Fudges fits

Awww - poor Fudge :-( Hope everything sorts itself out Kathy - my thoughts are with you and your lovely boy.

LOL. Bless him, I had to laugh because we also have a choc lab Morgan so know exactly what you mean. Hopefully his medication will help him and control the fits, it works with us humans so no reason to think it won`t work for Fudge .
Controlling their weight can be a problem I know from personal experience but having him happy and fit free at the moment must be a great relief for you. Praying all get`s sorted and many happy walks for you and Fudge..... .
I`ve added a like because he`s lovely.......

Awww, poor Fudge, i hope he settles down now he's on the medication.
xx

I hope the new medication works well for Fudge...
and that his appetite doesn't increase too much... xxx

Poor Fudge fingers crossed his medication works alright for him.x

What a beautiful boy Fudge is, do hope his medication works for him and he settles down. xx

Ah poor Fudge , I hope the medication works well for him Kathy , I hope you don't live near a Butchers he will be running off with strings of sausages ... with the Butcher chasing him .. LOL..........

epilepsy is controlabal but you must be redy to assist as Fudge may bite his tongue wehn in fit - if ever need avice plees pm me -i will help as much as i can

Do hope Fudge settles down soon.

Hello Kathy, I'm so sorry to hear Fudge has had a bad bout of fits, poor boy. It must be so very distressing for you all. My fingers and toes are crossed in the hope that the medication will settle him. Increased appetite, oh no. When I'm walking Bonnie, if I spot anyone on a bench having a sandwich or fishermen, I have to put her on the lead - the temptation is too strong for her to resist. I'm pleased he is OK today.

Thanks everyone for your reassuring comments, no more fits thank goodness, Fudge is really clingy though,following me everywhere, and a bit unsteady on his feet tonight, can't seem to settle,vet says it could take 7-10 days till he gets used to the drugs and may need tinker about with them a bit, our vets lovely said if we have any concerns to ring him anytime night or day, was the same when Symba was ill, Fudge loves him only dog I know who likes going to the vet drags us in the surgery,lol, maybe because he always gives him treats,lol.

I would expect him to be a bit clingy Simbad he has been through a lot, he trusts you and does need to know you are around if he feels off. When he settles, like the rest of us he will regain his confidence and so will you Tough time for you both but this will pass as the medication works.

I'm pleased the fits have stopped Kathy. Poor Fudge, he's probably a bit frightened. I'm so pleased you have a good, caring vet, I do too, makes all the difference. Your vet obviously knows the way to Fudge's heart - treats!!! Give him a stroke from me.

What a bonny lad he is pleased to hear his medication is helping.

Glad his fits have stopped. Big ear-rub from me! (Erm...that's for Fudge, not you Kathy LOL)

Lol Sarah how did you know he loves his ears rubbed :-), you're right Drc only settles when he's had a cuddle fast asleep at the moment snoring his head off after falling asleep on my knee, have given him a stroke from you Dawn :-), thanks Mavis and Homebird :-)

awwww poor fudge hope he is ok but when you say fudge I think of chocolate so he is well named as I too love chocolate and would beg for it too.

Poor Fudge how awful for him having these fits. Its a terrible shame as
animals cannot tell us how they are feeling, or when they are feeling scared.
I feel for you, as we really do love our pets, so its so hard when they are
poorly! Still, with his Medication i am sure he will be fine.
Give him a big cuddle for me!!!

Thanks Khayla and Freesiaperson, had to phone the vet today as quite worried when I took Fudge for his walk noticed he had blood in his urine, vet said he's probably either got a water infection or been straining and torn a blood vessel and to keep my eye on it,he is drinking a lot due to the medication, told the vet he was still really unsettled and unsteady on his feet he said to give him another week if he's still the same he'll adjust his medication as he's on quite a high dose, will give him a cuddle from you Freesiaperson, loves his cuddles :-)

What a worry for you Simbad, its awful when your pet is unwell, know how I felt with Polly, Hope Fudge is soon feling better, its good he likes the vet , Pollty was always traumatised which didnt help how I felt taking her! a big hug for Fudge from me ;0)

Thanks Pansy, Fudge has picked up a lot today not so wobbly on his feet and not constantly wanting to go for a wee, even been pinching the tea towels,lol, hasn't done that for a few days, so hopefully he's getting used to his tablets, must be really awful when they don't like going to the vet, they don't know its to make them feel better do they, Symba hates it, won't come out of his carrier, will give Fudge a hug from you :-)

