Last year I took in to foster Cole until he was adopted. He had just started his racing career and was winning races well above the average. However, he start to have seizures which ended his racing.
He began treatment by Dr. Karen Burlone of Welleby Veterinary Center and has been responding very well to the anti-seizure medicine. Cole learned the command "pill" which means to report to the kitchen for his medicine. Cole has been very cooperative with taking and swallowing his medicine.
I have been taking Cole to Friends of Greyhounds every Saturday & Sunday for their open house so that he would have a good chance to be adopted. But, the fact that he was having seizures seemed to frighten any potential adopters. Eventually since Cole had spent so much time with me, I adopted him.
When we travel to Friends of Greyhounds in Hialeah we always take the same route southbound on I-75. During many of the trips there was a stretch of road south of Exit 5 to the Florida's Turnpike Extension to the big-bend where Cole would become very restless & whine. Then one day last July, Cole had a seizure in the car while we were on this section of road. From July through October, Cole had 5 seizures while we were on this two mile length of interstate. I even began to call this 2 miles of interstate "seizure alley"!
I started to look at everything along the road trying to determine what in the environment might be affecting Cole. I was also wondering about why Cole did not have seizures in the afternoon when we were going along the same highway to go home. I even propped a camera on the steering wheel during one trip to review later when I was home.
My first discovery was the shadows that are cast across the road because it is still early in the morning. While reading about Cole's problem, I also read that flashing lights could cause seizures. Could the shadows on the road, which also would cause flashes of sunlight be the cause? I began to try to avoid the shadows mostly by driving in the right-most lane.
However, during a cloudy day, Cole had yet another seizure. There were no shadows. There were no flashing lights. How could this happen? Apparently my theory was wrong and it was back to square one. It was during this time I remembered back to Salina, the fawn-red greyhound in the header at the top of this page. When I took her to Friends of Greyhounds, she would stand up and look around almost every time when we passed Exit 5, the area where Cole has had several seizures.
My next theory then became could Cole's seizures be caused by something in the air? And the first thing to determine was how to keep the smell from getting to Cole. I did not believe that I could teach Cole to hold his breath.
I assumed that if "bad air" was getting into the car and was triggering the seizures, I should try to keep Cole's exposure to a minimum. To do this I started to 1) set the car's air conditioner from recirculate to outside air, 2) set the air conditioner's fan speed to high or maximum and 3) open both of the back windows about 3 inches. I was forcing as much fresh air as possible through the car.
So far, since I started providing Cole with as much fresh air as possible he has had only one seizure and I was entirely my fault for that seizure because I forgot to increase the air conditioner's fan speed.
There are still times along "seizure alley" when Cole will become restless and whiney, but I have noticed that turning up the fan speed from "high" to "maximum" will calm him down.
Also, I have noticed that Cole has no problem on rainy days. I think the rain is cleaning the "bad air".
Dr. Burlone said that she has heard of odors causing seizure, but Cole is the first in her practice.
A volunteer at Friends of Greyhounds has told me that he has noticed that his two dogs, Oliver and Bear also stand up and look around when passing I-75's Exit 5, just like Salina did.
In conclusion, it seems my theory that an odor is triggering Cole's seizures along I-75 is correct.
