[Dailydrool] Countercruisers and Epilepsy

[Linda Gardner]

Most of the bassets that I've had (I'm on basset #9) were  
countercruisers to some degree or another.  One of my worst culprits  
was Elwood. The worst thing he stole was a pill case with one week's  
worth of my lab-mix's phenobarb, which she took for her epilepsy. I  
cured him by using shake cans.  I put pennies in Pepsi cans, taped a  
string to the top, and tied a clothespin to the end of the string.   
Then I baited him with various tasty things for a week.  At the end of  
the trial period I came home to find a chocolate chip cookie dangling  
from the clothespin.  It was amazing.  I tried this with Hannah, my  
newest gal.  She came from a puppymill in Missouri and had never lived  
in a house before.  Consequently everything was an adventure.  I had  
her barricaded in the kitchen one day while I went out.  I thought I  
secured the area well enough.  I put shake cans on the shelf of the  
bookcase so she wouldn't pull the books off and munch on them.

She demolished the shake cans into one big metal mass.  My vet was  
very surprised she didn't even cut her mouth.

Speaking of Abby, my lab-mix, when she started having seizures my vet  
put her on phenobarb.  She did quite well.  She would have a seizure  
every few months, and they were relatively mild.

Linda Gardner
Serving wench to Barney (I'm too old to countercruise unless the food  
is on the floor) and Hurricane Hannah (I'm trying to be good, really I  
am!)