Wednesday, June 13, 2012

6/13/2012 - Seizure #20 and a diagnosis of Hypothyroidism

6/13/12 - Seizure #20 - Lasted 1 minute, moderate, rated 4 out of 10. 8ml of diazapam given to try to avoid cluster seizures.

Cletus was diagnosed with hypothyroidism today which would account for his massive weight gain, weakness, and skin issues. Began a new medication and had a seizure 20 minutes after 1st time receiving medication. Dr's are assuring me that there should not be a correlation between the medication and seizures but the timing is very odd. I will give Cletus his medications including the new medication in the morning but he will spend the day at the vet under a seizure watch while I am at work.

As far as Cletus' doctors are aware of, Cletus has the only known reported case of open lipped schizencephaly in a canine.  The key word here is reported.  Most vets are not aware that schizencephaly exists or they are not aware that this condition is possible in an animal.  Cletus is living proof of this possibility.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S. (http://www.humanesociety.org/).  Some sites state that schizencephaly affect 1.54 per 100,000 people. According to rightdiagnosis.com, schizencephaly affects 1 in 2719 people or 0.04% of the population (http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/lists/preval.htm).  The fact is that no one is sure how many people schizencephaly truly affects.  If we assume these same statistics in dogs, it equates to somewhere between 1,150 and 31,280 dogs out there with schizencephaly in the U.S. alone.


Please help me to get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly.  Contact your local news organization about Cletus or have your local news organization contact me directly at dsilber27@hotmail.com

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus

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