Molly was under a year old when we adopted her. She is part German Shephard and part Doberman, but small for her age since she was a stray for part of her life. After adopting Molly from the shelter I made an appointment with my regular vet for a checkup to make sure she was healthy.

In November of 2003, I took Molly in for a check up. The vet checked her over and proclaimed her to be a very healthy dog. Also one of the friendliest he's seen for being a shelter dog. Molly loves everyone she meets!

In March of 2004, on a Saturday I took Molly back in for her heartworm medicine. The vet who had her records from the shelter saw that at the shelter she was given the medicine Revolution so he suggested we use the Proheart injection on her.

I was told that it was very safe....... I trusted his judgement so I let him give her the Proheart 6 .

On Monday morning at 2 AM I awoke to Molly having a very bad seizure in our bed. Prior to this she had never thrown a seizure. I called the emergency vet who asked me a lot of questions about what was different that last two days or out of the normal. I informed him of taking her to the vet's which then she received her heartworm injection along with topical flea treatment.

The emergency vet told me to keep an eye on her and call my regular vet in the morning , which I did. I reported off work to take Molly in . My vet checked her over and proclaimed that she 'probably' had epilepsy. Since my first dog had epilepsy for 14 yrs, I was experienced with this... but something just didn't "feel" right. The timing was off in my opinion. Two days after receiving the heartworm injection and throwing a seizure was just too much of a coincidence to me. I voiced my concerns to my vet who repeated said that he really didn't think it was the Proheart 6.

When I got home I checked on the Internet and found Fort Dodge's phone number. I called and spoke to a vet up there who took my story very seriously. A lot more seriously than I thought they should if the medicine was so safe.

Fort Dodge's vet even called my vet and spoke to him on the phone and asked him a lot of questions. Fort Dodge's vet also offered to me, to send Molly to a neurologist and they would pay for the whole thing. Only thing is the closest one was over 3 hours away, so I held off.

I was informed by Fort Dodge's vet that if the seizure is a reaction, they usually only throw one and that would be it. Not so. In May of this year Molly threw another seizure and also another one this past August. Each seizure has gotten better and lasted less time. Molly is on phenobarb since her 2nd seizure to help control them.

I'm lost on whether to keep her on the phenobarb or take her off them after she passes the 6 mos mark which is coming up this Sept 27, 2004.

After reading the other stories posted...... I realize that Molly and I are actually one of the luckier ones.

My heart goes out to all the others who also thought they were doing the right thing ......
as we listened to our vets advice.

Jan

Beau was born on November 30, 2002. He had his first seizure at age 6 months.

May 10, 2003, Saturday 9:15AM
Beau had been playing normally, chewing on rawhide, running outside with Bella (his littermate), with no sign that I recognized of discordination. I was cleaning the house and came around the corner into the living room to find Beau on the floor in severe convulsions. His body was completely rigid (neck and legs stretched taunt) and he was shaking tremendously. At first I was thinking "Oh my gosh, he's choking to death," but in less that a second, I realized he was having a seizure. He continued the convulsions for about one minute after I found him. I don't know how much time passed between the beginning of the seizure and my arrival on the scene. Not long, I think. I stood him up, he began to come to. I laid him down and he was very dazed and disoriented. I had time to call my neighbor and get him over here, so it must have been about two minutes of being heavily dazed. My neighbor arrived and stayed with Beau, while I got dressed. When I came out, about two minutes later, Beau was happy to see me, and jumped all over me. He was uncoordinated, though, missed a stair on the way up to me. His legs were wobbly. In a minute he was able to walk down the steps to the car. I picked him up and put him in the back of the car and took him straight to the vet.

He had Frontline on May 2 and Heartguard Plus on May 3. (7 and 8 days before his seizure) He got into my neighbors dates with the pits 24 hours prior to the seizure and had rawhide chews both he night before and the morning of the seizure.

(I mention the dates and rawhide, because they have been anecdotally linked to possible causes for seizures in young dogs).

When I got to the vet I ran in, I said my dog just had a seizure can you please help me. the receptionist ran to my car with me and we got Beau out, brought him in and took him to an appointment room. The vet, Dr. Salinas, was with him immediately. He wanted to keep Beau for observation and tests. He offered to let Bella stay with Beau because he knows how close they are and thought Bella might help to keep Beau calm. When I returned to pick Beau and Bella up, the test results were inconclusive. At that time Dr. Salinas told me that many puppies have just one seizure. That there was no known reason for that, but that it happened. He told me that I needed to watch Beau, and that if he had another seizure I should consider putting him on anti-seizure medications (given to dogs with epilepsy). He went on to say that the brain learns to seize and that with each occurrence the likelihood of having another seizure increases. I asked if the heartguard or all the puppy vaccinations could have anything to do with the seizure and I was told "no."

