11/1/2012 - No seizure this Halloween :)

11/1/12 - Well, we made it through the night with no problems :)  I was sooooooo nervous leading up to last night being that it was Halloween and it was the excitement of all the kids coming to the door last Halloween that kicked off Cletus' first seizure.  We get literally hundreds of little ones trick-or-treating in our neighborhood so it is non-stop beginning around 5:00pm.  I decided to give Cletus some Levetiracetam around 6:00pm to be on the safe side.  I only give Cletus the Levetiracetam when I feel that he will be in a stressful situation, like a really bad thunderstorm for example.

Cletus was still VERY excited with all the kids.  To try to calm the excitement, I put chairs on the front porch and sat out there to hand out the candy.  I left the front door open with a gate across it so Cletus and Magnum could see the kids without having to look out the window.  This trick calmed Cletus down from barking and running around to just sitting there and watching with his cute face resting on the top of the gate.

The Levetiracetam, which I very rarely give to him, made Cletus really tired, so he went to bed pretty early.  I hate giving him drugs that make him tired but in this case it was for his own good and it made both of us feel better.  He slept through the night, looks great this morning, and he did not have a seizure, so I think I made the right call.

NOTES:
The more exposure we can get for Cletus, the more likely it is that we can help other animals out there suffering from open lipped schizencephaly. Cletus can't be the only one with this condition. Animals must be getting misdiagnosed and dying from OLS due to vets not understanding what they are dealing with. Help us get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly.

I want to thank the following Websites/Magazines/TV Stations/Etc for sharing Cletus' Story:
- ABC TV affiliate WCJB TV20
- Aplacetolovedogs.com
- Dawgbusiness.blogspot.com
- Experienceproject.com
- Fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com
- Houndgirl.com
- Jcagain.com
- Lovewhatsmissing.com
- Movementforhope.org
- News-pics-videos.com/schizencephaly-diagnosis
- Picturesofdogs.net
*** If I missed anyone, please let me know, thanks.

If you can, please donate to Cletus' campaign http://igg.me/p/217159

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 up to 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

Please help us by contacting Ellen through FB and tweet through the avenue below...

Submit your story to Ellen to potentially be on her show and have her help "change your life": http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=432

Tweet her: http://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus