Seizure Attacks of Manike

It was in the afternoon of Easter Sunday, when we had the most frightening experience with our dog, Manike, our 8 months old pit bull. She went into several seizure attacks which started at around 2pm till 8pm. We were deeply worried when we noticed that she was excessively salivating and suspected that she was poisoned. We continue to observe her when we were caught by surprise when she suddenly stiffen, begun lip smacking, followed by facial spasm then finally, she went down while her whole body convulsed. The seizure lasted for about 10-15 seconds with about 30 minutes interval. After the seizure attack she seemed so disoriented and would stand up then pace around, running in place, until another attack would come in. Our dog is unable to control her movements so as she continues to run around inside her cage she would bang her head painfully and hurt herself.

It was was both horrifying at the same time utterly agonizing to watch her go through such painful episode. And the worst thing is that we can't do anything about it at that time because it was Sunday, no clinic and vet whom we can sought for consult and help. We felt so helpless that time. You can only imagine the pain she is going through and all we can do is watch and pray the attack would stop. Thinking that she was poisoned, I cursed the person or thing which brought her to such situation. We thought the bouts of seizure attack would never end and that anytime she would stop breathing ...until later that night, she fell down, totally exhausted catching her breath and almost crying for pain and difficulty of breathing, the seizure finally subsided. We vigilantly monitored her the entire night and we can't even sleep because we could even hear her moaning. We felt hopeless and thought she'd never survive. If there was something we could give her that time even take her life, we would give it to her just to end her agony.

Morning came and we were surprised that our dog although barely breathing and moving, with no food and water intake the whole night, was still alive. Meanwhile, I still had to go to work so my sister was left with the task of keeping our dog alive. She was brought to the clinic and the vet diagnosed her of having flu and severe nasal congestion due to colds that's why she was having difficulty of breathing. She was also having high grade fever that's why she ended up having convulsions/seizure attacks. We were wrong to suspect she was poisoned and that she might be going through some form of canine distemper. She was immediately given vaccines and shots of antibiotics. We tried to feed her with fluids but she refused to drink so she had to be placed on IV fluids. We nursed her during the first day of treatment at home but since we were all exhausted, we decided to have her confined at the clinic for almost two days. After that, I was so glad and thankful to see her again with remarkable improvement in her status. Although slightly weak, she is able to stand up, follow commands and eat solid food. The vet said that she is quite stable and can be brought home. With continued monitoring and care, she is now recovering well. We just hope that her illness is not in viral form and that she will fully recover in a week's time and it would never recur. Hopefully... I would never want to see her again go through agonizing experience.