We had a pretty frightening experience at work yesterday. We deal with old dog fits all the time and occasionally we get the odd dog that has a seizure, but yesterday was pretty bad, and someone had to be really rude to boot.
I was in the back room bathing a dog. There were two girls drying. One had only been working for us for about a week, the other for only three days. Neither one of them had ever seen an old dog fit, so when a little toy poodle that one of the girls was drying started screaming, of course I knew what was happening, I immediatly ran over there, turned off both dryers, and grabbed the dog, held it in my arms and held it's mouth shut. When a dog goes into a fit you always want to turn off any noise, including the sound of it's own voice, because any noise will keep it going. She came out of it and started seizing. I lay her down on the bench and tried to keep her still. Calmly told the girl to go get my boss. My boss ran back and took care of the poodle's head, I took care of the legs, because we didn't want it to hurt itself. The seizure lasted two minutes or so -- we've never seen one last more than 30 seconds. She came out of it, stood up, then started seizing again. We wrapped a towel around her, my boss held her in her arms, and I went to get the phone to call the dog's parents. While I was on the phone, the poodle stopped having a seizure, and then started another one. Altogether she probably had about 10-15 minutes worth of seizing. It was really bad. Then the poodle came out of it and was fine as could be. She was impossible to hold because she just wanted to go go go, so we put her in her crate and all she did was turn in circles. I've never seen a dog act energetic after a seizure, she was acting ridiculous for about 15 minutes until her owner came and immediatly took her to the vet. She was in the vet for about 30 seconds, the dog was normal, and then suddenly had a seizure that lasted only a few seconds before she just died. It was very sudden. One second she was seizing and then she went limp. The owner called us, bawling her eyes out. She has been a client for 15 years so of course she was not upset with us -- she just wanted to let us know. The vet said it was something neurological, and the dog being 15 years old, she was bound to die one way or another very soon. The dog had only had one minor seizure before, earlier this year.
Anyways, so of course we were upset for the poor lady. What a horrible way for your dog to die. And after everything, I learned that when I went to aid the dog while I was in the back, bathing, a client of our's who was visiting (who is also a groomer and a friend of my boss), became angry and said that it was very "unprofessional" to leave a dog in the tub, and that it could jump out. That she would never "have that" happen if she were in charge. My coworker assured her that I never leave a dog in the tub unless there is a major issue, but she didn't care -- I had left my tub and let someone else take over for me, and kept my boss back there with me to boot. For heaven's sake, I needed help!! It makes me so angry. For one, the dogs aren't just freely sitting in the tub. They are chained in the tub and the chain does not allow for the dog to have ANY body part outside of the tub -- so it could never jump out. And two, I'm sorry, but when I'm the only person in the room that knows what it looks like when a dog is having an old dog fit or a seizure, both emergencies, of COURSE I am going to go help the animal. But I guess I should have stood there and let the dog have a fit and die right there while being blowdried, because I had a perfectly well behaved chihuahua chained in the tub that could go absolutely nowhere. The other girl was blowdrying two feet away from my tub, so the dog was never unnattended. As soon as the dog started seizing, the girl told my boss, and then immediatly took over for me bathing the dog.
So anyways, I'm angry. I try to help and I still get slammed. The old dog fit could have lasted alot longer than that with someone inexperienced, and the dog could have died right there on the drying bench. I certainly think I can justify what I did. All I keep thinking is that if I were the owner of the dog in the tub, I would want the bather to leave my dog, chained in the tub with nowhere to go, with someone watching from two feet away, so that the bather could go help the other dog in distress. I can't see how anyone would want you to just stand there at the tub and yell out instructions to people who can't hear a word because the loud dryers are turned on, and who are scared and confused because they are inexperienced with this type of problem. Argh.
RIP Crystal. :(