;0)

Well had to take poor Fudge back to the vet last monday, end of last week he wasn't well at all really reacting badly to medication,even off his food, falling over all the time, not interested in anything,so drugged up he could hardly walk, phoned the vet on Saturday to tell him I was really worried, still blood in his wee too, vet said to drop the dose to one 60mg tablet a day instead of two and see how he was on monday, still no better on monday so took him back , the vet said he's never had a dog have such bad side-effects, he has another couple of chocolate labs who are on double the dose Fudge started on with no side effects at all, could change the drug but whatever else he gives him would have to be mixed with a small amount of the same drug, so we said we'd try him on an even lower dose, so now he's on a quarter of the dose he was originally on and thank goodness today he seems a little better, he's been carrying a chewy bone around for three days now, normally wouldn't last for more than ten minutes, think when he eventually eats that we'll know he's back to his old self, only worry now is if the really low dose controls his fits.

You've had a tough time with poor Fudge.
I so hope the reduced dose suits him well, while also controlling the fits...
Please put another update on this blog when you get a chance.

Big << HUG>> to you both. :o) xxx

Hope Fudge is soon feeling better and the the new doseage of medication suits him and helps to decrease his fits, give him a big hug from me!

Aaah thankyou TT and Pansy, seems much better tonight got all his toys out hasn't done that for a while and no more fits fingers crossed, thanks for your concern given him big hug from you both :-)

hugs from me too ,I dont have any animals but I like them.I will watch for update.

Poor Fudge..these things cause such a lot of heartacke. I'm reading a book at the moment about genetics and animal behaviour. It explains that when humans selectively breed for a certain trait in an animal, even if it's something relatively inocuous like a certain colour coat for example, it almost inevitably brings out other genetic twists, and I think this is why we see so many problems like this in pure-bred dogs, as opposed to muts - the book says that these sort of things almost never occur in mongrals because they are so much genetically healthier. It really annoys me what breeders have done to dogs. We've ended up with deaf dalmations, German sheps and labs with hip displaysia, King Charles spaniels with skulls too small for their brains, my brother's collie had a digestion problem that meant he couldn't eat meat for goodness sake!!! Your own vet Kathy has 3 choc labs with this same condition as Fudge!! Breeders obviously care more about trophies than they do about the welfare of the dogs they produce....

Sorry for the rant - hope Fudge is now on the mend xx

Totally agree with you Sid, had similar problems with our pedigree cat, don't know if you saw my blog, but he had a liver shunt another genetic and pretty horrific condition, I searched on the internet when he was diagnosed and found it was more common in birmans than any other breed, he's fine now after a very expensive operation and luckily he was insured, also we had to sign an agreement not to breed from him and that we'd have him neutered at 6 months old because he was so ill couldn't have it done till he was over a year old, vet phoned me during the operation to say his testicles hadn't dropped so had to cut him open to do that too, probably another problem due to inbreeding,got the breeders name from the birman cat club register thought it would be a reliable source, at first the breeder told us it was the mothers first litter, but suddenly when I phoned to tell her of his diagnoses she'd had lots of litters from her with no problems, have noticed she's not on the cat club register now though.
Anyway Fudge is much better now thankyou, nearly back to his old self, taken over a week to get the high dose out of his system, and no more fits so fingers crossed he'll be ok now :-)
Thanks Khayla given him a big hug from you :-)

Glad to know Fudge is more perky now...
...sending him hugs and xxx :o)

Hi Kathy - yes I did read about Symba, I'm glad he's ok now. It seems that every time I hear about a cat or dog that has serious health problems, it's always a pure-bred. A friend of my mum had a pure bred cat until recently. I don't know the breed, but it was a beautiful slate-grey one like on the Sheba adverts and cost a lot of money. Sadly she had nothing but trouble with its health and finally had to have it put down as it couldn't eat, aged about 3 I think.

I was wondering - is it more expensive to insure a pure bred animal? I would not be at all surprised if it was.

What a shame Sarah, know what your mums friend must be going through, very traumatic, at least we still have our Symba.
Don't know if its more expensive to insure pedigrees Fudge isn't insured and neither was our golden retriever before him, although she was always fit and healthy and died of old age, Symba was insured for 6 weeks with Petplan when we got him, which we renewed because he was so ill, thank goodness we did, it has gone up since our claim but not a huge amount, think we pay £10 a month.

