Iheartmybabies (Moorestown, Nj, 08057) on 06/29/2012

Today I'm posting about my 4 pound chihuahua, Louise. Years ago she had 2 seizures, a year apart and that was it. This past December, shortly after applying Frontline, she went into cluster seizures - major foaming at the mouth (could have filled a bathtub with all the foam), the shaking, etc. I had her at the vets for 3 days in a row. Everytime the valium started to wear off, she'd go back into the seizures. Finally she came home and all was quiet for a bit, and then it was a seizure here and a seizure there. Not the foaming at the mouth kind anymore, but what my vet called "petite" grand mal seizures. Her tests for Addison's Disease came back negative, even though her potassium levels were off the chart and more recently I've become convinced it's epilepsy.

Recently her seizures have become much more frequent, usually in the middle of the night. My other chihuahua wakes me up when Louise starts a seizure and thanks to the great folks on this website, with the use of Honey and a cold compress on her back, she usually comes out of it pretty quickly. However, I can't be here everytime she goes into a seizure and as everyone here knows, it's just heart-breaking to witness. I tried some BSM and virgin cocnut oil and she had a seizure that night. I know it's not long enough to tell if it helps or not, but with her tiny size I just don't want to put her through a million experiments. I definitely didn't want to put her on the seizure meds from the vets - again, with her tiny size, the damage they could do could far outweigh any benefits. So, anyway, after much research (and that's an understatement), I decided I wanted to keep it simple, clean and easy. I wanted organic food, NO rosemary, I wanted taurine and magnesium, etc. Raw would probably be a better way to go, but I have 4 dogs and not a ton of time/money. Not that Louise isn't worth it, she is, but like any diet (people or pets) I wanted something that I knew I could and would stick with.

So today, I picked up a bag of Potato and Venison New Balance dog food. It has everything I wanted for her and NO rosemary extract (that was tough to find). After reading a ton of positive reviews, I also ordered Dr. Ackerman's epilepsy/seizure control supplements. ! 0.00 on Amazon. I bought a small bag of New Balance dog treats too, again without the rosemary extract. I feel good about having made these changes. The Ackerman supplements won't arrive until next week sometime, but I really feel that the New Balance combined with Ackerman's supplements, we're going to finally see a decrease in her seizures. I'm also trying to give her bottled spring water but it's tough when the other 3 dogs drink it too.

One added note: Louise is 7 years old and because of her small size, I never had her spayed. I regret that now and may still do it as my intuition tells me that these seizures may even be hormonal triggered. She was in heat last Decemeber and she's in heat now - both times when the seizures really kicked in. I'll let you know in a few weeks if we had any success!