Just a note in response to the care of sick ones & the bond that grows
from it.  I've mentioned the late, great Butthead (*not* an alias) who
was releived from alleged epiliepsy three years ago.  Butthead earned
her name well, biting viciously, hating all people, eating 1/2 a
sweater, much of a wool blanket & many other clothing items, hiding in
walls for >48 hours, hiding in radiators requiring their complete
disassembly for ferret retreival... the list goes on & on.  She'd been a
stray & was in heat when I found her (I'd just gotten Anais a few weeks
before I found her), and had a serious infection.  She eventually
recovered from the infection after an emergency spaying.
 
The point you ask?  She went through ~6 months of increasingly severe &
frequent seizures & a series of vets beleived her to be epileptic.  She
was treated with phenobarbitol for the full 6 months.  She became
extremely affectionate over the course of her disease, first coming to
me when scared by the seizures & eventually learning that maybe it was
fun to be cuddled even when not sick.  The phenobarbitol also seemed to
calm her down so that she was less stressed by normal activities & she
started to be the first to greet us at the door when we came home some
days!  The increased interaction between us was wonderful!  This made
the final decision to put her down much harder, her seizures were
obviously uncomfortable, but she enjoyed life so much more between them.
 
And now for a question, does anyone know much about epilepsy?  I never
hear about it on the line & have to wonder if maybe she had something
else we didn't think about.  No weight loss, never lost her apetite or
her fur.  She finally had a grand mal seizure & was having seizures
>2x/day (for 20+ min ea.) when we put her down.
 
Anais, by the way was a silver mitt when I got her, complete w/four
little white paws, a bib & dark & light fur through out.  She would now
be accurately described as a dark-eyed white, however.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0468]