Dear Ferret Folks- This is not going to be one of my funny posts, sorry. We had a heck of a scare the other night, and learned a great deal from it. I thought I'd pass the knowledge on, in case it proved useful to some of you down the line. The other night our dog, the Noble Allis Chompers had what is called a "TIA", or Transient Ischemic Attack. Basically, a clot was dislodged from wherever it had grown, very likely a heart valve. (She is minimally 13 and has had heart issues in the past.)The pumping of her heart pushed it along and it lodged, very briefly, in one of the vessels that supplies her brain with fresh, oxygenated blood. It stuck in place just for a minute or two before the beating of her heart popped it free, like a cork, and she was fine again. We witnessed the attack. Allis was comfortably asleep on the sofa, and all of the sudden she fell out of it and onto the floor. She couldn't get her feet back under her, the left side of her body wasn't working properly. She sort of dragged herself ten feet to her soft dog pillow by the wood stove and thumped down into it. She lay there, stunned, for two or three minutes. While she was transiting her right ear stood straight up, as if to say that she was scared to death. Her left ear, however, lay limp against her head. After a minute or two her ears went back into sync. My husband and I were thinking "seizure or stroke?" We thought that you just don't get up after a stroke as if nothing had happened, but that is what Allis did, after a few minutes. She still looked alarmed, but could catch little bits of cheese from the air with no difficulty when thrown from either the right or the left. (Strokes are generally one sided affairs.) I picked up each foot in turn to test for muscle weakness and balance. Her strength was symmetrical, and her balance fine. After fifteen minutes had passed, she was happily asleep once more. Of course this happened on a WEEKEND NIGHT. In short order Allis found herself at my Mom's house. Mom is a professor of neurology with about forty years of strokes and seizures under her belt. She examined Allis, and listened to our description of what had happened. She said that although seizures are actually very common in dogs, this had been a TIA, which is like the little brother of a stroke. They are temporary, fleeting, and you recover from them completely. A genuine stroke generally does permanent damage to brain tissue that winds up oxygen-starved because of an immovable clot. Allis had dodged a bullet. Apparently one of the biggest clues to what had happened was the one ear up, one ear down thing. Ears should move perfectly in tandem. One up, one down, indicates that one whole side of the body is incapacitated. If your companion critter has one up, one down, and can't stand, you are most likely looking at a TIA or a genuine stroke rather than a seizure. It might pass, it might not, but it is indicative of a serious problem. And Allis? Is just fine, although TIA's often suggest that a big, serious stroke is a real possibility in the future. She is getting an aspirin blood-thinner, and aside from that, there isn't much that can be done practically. She is an old dog. And she is our dog, and we are loving her extra. She might not be able to dodge the next round. Cross your fingers. Alexandra in MA [Posted in FML 6522]