Today I was watching Supergirl when towards the end Giles woke up and let out a couple of yowls before he started swaying his head back forth, like he just couldn’t keep it straight. He couldn’t walk right and started excessively drooling. I immediately got my mom and we left for the er vet. Luckily it was not busy and the wait was maybe 90 minutes and they checked on him too while waiting to make sure he wasn’t in immediate distress.
A few years ago some of you might remember he accidentally ingested ammonia that was being used to soak a shade in a bathtub. My mom decided she was too tired to deal with it that night and left it for tomorrow. (And still doesn’t forgive herself for what happened) We suspect Giles put his paw in and licked it. So some of symptoms he had reminded me of that event. (That was a scary one) Only problem is there was no obvious source of poisoning, nothing was left out, spilled, or improperly covered.
So eventually we saw the vet and she said that with no consistent signs of poisoning and no obvious cause that it likely wasn’t that. We did discuss plants but I have told my mom what is toxic, it’s all safe. So she thinks the likely cause is a seizure or minor stroke. The way Giles first moved his head around makes me lean towards seizure. She said that since it’s a first time event where Giles was almost back to normal by the time he was seen, that there wasn’t anything medically to do except take his blood for testing.
I already talked to Giles’ vet about doing blood testing for his physical and since it’s cheaper there, I suggested we just take Giles home, monitor him, and have his normal vet take it up and do the blood work. They will email the clinic everything about this visit. Meanwhile I need to try and record him if he has another attack.
So tldr: we think he had a minor stroke or seizure and recovered quickly enough to go home and the vet who always sees Giles will follow up.
A day later and he’s still doing better. I’ll call the vet first thing in the morning to get his blood test and get his opinion on what might have happened. I’m kind of leaning towards seizure at this point. Anyway, here he is being his normal self: (the above pics are older photos)