Senior sheltie had a stroke :-( Any recovery advice?

Your update is really good one overall Her improving is a great sign,
I would also talk to your Regular Vet about what to do for her during an event if she has one so you are prepared. I would also ask if one of the other anti-seizure medications might be better for her and have fewer side effects? There are alot of different medications available for seizures.(depending on the type)
The reason I suggest that is once my Dewey was on medication he was on it for life.
I have had good luck with my Vets by asking away and they take the time to answer my questions. Even my stupid ones
I hope you continue to see progress :)
 
IMHO I think your care is appropriate. As long as you are mindful of her physical safety on stairs etc so that she can't fall, I would let her do what she wants. She's likely confused as to her limitations, but like you said, wants to get back to her routines. A stroke is either a bleed or a clot. Just normal activity like you described shouldn't precipitate another stroke. Both of Asta's strokes happened as she was resting.
 
@Sharon7 , same here I think. Katy's stroke happened while we were asleep, and then her grand mal seizure was right after she woke up (and it starting is probably what woke her up).

She grumble / whined a little more last night after I posted, but I finally got her to poop at around 3am and then she slept comfortably for the rest of the night and had a good morning. So I'm hoping that this was more of a stomach pain than an indicator of further brain problems.

@Ron Atkinson , I had a Chihuahua that passed in 2011. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and low blood pressure would give her occasional seizures. They prescribed phenobarbitol, but she was so spaced out all the time that we hated giving it to her! She had 0 quality of life when she was on that.

With Katy, the only things recommended have been Keppra and phenobarbitol. We opted for Keppra because of that experience with Pepper.

They said that Katy will be on it for the rest of her life, too, but... I'm not entirely sold on that. If the stroke was caused by a blood clot that's passed, would she really have seizures for the rest of her life? If she's seizure-free for the next 6 months then I'll talk with her vet about maybe weaning her off of it. Or, depending on my income, maybe a neurologist.
 
Speaking of a "good morning", she woke me up at our regular time and seemed excited to get her day going! She doesn't care that Saturday is a sleep-late-day, she's ready to go! LOL I've been letting her walk to the top of the stairs on her own (she does a few circles but gets there), then I carry her down and let her walk outside on her own. Then I carry her down the steps to the ground, and walk around with her to make sure she's stable.

She did her business, then turned around and went straight back to the steps, where I let her climb them on her own (with my hands next to her just in case).

I also see that, even though she's still doing circles, they're not all to the left like they were on Tuesday! She'll do a few big circles to the left, then U-turn and do a few to the right. That's a big deal, I think.

She did several slow circles while I was getting her food together. She's always done circles during that period anyway, so I really don't know if the circles she's doing are really weird, or just her normal thought process in slow motion.

She ate well, then went to drink water all on her own again! That's huge and makes me really happy :-D

Then she went to her regular spot in the living room, watching me cook breakfast. I made an extra egg for her, and when I was taking dishes to the sink she came in there wanting her second breaky!! LOL And she ate the whole egg, then we went back outside to pee.

And now she's napping.

Other than the wobbliness and circles, I consider all of that to be huge improvements!

Best of all, I'm absolutely positive that she's recovering a little bit of sight back. I know we've made eye contact, and there have been several times that she was about to run into something and dodged it. So definitely not completely blind at this point, anyway.
 
Oh my gosh, y'all, I feel like she had some big strides today!

She can definitely see, at least a little bit. She was on one end of the living room, I was on the other end and sat in the floor (where I usually call her over to be brushed). She saw me, jumped up, and came over! I didn't call her or anything, she just saw me!

And even bigger, there have been several times today that she walked in a straight line with a purpose! At one point she walked all the way from the living room to the door, which was about 50'!

When she was a baby, I knew that Shelties were practically geniuses so I wanted to give her a challenge. I hung a bell on the back door, and showed her to ring the bell with her paw when she needs to go out. That first day she peed in the floor, so I walked her over and showed her to smack the bell. The very next time she had to pee, she rang the bell!! And she's been doing it ever since.

So today, when she was in the living room, then walked a straight line to the door to ring the bell!!!! Oh my gosh, my heart almost exploded. You guys just have no idea!

She's still lame in her front right paw, though, and because of that she still stumbles.

And she still eats weird, which is one I can't figure out: instead of eating straight-on, she's turning her head far to the left and it looks like she's trying to force food into the back of the right side of her jaw? It's a challenge, I have to hold her food bowl at a 45 degree angle and keep turning the bowl so that the food is in the upper left, or she can't find it.

But otherwise, I feel like she had huge improvements literally overnight!
 
Oh my heart would just explode as well if I were you. She's making wonderful strides. Interesting that it's her right leg not working properly, but she wants to chew on the right side of her mouth vs. the left. Given all her other symptoms that are resolving though I would say again, don't give up hope.
 
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