Saturday, March 31, 2012

3/31/2012 - Cletus Weighs 121.6 Pounds!!!

3/31/12 - Brought Magnum in for his allergy shot and brought Cletus in for a weigh-in. CLETUS NOW WEIGHS 121.6 POUNDS!!! Cletus has gained 33 pounds over the past 5 months since he went on his medications, 15 over the past month and a half. We are starting him on a diet plan. Somehow Magnum has gained 9 pounds over the same time period but his 55 pound butt looks scrawny next to chubba-wubba.

We knew Cletus gained weight being that his harness would not fit him him anymore and we had to special order him a harness (they did not sell one big enough for him in the retail stores). He is actually eating less than he did before this whole ordeal started but is still gaining weight.

Cletus is going to start taking a new heartworm medication due to the last one potentially causing seizures and I wanted to ensure he was set to take the correct dosage based on his weight. I thought he gained some weight but holy crap!! He does not get any table scraps, exercises pretty well, and does not receive an overexcess of treats, his weight totally blows my mind!

Monster dog in the Hazizzle!!

As far as Cletus' doctors are aware of, Cletus has the only known reported case of open lipped schizencephaly in a canine.  The key word here is reported.  Most vets are not aware that schizencephaly exists or they are not aware that this condition is possible in an animal.  Cletus is living proof of this possibility.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S. (http://www.humanesociety.org/).  Some sites state that schizencephaly affect 1.54 per 100,000 people. According to rightdiagnosis.com, schizencephaly affects 1 in 2719 people or 0.04% of the population (http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/lists/preval.htm).  The fact is that no one is sure how many people schizencephaly truly affects.  If we assume these same statistics in dogs, it equates to somewhere between 1,150 and 31,280 dogs out there with schizencephaly in the U.S. alone.


Please help me to get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly.  Contact your local news organization about Cletus or have your local news organization contact me directly at dsilber27@hotmail.com

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus

Thursday, March 22, 2012

3/22/2012 - Seizure #16

3/22/12 - Cletus just had his 16th seizure about 30 minutes ago. Below is the entry into his journal:

3/22/12 - 8:44PM - Seizure mild - moderate (3 out of 10) in DR. Lasted less than 1 minute. No pre-seizure signs noticed. Magnum also did not show signs of knowledge of pending seizure. 8mL of Diazepam given rectally.

Normal practice for dogs with seizures is not to give Diazepam with each seizure but in Cletus' case the doctors want to protect him from the cluster seizures he is prone to which is the reason why the drug was given to him during this seizure.  We will keep an eye on Cletus throughout the night and if he should have more than 2 seizures within a 24 hour period, we will bring him into the ER.  I expect (hope) that this was just a random event and the rest of the evening will be uneventful.  Fingers crossed.

As far as Cletus' doctors are aware of, Cletus has the only known reported case of open lipped schizencephaly in a canine.  The key word here is reported.  Most vets are not aware that schizencephaly exists or they are not aware that this condition is possible in an animal.  Cletus is living proof of this possibility.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S. (http://www.humanesociety.org/).  Some sites state that schizencephaly affect 1.54 per 100,000 people. According to rightdiagnosis.com, schizencephaly affects 1 in 2719 people or 0.04% of the population (http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/lists/preval.htm).  The fact is that no one is sure how many people schizencephaly truly affects.  If we assume these same statistics in dogs, it equates to somewhere between 1,150 and 31,280 dogs out there with schizencephaly in the U.S. alone.


Please help me to get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly.  Contact your local news organization about Cletus or have your local news organization contact me directly at dsilber27@hotmail.com

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus

Monday, March 12, 2012

3/12/2012 - Singing Cletus (Video attached)

3/12/12 - I have decided to start pest control again at the house.  I put it on hold a little while ago being that pesticides could be a factor in causing seizures in animals.  Being that Cletus has been good on the seizure front, I have scheduled the pest control company to resume their duties tomorrow.

It was only a small chance that the pest spraying that was being done was an influence in Cletus' seizures but in order to disqualify the pesticides, I had to cut it out and reintroduce it slowly.  If Cletus has a seizure within a certain time frame after the pest guys come, then I can correlate it but I am praying that Cletus makes it through without a seizure because the spiders down here in Florida are HUGE!

As far as Cletus' doctors are aware of, Cletus has the only known reported case of open lipped schizencephaly in a canine.  The key word here is reported.  Most vets are not aware that schizencephaly exists or they are not aware that this condition is possible in an animal.  Cletus is living proof of this possibility.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S. (http://www.humanesociety.org/).  Some sites state that schizencephaly affect 1.54 per 100,000 people. According to rightdiagnosis.com, schizencephaly affects 1 in 2719 people or 0.04% of the population (http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/lists/preval.htm).  The fact is that no one is sure how many people schizencephaly truly affects.  If we assume these same statistics in dogs, it equates to somewhere between 1,150 and 31,280 dogs out there with schizencephaly in the U.S. alone.


Please help me to get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly.  Contact your local news organization about Cletus or have your local news organization contact me directly at dsilber27@hotmail.com

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus

A funny secret about Cletus is that he sings when the phone rings... here is a video of it... he actually chokes from excitement about 1/2 way through... 

Thursday, March 1, 2012

3/1/2012 - Switch of Heartworm meds

3/1/12 - So the doctors agreed to switch Cletus' heartworm meds. We are going to try Revolution next month which is what we use for Magnum being that Magnum has 23 known allergies (why can't we have a normal animal?)  Revolution takes care of fleas, ticks, and heartworm and it is topical so the thinking is that it will have less chance to cause a seizure for Cletus.

On a side note... we are looking to gain media attention for Cletus and his cause - to bring attention to schizencephaly in the animal and human world and save the lives of animals suffering from this disorder.  If anyone can help us bring his cause to any TV, radio, or news personality, please pass his information on.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S. (http://www.humanesociety.org/). Some sites state that schizencephaly affect 1.54 per 100,000 people. According to rightdiagnosis.com, schizencephaly affects 1 in 2719 people or 0.04% of the population (http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/lists/preval.htm). The fact is that no one is sure how many people schizencephaly truly affects. If we assume these same statistics in dogs, it equates to somewhere between 1,150 and 31,280 dogs out there with schizencephaly in the U.S. alone.

Please help me to get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly. Contact your local news organization about Cletus or have your local news organization contact me directly at dsilber27@hotmail.com

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus

Found another Cletus puppy pic :) Still looks the same just 800 pounds bigger