Sunday, July 1, 2012

7/1/2012 - Seizure #23 - Worst in 9 Months

07/01/12 - Cletus just had the worst seizure he has had since seizure #2 back in November.  There was no warning, no excitement, no thunderstorm, no playing, nothing.  Cletus was sleeping on the floor in the living room when a seizure began and quickly got worse.  I administered Diazapam within 30 seconds but for the first time, the drugs did not kick him out of the seizure right away and the seizure lasted 1 1/2 to 2 full minutes in total.  We rated this seizure an 8 out of 10 on our scale. 

Below is his full seizure/intensity chart since he began having seizures in November, 2011.  Cletus also had a moderate seizure a couple of days ago and as you can see from this chart, his seizures are getting worse as of late and they are coming closer together even with the raise in medication. 

I am very afraid that if we do not get the help we need fast, we may lose him.



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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