We had quite the scare last night.  Socks and I took a one-mile walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening, and after we were back awhile, he was laying in his bed as Sandy and I watched TV.  He suddenly started whimpering and shuddering.  When I jumped up to check him he was urinating uncontrollably, shaking fast, and his eyes were darting back and forth–not as if he was looking around, but as if he couldn’t control it–a very steady left-and-right movement. At this point he was no longer crying, but still seemed to be in distress.

With his blanket soaked in urine, Sandy grabbed a pad and I lifted him gently.  He didn’t seem aware that I was hold him at all, he just continued the same shuddering stiffness and the same eye movements.  Sandy replaced the blanket with the pad, then I laid him back down in his bed.  About a minute later he emptied his bowels and we got more worried.  I cleaned up the mess and he continued breathing heavily.  We thought he might be dying at this point.  He’s over 15 years old, which is pretty old for dogs, so we decided we wouldn’t take extreme measures, and let nature take its course.  In the moment, this was a really difficult decision, but we weighed all the options and decided together that this was what we’d do.

We explained to Kevin what we thought was happening, and he comforted Socks a bit.  We kept vigil over him for awhile and waited.  After a little while his eyes went back to their normal appearance and his breathing slowed back down.  After maybe an hour longer, he put his head up and looked at us.  A few minutes later he climbed out of bed with a bit of a struggle and started walking around.  He was pretty weak at first, but minute by minute he seemed to improve until he was climbing onto furniture again to sit next to me.  He drank some water, we gave him a small treat, and he even went outside for a few minutes.

At this point we’re pretty sure he had a seizure.  Most of the symptoms were there, from what we’ve read.  I’m just not sure if a one-mile walk is too much for him these days, or if it would have happened if if we didn’t take that walk, or maybe he hasn’t gotten the proper amount of exercise through the Winter and needs more frequent walks to get back into shape (kinda like my situation).  I know, I know, we should get him to a vet.