I lost my soul dog recently due to a sudden, rapid cognitive decline at the age of 12. I felt I was ready to open my heart to a new dog, and instantly fell in love with a French Bulldog at K9 Rouge Rescue. I was told at the time he was 2 years old, and had been picked up as a stray, taken to a shelter, and this rescue had pulled him from said shelter.
I drove nearly 3 hours each way to pick up the dog, who I named Otho, and brought him home. I was told once I was there that he was actually estimated to be 4 years old, and he had “recently developed a minor upper respiratory infection.” I was also told that there were several interested prospective owners who “suddenly backed out for no apparent reason” which I should have been suspicious of, but he was just so dang cute! Prior to meeting him, I shared my story with the rescue and made it clear to them that while I do work in the vet field, I am emotionally incapable of caring for a special needs dog at this time, and was told Otho’s only issue was some patchy spots in his fur.
We hadn’t been home for 30 minutes when Otho had a grand mal seizure and had to be rushed to the emergency vet. I contacted the rescue who claimed to have no knowledge of this issue, which really breaks my heart because the foster had mentioned having him kenneled frequently, and him having potty accidents in his kennel at times, which he does during his seizures. She was either completely unaware of this issue, or was extremely dishonest in the adoption process, and frankly I don’t know which is worse. Over the next 10 hours, Otho had 2 more seizures before being stabilized on phenobarbital. His bloodwork was unremarkable, so we ruled out outside factors like high cortisol from the stress of rehoming or toxin ingestion, and determined these seizures have to have been going on for quite some time.
Otho appears to have somewhat significant cognitive impairment. He has difficulty obeying simple commands, seems confused in doorways a lot of the time, and paces quite frequently. He did some head pressing the night I got him which has since subsided. His personality, while sweet, is dull. He enjoys pets and cuddles, but isn’t super “lovey,” he’s just a Velcro dog that follows you around, although it seems somewhat aimless.
We also determined that Otho is unable to fully digest food on his own and has not had a bowel movement since I got him 5 days ago. We did imaging yesterday to rule out any gastrointestinal obstructions. We started him on two medications, one to aid digestion and the other to limit his vomiting. He also has aspiration pneumonia at the moment from aspirating both during seizures and while vomiting, and is on two antibiotics for that. All in all, at this time Otho takes 5 medications and 12 pills a day (3 are 2x daily, 2 are 3x daily), but that will be cut down to 3 meds and 8 pills daily once we clear the pneumonia up. His breathing is actually pretty good, especially given the pneumonia. He doesn’t snore excessively, and has only gone into respiratory distress 3 times, 2 of which were directly after a seizure. He does aspirate during seizures and needs to be suctioned, but he is currently 72 hours without a seizure, which is a huge improvement from his 3-4 hour frequency prior to starting medication.
I do believe he was a stud who was dumped, as he paws at his genitals frequently. He does seem to do well in a crate, but he is also heavily sedated at the moment so I can’t speak to that in general. He also has a tendency to try to eat non food items like rocks, dead bugs/lizards and feces. He’s not a fan of taking his meds, so I’m struggling with that. He has a jaw of steel, so manually pilling him isn’t really an option. He will take them in wet food at times, but has the Frenchie stubbornness so it’s a constant struggle. He likes to try to jump on and off things, which with his ataxia issues is dangerous, so he needs almost constant supervision both inside and outside, especially since he has to be manually aspirated during seizures.
All this to say, having watched my last baby go through something similar so recently, it is too draining on me emotionally to care for Otho, and I fear I will become resentful of this sweet baby who hasn’t done anything wrong. I spent every last dollar I had keeping him alive over the weekend, as the rescue denied knowledge of this condition and would not cover the bill. I cannot afford medical boarding, so he is unfortunately kenneled at home and I am going home at lunch to check on him, so this is a very urgent situation. Please let me know if you are able to help, thank you for your time.
