Jake has been on Merrick 2mnths -now seizures

[jr.pie]

Ever since Jake has been on Merrick, now I think he's having diabetic seizures. I believe it's because this food doesn't have any junk in it to be made into glucose in the body. So when he over exerts himself like running around with the four-wheeler, he starts to swagger around then falls over and has to recover for about 1-2 minutes. None of this started until I started feeding the Merrick. The vet said either diabetic or heart arythmia- but he's going to be 5 in July and he's been jogging 8 miles or more with me for the past 3 yrs, he's never had trouble before, so I really don't think it's heart trouble. I think it's a low blood sugar problem thats what the facts seem to be pointing towards to me.

I just thought I would run this by you all and see if we generated any other thoughts.

[saluki-sue]

He could have developed a heart problem over the years, some things don't pop up until a dog ages. It's always worthing ruling a heath problem out with the vet. But if your worried he's not getting enough simple sugars for his body from his food try putting a table spoon of honey on his food at each meal. This will give his body some fule to work with.

I would also cut back on his workouts until you know exactly what is going on with him.

[bdrcol22]

Did your vet do any blood glucose checks or any other blood work? Are his sugars running high or low? The food not having any "junk" in it is not how the body converts the nutrients to glucose, so that should have nothing to do with it... Not saying it isn't the food, but it is not common for food to turn someone diabetic, especially if the dog is fit and in good physical condition. It is usually a pancreas problem. If the blood sugars are high, you don't want to give him more sugar, so make sure you know what values you are dealing with before you give him any sugar.

As far as heart dyrhythmias.. Did they do an EKG? They can be hard to diagnois with out further testing.

Let us know how things are going, and I hope he is doing well.

[alimel]

Heart problems can develop at any time. I jogged with Mel 4 days per week for over 8 years. I was not aware he had a heart condition until he went under anesthesia. An EKG and ultrasound will be needed to determine if this is the case.

[jr.pie]

We are going to Kentucky camping Memorial day weekend, I am scheduling him for an appointment this week, I just got his annual reminder card in the mail this past week. I want to get him fully checked over and re-up all my preventatives before we go out of state. I will check back later this week and let you all know how it goes.

[Dobified]

Originally Posted by jr.pie

Ever since Jake has been on Merrick, now I think he's having diabetic seizures. I believe it's because this food doesn't have any junk in it to be made into glucose in the body. So when he over exerts himself like running around with the four-wheeler, he starts to swagger around then falls over and has to recover for about 1-2 minutes. None of this started until I started feeding the Merrick. The vet said either diabetic or heart arythmia- but he's going to be 5 in July and he's been jogging 8 miles or more with me for the past 3 yrs, he's never had trouble before, so I really don't think it's heart trouble. I think it's a low blood sugar problem thats what the facts seem to be pointing towards to me.

I just thought I would run this by you all and see if we generated any other thoughts.

Please do not take this the wrong why but why did you NOT take him to the VET immediately ? I would have been in the car and to the vets within minutes if my dog was staggering around and falling over. I also would not be taking him out for runs till it was all figured out.

You need to take him in or call at the very least to get this resolved or you may end up with a dead dog.

Merrick is a holistic food that is very high quality and made with only whole foods. I can not see it causing low blood sugar unless your dog is diabetic which in that case you need to act now before the diabetes does harm to your dog.

Your vet needs to run a full blood panel and exam.

Hope you get him well soon.

[jr.pie]

Originally Posted by Dobified

Please do not take this the wrong why but why did you NOT take him to the VET immediately ? I would have been in the car and to the vets within minutes if my dog was staggering around and falling over. I also would not be taking him out for runs till it was all figured out.

You need to take him in or call at the very least to get this resolved or you may end up with a dead dog.

Merrick is a holistic food that is very high quality and made with only whole foods. I can not see it causing low blood sugar unless your dog is diabetic which in that case you need to act now before the diabetes does harm to your dog.

Your vet needs to run a full blood panel and exam.

Hope you get him well soon.

It happened one time it was after 6pm, the vet cannot be reached after hours, and where I live there are no ER vets anywhere closer than an hour and a half drive. He's had 3, but not close together, he had one in beginning of March. I thought Ok maybe his blood pressure was low or his blood sugar, Kinda like how I feel if I haven't eaten in a while.

I do have a veterinary background so at this point I wan't going to panic, I couldn't get a hold of the vet anyway, so I handled it myself.

2nd one was in 2nd week of April, again in the evening, after hours, I have been keeping in contact with my vet over the phone during the week, after these events and in between and keeping her updated. She isn't prone to get excited about it unless he had them more often like more than 2-3 per month. She told me to keep track of these and his activities up until his appointment, and then we are going to go over things together and figure this out, his appointment is Tuesday.

The last one he had, wasn't exactly a seizure, in fact none of them are it looks more like he's fainting than anything, I don't want it to seem like he's having full blown seizures or anything, although I know that seizures don't exactly mean he has to be "seizing".

Anyway the last one was on Sunday morning last week, he wasn't even working that hard we had just gone for a leisurly walk in the field and woods behind us. He started on a rabbit trail-on leash- he was a bit excited but nothing overly obnoxious. I let him off lead in the field as we were walking home, and he started back to me, then layed down at my feet, he re-couped himself in about a minute. Got up, and went on like nothing happened. He's been fine again since then. So all I can do is research, record what he does, and wait for his appointment day.

[jr.pie]

The vet did extensive blood work on him along with the annual standard stuff, everything came back FINE. glucose is fine, liver function is fine everything is normal. So now what. probably chest x-ray to see if his hearts enlarged.

[alimel]

Originally Posted by jr.pie

The vet did extensive blood work on him along with the annual standard stuff, everything came back FINE. glucose is fine, liver function is fine everything is normal. So now what. probably chest x-ray to see if his hearts enlarged.

Chest Xray, EKG and perhaps Ultrasound depending on if they find anything.