-kids have been out of school for the past two weeks so they've been home most of the time - there were a few days last week when they were both at their grandmother's. They have both been pretty good about letting her out in the backyard every couple/few hours and my step-son even took her for a short walk one day. She doesn't actually let us know when she needs to go out. She'll just come over and stand looking at me or she'll sometimes actually walk to the backdoor and stand there looking at it. She doesn't bark or whine or scratch at the door - she just stands there. So, when we got home from work and found the spot in the bathroom, I thought maybe she went to the door, the kids were in their rooms and didn't know she needed to go out, so she went in our bathroom.

However, she did it again last night. When my wife and I first got home, I let Bella out back and she pee'd. Shortly afterwards, my step-son took her for a short walk. Then, about an hour later she was laying on the floor in the dining area after she ate and I tried to get her to go out again - I thought she might need to poop since she didn't eat as much as she normally does - but she wouldn't budge. I found out this morning, that she pooped on her walk with my step-son. I went back into "my room" - I call it "my room" because it's a small room, open on one side that's supposed to be a formal dining room where I have a couch, a TV, and my Xbox - and started playing a video game. I waited about an hour and a half and tried to get her to go out again, but all she wanted to do was lay there. So, a little later, she came into my room, jumped up on the couch and laid down at the other end. Sometimes, when she needs to go out, she'll either stand in front of the couch looking at me or she'll sit right beside me on the couch and stare at me. This time, she laid down on the other end of the couch like she was going to go back to sleep. A little later, my wife started doing something in the kitchen - which is right around the corner from "my room". Bella jumped off the couch to go see what my wife was doing and then followed her into our bedroom. My wife said Bella went into the bathroom, sniffed at the spot where she pee'd earlier in the day - I had wiped up as much as possible and drenched it with Nature's Miracle and had a fan blowing on it so it would dry - walked a little further into the bathroom and then came right back out. As it turns out, she pee'd again just a couple feet from the earlier spot. I was very upset, but I remained calm and didn't punish or even scold her - Bella, not my wife. I did scold my wife a little and told her if she ever sees Bella sniffing around on the floor, it's probably because she needs to go outside. What upset me the most is that I had been trying to get her to go outside for the past few hours, but she didn't seem to want or need to go out.

How can I be mad at her...


We're going to Hobby Lobby tonight and pick up some stuff to make something like this. Bella is about 4 or 5 years old and not knowing how she was raised and house trained, we don't know what to expect from her. We've put down training pads - we picked up some the very first time she pee'd in the house when we first brought her home - in our bathroom and near the backdoor. We've also told the kids not to keep her water bowl full all day and to check on her more throughout the day.