Bear (seizures) is now at Peace <3

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Ooh buddy :( I'm ashamed to say I didn't get enough time with him since these started to say if they were this frequent when he was with me. Good boy, Bruce, being such an understanding brother.

I never saw him salivate or chomp his teeth before, just rearing and batting. Could the change of environment make it worse? The triggers I noticed were treats or irregular food or stress.

Fingers crossed for Bear... very worried about him... not sure how I could handle this if I was doing it alone... I don't think I could with Alduin too...

Thank you so so much again, Shelagh. We would be in some deep water together if he was with me...
 
That is very frequent seizure activity. If he were a person, he would be hospitalized.
Does his paw use go back to normal after a period of time has passed?
I am thinking he probably has a brain tumor, or an imbalance in his blood, like low blood sugar. Have you tried feeding him some food with 'easily accessible carbs', like you would give a diabetic when they crash?
 
Joanne said:
That is very frequent seizure activity. If he were a person, he would be hospitalized.
Does his paw use go back to normal after a period of time has passed?
I am thinking he probably has a brain tumor, or an imbalance in his blood, like low blood sugar. Have you tried feeding him some food with 'easily accessible carbs', like you would give a diabetic when they crash?
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Yes his paw use is almost normal in between episodes. I have noticed he doesn't kick with his hind legs and mostly bats with that left paw. I am hoping its some type of imbalance rather than a brain tumour (that would REALLY suck).

He devours lab blocks, but I have no idea of how accessible any of his carbs are. Do you know of a type of food that might help with that?

The snapping of his mouth is not all the time, only when he's rearing up and batting the air and then he twists and falls and no more mouth thing. I think the seizures have progressed since those first videos you caught. This is sadly a normal state with seizures, they either go away quickly or they slowly (in Bear's case) get worse.

I try to watch him with an objective eye, figuring out what are his stages, pre and post-seizure, so that when we finally start treatment I will have a better idea if things are working or if meds need to be adjusted. For eg. the hyper aware state means he has HAD a seizure, the fast breathing is the same, the agitation, rearing up on the side of the cage for a moment, etc means he will be having one.
 
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TheHermit said:
Ooh buddy :( I'm ashamed to say I didn't get enough time with him since these started to say if they were this frequent when he was with me. Good boy, Bruce, being such an understanding brother.

I never saw him salivate or chomp his teeth before, just rearing and batting. Could the change of environment make it worse? The triggers I noticed were treats or irregular food or stress.

Fingers crossed for Bear... very worried about him... not sure how I could handle this if I was doing it alone... I don't think I could with Alduin too...

Thank you so so much again, Shelagh. We would be in some deep water together if he was with me...
Click to expand...

So far treats hasn't caused an issue (so far just using gerber's puffs), he eats a lot, and drinks a lot (thirst is a common side effect from seizures) but he can go from slightly agitated, drinking from his bottle calmly to falling of the low shelf in a seizure. I have lowered everything down and have a ton of aspen to make sure its cushioned in there if he does fall.

I watch him contantly, his cage is right behind me when I am at the computer...and I can see his cage when I am lying down (I leave the door open so I can see them in the hammock)...I also listen for any sounds that aren't right, all so I can document his seizures. Poor lad, I really hope we can help him feel better.

If I haven't heard back from Dr. Munn or the clinic on Monday morning, I will call them first thing.
 
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If it is low blood sugar, then you need to raise it. Perhaps a sweet juice he will lick up? Some unstable diabetics will even carry around a pouch of glucose that they can tear open and consume easily. I don't think candy is a good idea, but anything with sugar in it should help IF the seizures are caused by low blood sugar. Everything to gain if it helps, nothing to lose if it doesn't!
 
Poor little guy. I hope it's not a tumour. The only times any of my rats have had seizures was just before dying of PT-- and they were not conscious at all by those times.

I'm curious to see what can be done for a rat with seizures. Any articles on meds for rats? They probably just get tiny doses of the human meds.
 
I have mandarin oranges here I could try a little for now? I am hypoglycemic myself and when I crash I usually try to eat something like bread to stabilize myself, rather than sugars that cause the big yo-yo effect.
 
Joanne said:
If it is low blood sugar, then you need to raise it. Perhaps a sweet juice he will lick up? Some unstable diabetics will even carry around a pouch of glucose that they can tear open and consume easily. I don't think candy is a good idea, but anything with sugar in it should help IF the seizures are caused by low blood sugar. Everything to gain if it helps, nothing to lose if it doesn't!
Click to expand...

I'm thinking this probably has nothing to do with blood sugar, myself....
I've had two diabetic cats and seizures aren't very common, only when the blood sugar goes horribly low and for blood sugar to go that low, they'd need to be on insulin. The blood sugar in an untreated diabetic is always too high, and the animal will be losing weight in spite of drinking and eating a LOT.
long term untreated diabetes can lead to a lot of other issues, strokes, etc but you'd have a very thin and ravenously hungry and thirsty animal.

The kind of normal blood sugar highs and lows caused by eating don't cause seizures, but they can cause you to feel like crap. That might be a trigger for seizures caused by a seizure disorder, but it wouldn't mean that he's got diabetes.
 
Godmother said:
Poor little guy. I hope it's not a tumour. The only times any of my rats have had seizures was just before dying of PT-- and they were not conscious at all by those times.

I'm curious to see what can be done for a rat with seizures. Any articles on meds for rats? They probably just get tiny doses of the human meds.
Click to expand...

Phenobarbitol is the drug of choice, but you can use diazepam as well.

http://ratguide.com/health/neurological/seizures.php
 
Bear was doing that fast breathing when I woke up so I obviously missed a seizure. He had his first that I saw at about 8:34 am...recovered well and was grooming his fat butt about an hour later :D
 
Don't know if any of you have seen a new show on Nat Geo Wild called Dr. K's exotic vet - its not too bad, but they had an episode where a guinea pig kept having seizure that were do to low blood sugar which was secondary to something I cannot remember. This is the episode, don't know if it will help since obviously they are different. Bad outcome for the pig though

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi475377433/
 

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