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Do animals help alerting people with epilepsy?
Fri, 06/30/2006 - 21:19Comments
Re: Do animals help alerting people with epilepsy?
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2006-07-19 - 20:51
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Epilepsy.com Resource Specialist
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Hello, my name is Susan, and
Submitted by aquila316 on Sat, 2006-07-01 - 10:36
Hello, my name is Susan, and for 11 years I had a Lab and Rottweiler mix who knew when I was going to have a sz about 3-5 minutes before I actually did. The theory is that the dog can smell chemical changes in your body and be trained to tell which ones are the sz alerters. I once heard, as an example, is that we can smell a cake baking in the oven, but the dog smells the flour, baking powder, milk, sugar, eggs, etc. My dog had been trained to make sure I was somewhere safe, and hold me there (like pinning me to the sofa, so I wouldn't get up) or back me into a corner if I was already on my feet, so I wouldn't fall and injure myself. Now you have to keep in mind that not all dogs can do this. It cost about 8,000.00 to train one, but you also have to know if it can tell you're going to have one. Another option is to have any dog trained what to do AFTER you have one. There was a dachsund here (I'm in Fla. as well) that was on the news recently. I forget what city, but when his owner had a sz (diabetic) the dog grabbed his cel phone and bit the 9 button, which was programmed to dial 911. I hope this helps Susan