Beanie-Weenie, Chili Beanie!

Whew, what a day! We've had a busy morning here at our house for a Saturday. The weather has been crazy, the week has been incredibly long, our schedules have been totally insane - and we were just looking forward to some "quiet time" - but maybe, just maybe, "quiet time" is still a possibility!

First of all, just a little before 4:00 this morning, my little "Chili Bean" started crying - she was having another seizure. I raced to her, and we gave her 1.5 cc of her medicine, and she finally calmed down. Now, Chili is a beautiful little dog (3/4 Jack Russell Terrier and 1/4 Chihuahua) that I adopted from a lady who could no longer keep her. Chili is nine pounds of adorable feistiness! All of the energy and temperament of a Jack Russell packed into a Chihuahua!

Chili was about five months old when I first saw her. I wasn't looking for a dog... I was going to pick up a sugar glider (see posts below). While I was there, I noticed this adorable little dog that just went zoooooom right by me! I asked "Oh dear! What is that cute little thing?" because I had never seen a dog quite like that one. Chili almost looked like a "mini-Beagle" and, at first, I suspected she was part Beagle and part Dachsund. She sort of had the markings of a Beagle, but she was kind of long-waisted like a Dachsund. I was in love! Chili came to me when her owner called her, and that was that. She went home with me, all wrapped up nicely in a blanket.

Once we got her home, we noticed that she walked funny - her little "backend" just seemed "out of alignment" with the rest of her. That first night (and it was really late when we got back home) we thought Well, she is just a puppy, and these hardwood floors of ours are really slick, but the next day, we took her outside to romp and play, and it was the same thing. Chili walked funny - almost like a little flirt - wiggle wiggle to the left, wiggle wiggle to the right.

To make a long (sad) story short, we took our little Chili to two vets to see what was wrong with her: the first vet recommended "putting her down," but the second vet prescribed some Phenyl-Barbitol, and finally, Chili was better, and we were relieved! He cautioned us, though. He didn't want to prescribe any more medication than was necessary; so, we started out at 2 cc, and then adjusted the dosage until we determined her maintenance level. Finally, last summer, our little Chili was pretty much back to being a normal dog, and she had been weaned off her meds. All was well (well, at least there were no more seizures but she still walked funny - and surgery could not correct that). Her diagnosis: neurological damage and epilepsy.

Wow... I have a tendency to digress, but this is the background information on our Chili. We found out that Chili is sensitive to loud noises (thunder terrorizes her, which causes her to seize), but for the most part, she is just fine. However, the past couple of weeks, she's been changing: she's been having seizures, on average, about twice a week, and, at times, her eyesight appears to fail, and sometimes, it seems as if she can't hear us at all. We took her back to the vet for a check-up, and she is back on her meds again.

Our vet had hoped that Chili wouldn't have to be kept on a maintenance drug, but she will need her Phenyl-Barb at about 1.5 cc to 2 cc twice a day. Right now, Chili is resting comfortably... she's all tucked in and sleeping soundly.