Shadow's first seizure experience

Saturday 12th. Hezekiah looking so cute in the latest "favourite cap".
He decided to keep his little wallet safe - by putting it in the cap.

On our FAILSAFE diet we started a salicylate challenge today, and so got to enjoy strawberries, carrots, cucumber and capsicum.
Ruth enjoyed arranging all the snacks.

Asher - playing under the road map. She enjoys having things over her head. She sleeps with a blanket over her head too. We have often seen Hezekiah with a blanket right up over his head too.
Asher has decided that the puzzles need to become a bit more of a challenge. So she has started working on a few at once. She loves tipping them all out and then working through her pile of pieces.

 

Sunday 13th - Asher enjoying a different combination of puzzles today.
Ruth got some bandaging practice today when Hezekiah said he had a bump on his head.
Monday 14th: At 11am today Asher had a tonic clonic seizure. She had been outside on the trampoline. Shadow was outside too - but a little way away. She gave one bark and so Brendon looked over to see what she was barking at (we are helping her to learn to not bark when people or dogs and cats go past). But there was no one about. Just as Brendon had looked away at Shadow, Ruth called him as Asher's seizure had started. Brendon is still quite slow with walking after his op, and I had automatically gone out to check what Shadow's bark was for too. So I quickly saw him heading to the house with Asher and could take over and get her inside quicker.

We called Shadow over to her. Interestingly, Shadow has never licked Asher's face before. Even when Asher kept trying to give Shadow a nice big kiss and we all thought it was so tempting for Shadow to lick her face. Now however, Shadow kept wanting to lick her mouth. It seemed as if she was trying to lick the drool away. Brendon and I had seen a video of a women whose dog alerted her to a seizure coming, so she put her camera on and filmed it. The dog kept licking her face through the seizure. I wonder if they are just trying to make sure the person keeps breathing well.

We don't like the licking on the face though, so we just encouraged Shadow to lick Asher's hand rather.
(Note: A couple of weeks later when I spoke to the lady from the Epilepsy Assist Dog Association, she was thrilled to hear that Shadow was not at all scared during the seizure. So we had no idea at the time how well this first experience went.)
These photos were taken once the seizure had stopped. We encouraged Shadow to just stay with Asher and it was so sweet to see Asher touching Shadow and even hugging her a bit when she woke up a bit.

Asher is always very tired after the seizure and as she seemed happy lying on the floor for a bit, we just let her lie there next to Shadow.
Then she got a little restless, so I picked her up, but Shadow stayed close. We are so very thankful to be able to have Shadow and we do hope that in time, she will be a great help to Asher.

Shadow is already bringing much joy to the family. She is such a relaxed dog. Our children know the dangers of going to a dog when it's eating, but you can see how relaxed Shadow is. She happily chews on this bone while the kids give her a cuddle.

Shadow does love cuddles, so it's nice to have a few extra hands to keep her feeling loved.