Our Larry

My family and I rescued our Larry from a shelter in Mississippi when he was about 3 months old. He is a mixture of Golden Retriever, Great Pyrenees, and who knows what else.

When Larry was 1 ½ years old, he had his first grand mal seizure. For those of you that have ever witnessed one of these seizures, I think you will agree with me when I say they are nothing short of horrific! As time went on, Larry’s seizures became more frequent and he would have cluster seizures. One day he had 14 seizures within a 12-hour period. Once this happened, we knew that Pb and KBr were not enough to control his seizures. From here, we found a new neurologist, that we truly believe saved Larry’s life.

After several trips to the ER, Larry had a month long stay in ICU. During this time, the magic combination of KBr, Pb, Zonisamide, Gabapentin, and Keppra was discovered to work for him. Larry’s seizures were finally under control, and he could come home. 

This all happened almost 4 years ago, and much has happened since then. Larry went from 94 pills and 2 doses of liquid KBr a day to 36 pills plus his 2 doses of liquid KBr. This has remained constant, except for adjusting his KBr dose to coincide with his potassium bromide level.

Day to day adjustments had to be made to keep Larry safe and healthy. The most difficult adjustment was to have to rehome our other rescue dog, Jude. She became so anxious around Larry that she began to attack him, even when he wasn’t seizing. We couldn’t be angry at Jude for reacting this way, after all, she was just demonstrating instinct dog behavior. We explored every possible avenue there was, but in the end the only fair thing we could do was rehome our Jude. We were absolutely heartbroken, but, thankfully, we had friends that opened their hearts and home to Jude. Jude has adjusted to her new family, is well taken care of, and loved. My daughter will dog sit Jude quite often, and my husband and I look forward to our visits with her.

Larry’s diet has to be kept the same, and we have to make sure he doesn’t get too much sodium. Too much sodium could throw his potassium level off and cause a seizure.

We now sleep on a mattress that is on the floor. Of course Larry sleeps with us, and we sleep with one ear open as it is, never mind worrying that if he had a seizure and fell off the bed he could break his neck. This solution allows us to sleep a bit better.

There are also the alarms that go off on our computers and cellphones to remind us that Larry’s meds are due. His schedule is 6:00 am, 7:00 am, 8:00 am, 2:00 pm, 6:00 pm, 8:00 pm, and his final pills are given at 10:00 pm. Lots of times we have to plan our errands around these times or bring the pills with us. 

The anxiety caused by being “on watch” constantly can sometimes feel overwhelming. My husband and daughter are able to deal with it better than I. However, I have found that a good, long cry while sitting in my car works wonders. 

Both my husband and I are retired, so we are fortunate that at least one of us is able to be with Larry at all times. I’m not sure how we would handle things if we were both still working. I look at it as a sign that Larry was meant to be with us.

There continues to be, and always will be, appointments with the neurologist, and blood work done every 2 months. Due to the meds that Larry is on, he has weak hind legs. We have a physical therapist come to the house once a month and she massages Larry and gives him cold laser treatment. For the past two weeks, we have also had an acupuncturist come to the house once a week to work on Larry. We do stretching exercises and massage therapy on a daily basis to try and get optimal results from both the physical therapy and the acupuncture. 

Through all of these challenges, my family and I never gave up on our Larry. Some people think we are crazy, but to us, Larry isn’t “just a dog”, he is part of our family. As long as Larry has quality of life and isn’t in constant pain, we will continue to do all we can for him. 

I am happy to report that, to date, Larry has had only 2 other seizure episodes since his first hospitalization. (Knock on wood, fingers, toes, and paws crossed!) After Larry’s first seizures, he went 1 year and 8 months seizure free. After his second and third seizures, he went 8 months seizure free. Larry has done so well, and continues to amaze my family and his neurologist. 

I also have to mention that because of Larry’s epilepsy, I have become friends with many people through a worldwide support group for epi dog families. Their knowledge, experience, and understanding makes this group a great place to vent and ask questions. Judgments are never made, as we all realize every dog is different, and we all are doing our best to handle what comes our way. 

Larry has a beautiful life! We have built an incredible, special bond with a happy, goofy, 100-pound love muffin. He has learned to trust and depend on us. Larry enjoys his daily walks around the neighborhood, patrolling our street from our enclosed front porch, playing with his toys, cuddling his stuffed animals, having family and friends over (and giving a thousand kisses whether they want them or not), and singing… Larry LOVES to sing, just ask our neighbors. 

Larry has soulful eyes, and a smile that can brighten anyone’s day. Larry has brought us much joy, laughter, and has taught us to enjoy the simple things in life. The love we have for Larry is beyond words, and we can’t imagine our lives without him!