Epilepsy service dogs? Anyone have one?

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mommymela

mommymela

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I'm super interested in getting one and I've heard that there are charities or foundations that donate them. I'm curious if anyone here has one and can share their experience with me. I've never had a dog before but love the idea of a sweet little baby going everywhere with me and being able to help. I was given a number at my meeting earlier but it was out of service, I'll be doing some googling but I want to hear your personal stories if you have one or if there are specific foundations I should try to get in touch with first. Thanks in advance for any help yall! I'm in N.C., U.S. if that makes a difference.
 
Find your local Epilepsy Foundation. They will be able to point you in the right direction.

The little guy in the picture with me is my dearest friend and seizure alert dog, Valentino.
 
Thanks, I was able to email them and plan to call tomorrow as well. What is he like typically? Just a normal dog? I've heard they can scream if they know a seizure is coming on, that sounds nuts since I've never heard a dog scream and I'm just so curious about it.
 
Mine doesn't scream but he whines really loudly and bats at me with his paw. It's a very distinctive behavior that you couldn't mistake for anything else.

He's an exceptionally mellow dog by temperament and then I have trained him in how to behave in public so he goes with me into restaurants and sits at my feet (doesn't jump up on the waitress or try to beg from other people's tables). I moved to Hawaii recently but still have family and friends in California so we have been back and forth on the plane several times and he is totally cool with that. The flight attendants have remarked that he is much less "high maintenance" than most people's children.

But when we go for walks in the woods he knows that that is his time to just be a dog, chasing mongooses etc.

I wrote this about the relationship between dogs and people throughout history. If you are a dog lover, you might like it.

http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f44/dogs-eye-view-humanity-25312/
 
Not to be too discouraging, but you shouldn't expect to have a dog donated to you in your attempts at managing your seizures. Seizure dogs require a lot of trainining. Seizure alert dogs that can predict when you will have a seizure are very rare. Training for such a thing is not something one just comes up with overnight and is probably specific to the person experiencing the seizure. While they are said to exist, they are the exception rather than the rule.

Seizure dogs are like any other dog and requirement daily maintenance and training. They are a serious commitment affecting your daily schedule and finances. You should not jump into this with any other expectation.
 
OTOH, they are not unicorns. They do exist. They are also perhaps less rare than we might think.

I found my dog living feral in a small fishing village in Mexico scrounging a living out of trashcans and fish heads. I had no idea he had this ability until I had already adopted him. I know this is just one case but who knows how many others could be out there?

The expensive part is the training. Very true. But it is possible to do this on your own as I did.
Just to clarify, a dog either has the ability to sense seizures or it doesn't. If it doesn't, no amount of training will do anything to create this ability. So the part they need to be trained about is public behavior.

If you don't have the time to do this then it would be better to get one that is trained from a school that specializes in this kind of dog.

Resabiunne makes a good point that they are dogs and do require an ongoing commitment of time and effort.

This discussion is making me homesick. I miss my doggy. (I'm in the VEEG unit right now)
 
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Time and effort would not be a problem at all since I'm home all day, I would love to have an animal to give my love and attention to. I would probably have a dog already if my apartments allowed them. They have to allow me to have a service animal though. A friend of a friend of mine has one but I haven't been able to get in touch with her, hers was donated to her here in the same city as me, that's how I know it's possible and that's why I refuse to be discouraged about it. It would help me with loneliness as well. I'm patiently waiting for 8:00 A.M. so I can make some phone calls!
 
Also, sorry to hear you are in the EEG unit Aloha, that's when you get the electrodes glued to your head correct? How long will you be there? I did it once a few years back. Not a fun experience. :(
 
mommymela said:
Time and effort would not be a problem at all since I'm home all day, I would love to have an animal to give my love and attention to. I would probably have a dog already if my apartments allowed them. They have to allow me to have a service animal though. A friend of a friend of mine has one but I haven't been able to get in touch with her, hers was donated to her here in the same city as me, that's how I know it's possible and that's why I refuse to be discouraged about it. It would help me with loneliness as well. I'm patiently waiting for 8:00 A.M. so I can make some phone calls!
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Good for you.

mommymela said:
Also, sorry to hear you are in the EEG unit Aloha, that's when you get the electrodes glued to your head correct? How long will you be there? I did it once a few years back. Not a fun experience. :(
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Thank you. Been here since Monday. Leaving Sunday at the latest. Trying not to scratch at the glue is the hard part.
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/hamsters-tale-my-veeg-journal-25608/
 
It drove me insane not being able to take a proper shower or brush my hair. That crap took a while to get out too. I hope you have someone keeping you company or some good books at least!
 
I have to travel to Honolulu to get to a major hospital so the guy and the dog are back home together on Molokai. Lots of good books
 
Met a young guy with a dog at a local E Foundation meeting. He says his costs $11,000.
 
I would love to have one but it would have to be a service animal to live with me at my apartment complex. I do have guinea pigs, but it's not quite the same lol.
 
So far I have been hearing costs like $30,000 and I would have to pay for the dog to travel from a few states away. There was a foundation in my state that donated them for free but the lady who led it is sadly battling stage 4 cancer and had to stop running it. There are several foundations that will donate dogs to veterans and children, and I totally understand those groups of people being their focus, I would rather a child get a dog than me of course. I'll keep emailing around and see what happens.
 
Mr.21T said:
Met a young guy with a dog at a local E Foundation meeting. He says his costs $11,000.
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:yes it was been suggested by my child's doctor and Physical Therapist that she get one, but you have a raise a tremendous amount of money. $15,000 was what I was quoted, plus travel expenses to go and stay in another state for two weeks to get trained as handlers. You can do fundraising to ask people for money but it's extremely unlikely you will find someone to give you one through a grant or whatever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
mommymela said:
I would love to have one but it would have to be a service animal to live with me at my apartment complex. I do have guinea pigs, but it's not quite the same lol.
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Google the Americans With Disabilities Act section about service animals. It lays out all the rules for things like dealing with landlords and other business owners.

The dog does not have to have any special "papers" since there is no government agency that does that kind of licensing and you could do the training yourself.

Basically if you say it's a service dog, it's a service dog. Of course if the dog is out of control noisy or aggressive, then the landlord would be within their rights to put you out.

Worth reading up on.
 
I don't have a dog but one of my cats seems to know when I'm going to have a seizure, not all the time though. He'll get on me and sit there until I come completely out of the seizure and he thinks it's ok for me to get up and move around. I didn't teach him this, he learned it all on his own and it wasn't for a few years after I'd gotten him. I can't take him out of the house because he isn't a very public cat.

Not all animals are like that but if you are lucky, like me, you might find one.
 
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