June 10, 2003, Tuesday 8:50PM
Beau had been chewing on a rawhide and playing outside. He had done nothing out of the ordinary. He had had a pig ear early in the am. He had also had an enzyme chew on Saturday for the first time since he was 12 weeks old.
I was working on the computer. Beau was in the living room I heard repetitive kicking of feet, about 7-10 reps, and I realized this could be another seizure. I ran to the living room. Beau was on his side again. This time his body was more rounded in on itself and he seemed to hear me. It could be that it was the waking up part of the seizure, that I had missed some part that had no noise of kicking. His head was arched up on his neck, drool was on the floor and he passed gas. I immediately sat down next to him and rubbed his neck. He seemed blind, that he was straining to see me and hear me, but he thought he was very far away. We were like that for thirty seconds or so, before he started to see, to want to move. When he stood it was as though he was happy to see me, but this time he was very agitated ... he walked around, went outside, paced (he never paces), went up and down the side steps twice I think, then went and got under the deck. I called him in, not wanting him to have another seizure outside. He came in. Agitated. Walked quickly through all the rooms, climbed up on my bed, came back down, and finally settled on the cool tiles of the shower in the dark bathroom. He did not seem to want to be around light. He was agitated and walking for about 7-10 minutes before settling in the shower. He normally can be consoled. He was distant or preoccupied tonight, did not relish touch. I mention all this because each seizure was were markedly different. No drool, no gas, very different body position, very little agitation during and following the first seizure.

He had ProHeart6 on June 7 and Advantix on June 7, three days before this seizure. He had gotten into the dates again the night before.

I told all this to the vet at Banfield. My regular vet, Dr. Salinas (for whom I have respect) was not there and a Dr. Poster saw Beau. I had faxed him the seizure reports, which he promptly dismissed as irrelevant. He basically told me that I needed to put my dog on meds for epilepsy, that he was epileptic and that there was no way the medications (shots, heartguard, frontline, etc.) had affected him at all. He did not want to do any tests I asked for (although I was insistent and he had to) and basically treated me as though I had an IQ of about 10. I told him I would not accept the meds, that he was never to treat my dog again, and that I did not at all appreciate his manner.

I took my dog and made an appointment to come back and see Dr. Salinas. Dr. S. had seen Beau after his first seizure. Dr. Salinas read the test results to me and said again all was inconclusive. That to get a really definitive answer I would have to go to UC Davis. I asked him again about all the medications, saying that this seizure had happened so close to having the ProHeart6 that now I was really concerned. I had asked that prior to letting Beau have the injection in the first place and was told by several staff members and the vet that ProHeart6 was perfectly safe. After Beau's second seizure I had done more research and found that the number of dogs used in medical experiments was small and did not seem sufficient to the task. I was assured that the medications were safe, that in fact ProHeart6 was safer that Heartguard. As I did after Beau's first seizure, I refused the seizure medication. I would be home and able to watch him round the clock.

Beau has never had another seizure. I took away the rawhide for many months and only slowly reintroduced them. I built a much stronger fence between my property and my neighbor's date palm. I changed his food to Innova, made locally. I hike and backpack so I needed tick protection for my dogs. I use Frontline for Beau, rather than Advantix. I space out any and all meds, never giving him anything such as rabies or parvo closer than one month apart.

You should know that Bella, Beau's littermate, received all the same meds but never had a reaction. Bella never gets sick, can eat sticks and never get sick. Beau has a delicate stomach, doesn't tolerate milk too well. Perhaps it's the sensitive dogs that have the reactions. I don't know. I can't prove it was the Proheart6 because he had two seizures. But what I think is that most puppies can't tolerate all the shots coming at them so quickly. The shots should all be spaced out much further, never having more than one injection in a month (Parvo, rabies, kennel cough, etc). I think thousands of dogs probably have one seizure. One seizure too many.

Have the researchers recheck the Banfield records because either they are not reporting the incidents, or the incidents are logged in a way that says "neurological event" or something other than "seizure."

Elena