Goodness, £10 a month still seems a lot, but thank goodness you renewed! Give Fudge a good ear-rub from me...and a stroke for Symba!
PS sowed my Salvia seeds on Sunday :-)

Will do Sarah :-)
I've got a tray full of salvias too pricked out 15 did stop myself after that or would have had two trays,lol, shouldn't think the ones in the garden will have survived the cold this winter, hope they all grow for you :-), also got lots of your blessed mary thistle just starting to show their true leaves, very pretty, also found some leonotis seeds I'd collected from the garden in 2004 thought I'd give them a try didn't think they'd grow, but they did and got loads of them too, also pricked out galega, dahlia 'bishops children', sclarea 'piemont', gaura,delphinium 'astolot', mixed campanula, cosmos,felicia fillifolia, were I'm going to put them all I don't know :-)

Sorry TT only just noticed your comment will give Fudge a big hug, if I can catch him just run off with my tea towel again, my naughty boys back,lol.
How's Conker doing, is he still doing well? do hope so.

Yes, I was wondering about Conker too...?

Kathy - I just noticed yesterday evening, when I was saying goodnight to everything in the propagators lol, that my salvia seeds are germinating already :-) Your seeds are way ahead of mine - nothing pricked out as yet here. Nicotiana, Agastash, Mandevilla and Echinacea seeds have emerged so far. Sowed 2 varieties of peppers on Sunday, but not sign of them yet.....but it's only been 4 days!! Exciting times!!! :-D Hope you get your tea towel back lol

Oooh you're doing well there Sarah, is the Mandevilla you're growing Suaveolens ? swapped one of those last year on the swapshop I told you about, the lady very kindly sent me two, both did really well no flowers yet though as they were only babies, maybe this year :-)

No, they're Mandevilla laxa and I don't know anything about the plant or how to grow it!! A lady in Serbia sent me the seed last year as an 'extra' as part of a seed swap, so it's a bit experimental. I've seen pictures of the flowers on here, and they do look lovely. No idea what colour I've got or how long they take to reach flowering size....or indeed how big they get?! Still, nothing ventured.... Good luck with yours!

Just looked yours up on google Sarah and looks like its the same as mine Suaveolens is also known as Laxa, know mine has white flowers is scented and can climb to 20 feet,had a look at them today, remember being told they weren't hardy, kept one in the sunroom and one in the greenhouse both have lost all their leaves so scratched the stems to see if they were green looks like the one in the greenhouse is ok not so sure about the one in the sunroom unless it sprouts from the base, would have thought it would be the other way round, oh well have to wait and see.

I have been reading your comments on the ups and downs of poor
Fudge and his Medication problems. I feel so much for you and Fudge
as you seem to have a great bond between you both. Lets hope you
can get an happy medium, or balance in his Medication so poor Fudge
and you can get on with your life again........Please let us know how
things are going with you both. Thanks!!

Aaah thankyou Freesiaperson, Fudge seems to back too his old self at last and no more fits so hopefully the lower dose is suiting him better, keeping up on his walks now but not running around with his mates like he did before, does seems to get a bit faster every day though so hopefully should get better,his tablets run out on Monday so will see what the vet says. :-) x

Well what a terrible couple of days, Fudge had really settled down on his medication then Friday morning it all started again, he had three fits one every hour so took him back to the vet who gave him a Valium injection and kept him in overnight,he had another fit while there, he seems to be a really strange dog the valium should have sedated him for a few hours but knocked him out till the next day,just like the drugs he's on, he's on such a low dose as he has such severe side effects, anyway vet gave him KBr tablets as well as the epiphen, checked his blood, liver and kidneys fine, just got to wait for another blood test to check the levels of epiphen in his blood to see if the low dose he's on is actually enough to have any effect.
So we brought him home yesterday vet said he should be fine maybe a bit disorientated as the valium wears off, but at 6 o'clock last night he started fitting again then 7 o'clock then 10.30, needless to say didn't sleep much, but no more fits in the night, still acting strange this morning doesn't seem to recognize anyone although a little bit more settled at the moment, had a couple of his new tablets so hoping they're starting to work,actual fits don't last that long but pretty distressing to see, then he did a strange thing after he's never done before, and stood in the corner of the room with his nose pressed against the wall swaying and panting and making strange gurgling noises, really hope this is sorted soon, making me a nervous wreck, suppose its a case of trial and error till they find the medication that suits him.