I am not sure if I got this story right, it's been a while since I heard it. But it is true. There once was a little boy, maybe eight or nine, who wanted to be a gymnast. He spent hours on his jungle gym and monkey bars, building his strength and training himself to do things. That was his only goal, to be a famous gymnast like Olga- she was his hero. (I forget her last name. She won a gold medal in the olympics, I think.) However, he contracted a disease that weakened and eventually killed him before he turned eleven.His parents, naturally were heartbroken to watch him suffer, but even more so in understanding that his one dream would never come true. One year after he died, they happened to look at the mokey bars, now sadly empty. But underneath the bars, where the earth was packed as hard as iron, were two blood-red lilies. It was as if he was saying, "It's okay, mom and dad, I am fine. I can do things here that I could never do at home." The lilies never bloomed again.

I have two: First is my lab, Jack. Of course he would retrieve anything. In a group of adults throwing a ball for him, he would bring the ball back to whoever threw it. But when our young neighbor kids threw him a ball, he made them take turns. If the boy threw the ball, he would bring it to the girl, and vice versa. He did this repeatedly, on several occasions! He never did that with anyone else. Here's Jack, at his happiest - by the lake. Then there's Topper - our first Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He was not especially affectionate - he would sit with you on the couch as long as you were petting him, then he would go lay on the floor. My teenage son suffered from depression and anxiety in high school. At one point his doctor put him on a med to which he reacted very badly - he had drastic mood swings, from hysterical laughter to suicidal thoughts within minutes. He stopped taking it right away, but the effects lasted a week. Either DH or I was at his side the whole time, usually snuggling on the couch in the family room. Topper would be at the far end of the house, presumably asleep, when suddenly he'd run to the family room and jump into my son's lap. Within a minute DS would report suicidal thoughts. The dog stayed in his lap until it passed, then sat at the other end of the couch, keeping a watchful eye on him. It happened several times that week. When that awful week was over, Topper went back to his usual, more aloof self. I don't know how he knew - I just know that having the dog at my son's side made those episodes a little easier to handle. Another Topper story - not nearly as dramatic. We went to Itasca State Park in Minnesota - home of the birthplace of the Mississippi River. My sons love to wade down the river, and started off, as they had done before. Topper wasn't crazy about the water, and didn't like to swim (even though he was good at it). DH and I planned to walk a path, and meet the boys downstream. Topper would have none of it - he insisted on following them down the river, through the water. He had his ears flat back on his head - a very unhappy look - but determined to not let the boys out of his sight! Lucky for Topper, the water was really low that year. Here are the three of them, on a log across the river:

Based upon what Prarie love wrote, at least some people do believe that hypothyroid-induced seizures are common. Being hypothyroid and having seizures are not necessarily related, though they certainly can be. Unfortunately being that most animals do not get regular annual (twice yearly for older pets) bloodwork when they are healthy, but most people will get bloodwork done when their pet has a seizure, it is often the case that low T4 is discovered right after an animal has a seizure. But the seizure itself can cause low T4, and once the animal's seizures are controlled the T4 returns to normal- or not if the animal is on phenobarbital. This is euthyroid sick syndrome- normally functioning thyroid that is temporarily suppressed due to another disease. Euthyroid sick syndrome can be caused by any disease, including a disease that causes seizures or the seizures themselves. It doesn't hurt to judiciously supplement thyroid hormone in an emergency while waiting for a full thyroid panel, which takes 1-2 weeks (having just gotten one for my dog) as long as you don't go overboard, as oversupplementing thyroid hormone can be cardiotoxic. But you are not really controlling the seizures, you are actually preventing further seizures. In other words, even if a dog's seizures are caused by hypothyroidism, giving thyroid hormone won't do anything to stop the current seizures (explaination follows). The full thyroid panel can sort out euthyroid sick syndrome from true hypothyroidism if it is done prior to starting phenobarb, usually. Some pets refuse to be classified, like my own dog. I did a LOT of reading on this lately because my pathologists were stumped when I asked how hypothyroidism, which causes decreased cellular activity, could possibly cause seziures, which are caused by increased cellular activity. I would have asked the neurologists, but they were in rounds and then left before I could catch them. But I did find the info myself, and it seems that hyperlipidemia (VERY high serum triglycerides and/or cholesterol) may lead to atherosclerosis and then ischemic encephalopathy (low oxygen to the brain) due to hemorrhage or thrombus, causing seizures or other CNS signs (called a stroke in people). There are many causes for hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism is one. One study showed that dogs that had atherosclerosis were 51 times more likely to be hypothyroid than dogs who did not have artherosclerosis (they showed similar results for dogs with diabetes mellitus). Hyperlipidemia may also cause hypercoagulable syndrome where an animal throws clots, which can end up anywhere. Clinical signs are referrable to location of clot, so if a dog threw a clot into the brain, that would also cause ischemic encephalopathy and possible CNS signs or seizures. Of course, bloodwork would pick up hyperlipidemia (well, a complete panel would show both cholesterol and triglyceride levels; some in-house machines can't do this), so waiting for a thyroid panel just tells you why the hyperlipidemia is present. Because hyperlipidemia may have causes besides hypothyroidism, it is much more important to include cholesterol and triglycerides in a seizure work-up than to include thyroid testing. You can always go back for a cause of hyperlipidemia if needed. That said, you need to have a full thyroid panel done before a pet is placed on phenobarbital because that drug suppresses thyroid hormone in some animals. It does not always cause clinical disease and may not always need to be treated. Once on phenobarb, it is very difficult to impossible to sort out true hypothyroidism from phenobarb-induced thyroid suppression. Without clinical signs though, there doesn't seem to be a need for treatment. Atherosclerosis appears to be rare in dogs overall, but common in dogs with hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus. The actual incidence is unknown because you need either MRI, CT, or a necropsy to diagnose it. Most people don't have access to MRI or CT for their pets either because of expense or because it isn't available. And most people refuse necropsy. The unfortunate part about atherosclerosis is that once it is in the brain, you can't get rid of it, even by treating the underlying cause. If you can get the animal to stop having seizures and if there isn't too much permanent damage and if you can treat the underlying cause, you may be able to prevent more seizures depending upon how much of the brain is affected by atherosclerosis. The damage is done, and you have to prevent further atherosclerosis by treating the disease. In some cases, the damage to the brain may be too great and the patient dies despite best efforts, even if the cause was "just" hypothyroidism. Controlling hypothyroidism would also prevent further seizures due to hypercoagulable states caused by hyperlipidemia, but the same "ifs" apply. This is why supplementing thyroid hormone when presented with a seizuring animal isn't really necessary, even if the seizures are caused by hypothyroidism. You do need to control the hypothyroidism, but that can wait until the animal stops seizing and you have at least a clue of whether or not the animal is actually hypothyroid. It appears that the reason hypothyroidism is a rare cause of seizures in dogs is that most cases of hypothyroidism are diagnosed and treated long before a patient develops clincally significant hyperlipidemia and subsequent atherosclerosis. It seems that mild hypothyroidism without clinical signs does not cause the a high degree of hyperlipidemia, so the risk of seizures in this case is very small. I guess if you ignore the clinical signs long enough and don't do screening bloodwork on a regular basis, a dog could have severe hypothyroidism and seizures. BTW, collies are prone to hyperlipidemia without hypothyroidism, so in the case of poor Shelby, testing cholesterol and triglycerides is much more important than thyroid testing. You have to know what is common in certain breeds and ages, otherwise you end up running every test in the book and that is a waste of time, money, and effort.

Once Ruby ate a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Her tummy was so full she could barely walk! The vet said she would be fine, just keep an eye on her and make sure "what went in came back out"...we had to make sure she wasn't bound up. Well. No worries about that ROFL! That night, her tummy was just a gurgling and she was very restless. I was starting to get worried as she was bloating. Two seconds before I would have gathered her up to take her to the emergency vet, she let out a toot so strong she kicked her back legs out!!!!!!! She felt much better after that. And yes. It smelled like fresh baked cookies. Dances.