24-Hour Whirlwind

I intended to write about something else, but since my week took a turn, I had more on my mind. Last Tuesday afternoon I went outside to take a break from work, not realizing my entire day was about to drastically change. I was relaxing in a chair, soaking up the hottest part of the day, with my eyes closed and headphones in. I was zoned into a podcast. So much so that when I felt something brush against my arm, I assumed it was a biting insect and instantly threw my arms up in dramatic fashion.

I opened my eyes to realize it was Sage, my 4 year old GSP trying to get my attention. His tail was tucked as if he had done something wrong. Immediately I go inside to see what was destroyed in the house...only to find nothing. Weird. Within minutes, Sage was lying on the floor, nearly lifeless. It was a lethargy like I’ve never seen in a dog before. His eyes barely open and hazy in appearance when I could actually see them. He was experiencing episodes of full body tremors, indicating obvious distress and/or pain. Then he would wake up panting, almost in an incoherent state. It was terrible. Mostly because I was left clueless as to what was happening and why.

I called Nick and told him that something was seriously wrong with Sage and he needed to go to the vet. I couldn’t provide any additional information because I was dumbfounded by what was happening. I’m sure Nick thought I was over embellishing the situation...but I was not. He got to see it for himself when he got home!

Within about 15 minutes or so, Sage seemed to fall into a deep sleep and was no longer panting or shaking. His breathing and heart rate seemed normal. However my mom alarm was still going off that something was not right. I know having GSPs means anything can happen at any moment and the more bizarre, the more likely it is to happen. But this was very concerning especially considering the circumstances.

I immediately begin to think about anything he could have possibly ingested, because nothing else made sense to me. But what could he have gotten into that would cause this type of distress? We don’t use any chemicals or poison on our lawn or in our garden...because we actually have GSPs that identify as goats. There is nothing toxic around the house that is within GSP range...which means behind a closed door or up very high, otherwise they will find it. I was at a total loss and just beside myself.

Did the fertilizers/herbicides that were recently applied in the neighbors yard leech into the ground and into our grass? Did he eat one of the mushrooms that are popping up everywhere with all the rain? Are they even poisonous? Did he eat a plant while at the gun club or park that would make him sick? I was reeling through absolutely everything, only to become more confused because there was no instance we could think of.

In between his tremor and panting episodes, he was reluctant to stand or even walk. When he did walk, it was slow and stiff with minimal movement. It was very guarded. He would growl if Sierra or Weller got near him, which is not typical behavior of Sage. When lying down, he couldn’t find a comfortable position. His body was putting off more heat than a hot pack, but he wasn’t running a fever. Everything about this was so odd.

I reached out to our vet, who is amazing and always so helpful. She was also very concerned with his behavior and we contemplated whether we could hold off to see her in the morning or if we needed to hit the ER tonight. Nothing had progressed beyond what we had already seen so we decided to continue with monitoring and would go immediately if there were any changes.

At about 10pm, I told Nick we needed to take him because I did not like how he looked. We packed our stuff and headed out the door. Sage immediately got that GSP energy surge when he saw the opportunity to leave the house. That usually means something fun. As soon as Nick clipped on the leash, Sage pulled him out the door and was ready for a walk. I set our bags down and we walked him around the block. He mostly seemed normal. Marked every tree, took a shit at the furthest point from the house. All the things. Once we got home, we decided if he was able to do that, maybe this wasn’t so emergent.

As soon as we walked back in, he didn’t want to walk, or go up the stairs to bed. Everything we had been seeing, came right back...now that he had nothing else to focus on. We made it through the night. I called the vet and was thankful for a canceled appointment that could get us in at 10am. Then Nick noticed his gums looked pale. This is bad! I called the vet back and stated, “we really need to come in now”. Our vet was a rockstar and made it happen and saw him right away.

Everything was inconclusive, which made this situation all the worse. His physical exam was mostly benign. He did have a weird reaction when touching around his left ear and eye but nothing revealed an issue. His gait and lack of shaking his head was suggestive of a potential c-spine injury. But again, no rhyme or reason for this. Did he hurt himself playing with Weller? Why the sudden onset at the time it happened? Nothing was adding up.

I was ready to run every test and perform all imaging to get to the bottom of this. We decided on bloodwork being our starting point based on his evaluation. He got an injection for inflammation but we didn’t want to masque any symptoms with further medication options. A few hours later we learn his bloodwork indicates he is anemic. Cue all the worries if you’ve been down this road before. My mind immediately goes to worst case scenario and Sage having a bleeding tumor. Now I’m more worked up than I was before. If you know us and our pups, you know that just a short 3 years ago we had to suddenly euthanize our sweet Kelty after learning he had a hemorrhaging hemangiosarcoma. This could be the simplest of things or it could be major. But I’m a worry wart, so I think of all the crazy things it can be.

At nearly the 24 hour mark of this all beginning, Sage perked up and was his normal self. The first turning point was seeing him roll onto his back and kick his legs out like he typically loves to do. If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen this favorite pose of his...balls out for the world to see. This was the Sage I recognized! Within an hour, he grabbed a toy and wanted to play. My mind was blown. What was happening?In a multi GSP home, you can imagine that once a toy is grabbed, it’s balls to the walls. That’s exactly what happened. He and Weller were back to their normal WWE routines. It normally pisses me off on the daily, but I was beyond excited to see this. My Sage man was finally turning the corner. Much like the onset of this scenario, his return to normalcy was just as abrupt.

We still needed repeat bloodwork the next day to see what his levels looked like. This would help the process of ruling in and out various possibilities. Right now everything was on the table, but leaning toward potentially a tick borne illness. Which if I’m being honest was kind of shocking to hear. We are very diligent with preventative care and check the dogs religiously for ticks, every time they are outside. But I wasn’t going to dismiss this as a possibility because I was clueless and our vet is smart!

I immediately started thinking about Sage’s annual vet visit that was exactly 1 week, almost to the hour, prior to this episode taking place. He received multiple vaccines as this appointment, once of which being the Lyme vaccine. Typically he’ll get a slight reaction of a small nodule at the injection site and maybe a little tired the rest of the day. Nothing more than that. I started going down a rabbit hole of vaccines causing adverse reactions in dogs, particularly the Lyme vaccine. Low and behold I found some info after looking far and wide because we don’t like to make those things known to the world.

I reached out to our vet with my suspicion of this being vaccine related and she mentioned it being on her radar, especially since nothing else made sense. She reached out to the vaccine company about what happened and of course they denied this reaction would be from their vaccine. Big pharma not admitting their vaccine can have an adverse reaction or cause harm...SHOCKER!! A claim was still being filed because that’s literally the only scenario that fit the situation and how Sage presented.

Either way, we are now 6 days from this happening. Sage has not had another episode since last Tuesday. He has resumed normal activities without any issue. We remain vigilant and are aware this can happen again. These adverse reactions from vaccines can occur up to a month after injection. We consider ourselves blessed that this wasn’t a worse outcome however it was still frightening. I can handle being frustrated with big pharma while still healthy a healthy dog! What I will say is that Sage WILL NOT receive the Lyme vaccine ever again. That 24-hour whirlwind is just not worth it.