Cervical subluxation causing seizures. Help?

[Samma14]

I have a 6 1/2 year old Yorkie mix. Her name is Samantha. On Thursday May 15th, 2014 Samantha was out for a walk and began pulling on her leash while wearing a collar around her neck barking at other dogs. I remember hearing her make a bark in pain which is why I know now that's when her neck was injured. I didn't notice anything until 2 days later. On Saturday night she was very hesitant to go down the stairs when usually she's running down fast leading the way. She also was walking drunk, tilted head, crying in pain and her front legs were collapsing on her. On May 22nd I took her to a local vet and all the vet did was physically analyze her and prescribed Rimadyl for pain and see if she improves in 2 weeks. Her condition got a bit better as she no longer was had a tilted head and wasn't stumbling on her walk as much. She also seemed more cheerful. However, on June 5th at 130am she had a seizure, then another one on June 6th at 630am. I decided to take Samantha to a different vet on June 7th. We did blood work and the result were negative. It seems as though the vet didn't pay any attention as to my explanation as to how Samantha was injured. As soon as he ruled out distemper from the blood work her diagnosed her with epilepsy and prescribed her Phenobarbital. Since then a week has gone by and I haven't started Samantha on the medicine. I know she doesn't have epilepsy and don't want to get her on a drug for the rest of her life and damage her liver. She's had 3 additional seizures and I'm very worried and want to find an alternative to stop the seizures while she recovers from her cervical injury. How can I get her back to normal???? Please help.....

[dobelove]

Sorry to hear about your wee dog. When you say seizure, do you mean that she collapsed or was it a seizure that made her shake? I am only asking because my Dobermann had a problem with his cervical spine and was in a lot of pain, however, he started to collapse without warning, it lasted about 3mins then he would go back to normal. It turned out that he had heart problems and that's what was causing the seizure and somehow the cervical spine problem had set it off. It took ages for the vet to figure it out, so maybe a heart check would help your wee dog. The vets sometimes need a bit of a push in the right direction as I have found that its a hit and miss diagnosis at times, it sometimes helps if you find another owner that has had similar problems with their dog. Good luck. Greetings from Scotland.

[Samma14]

Thanks for your input. I'm pretty sure they are seizures. Sometimes she'll collapse on her side with stiff legs and have a crying bark for about a minute. She once had a seizure where she was vomiting foam until she collapsed with her legs up in the air not making a movement or sound. This time it lasted 4 minutes. I thought she had died until half way through it she began to only wag her tail. The vet did do blood work and the results returned negative and also checked her heart rate. I'm sure he would've mentioned something to me if there was something wrong. Although she is a little over weight. I couldn't stand to see her suffer through another seizure and today I finally put her on Phenobarbital. You're right about the hit and miss technique Vets apply in their practice. Very disappointing!

[Samma14]

Big mistake giving her the Phenobarbital. It killed her 4 hours later :( RIP Samantha :*(

[Misfits4Me]

OMG....I'm so sorry..I was formulating my answer until I read your last post.....As you know, she herniated a disc in here cervical (Neck) area.....Classic symptoms......Do you have a copy of her bloodwork? You said negative, but what was negative? I suppose it doesn't really matter, now..I was just curious about elevated Liver?Kidney enzymes from ANY toxic substance, including pain medication....

I suspect it was the Rimadyl that caused the seizures.....Very common for this medication to cause problems....MANY MANY dogs have suffered because of it, unfortunately....

Again, I am so sorry for you...My heart goes out to you & your Samantha.....

My goodness!!!!  :(  Your in my prayers......Karla