My "Vet School Dog" George, the Story of Her Many Neurological Problems

My dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Georgia (but I only ever call her George), is most definitely a "vet school dog." Only mere months after I decided I wanted to go into veterinary medicine, she started to have a chain reaction of many many medical issues. I know what you're thinking, a CKCS, well of course she has issues. But when she had her first seizure, it was one of the scariest moments of my life.

It was 6am, I was getting ready for my upcoming 11 hour shift, and I turn around to George having a tonic-clonic seizure. At first I panicked because she is the most precious thing in my life - my baby - and I am the type of person to immediately go to the worst case scenario in my head.

I was lucky because I had doctors in my corner that I could call in that frightening moment. So, I called one of the doctors I worked with who was on shift that day, and thankfully she was able to pick up the phone to hear my panicked voice telling her what was going on. She called the ER for me ahead of time, and I went straight there with my very disoriented baby, George.

At the ER, they said since it was just one seizure, there was nothing to do about it at

the moment, unless another happened in the next day. Unfortunately, I was awoken by George seizing that same night, and I had to take her back in. They kept her overnight, got her started on Keppra, and referred me to a Neurologist.

We got in at the Neurologist a week later, and she got an MRI and a spinal tap. After the MRI, when she was waking up from anesthesia, the doctor reported that she had a 20 minute long seizure, she would need to stay the night to be monitored and loaded with Phenobarbital.

When the doctor explained her condition to me, showed me her scan, and talked to me about future directions, I was in a state of panic. That panic did not go away until I got to take George home the next morning.

George was diagnosed with Syringomyelia and a Chiari-like Malformation. As you can see, between C3-C4, she has a lesion in her spinal cord of which the maximal cross-sectional area of the lesion is about 50% of the spinal cord cross-sectional area. Also notably, the vermis of her cerebellum is partially displaced through the foramen magnum. Her caudal brainstem is also kinked. She also has mild-moderately dilated ventricles.

Now for some comedy(?) to lighten the mood! Here is a lovely picture of George's bald head post spinal tap. She had no idea how silly she looked for the few weeks after her procedure. Her side profile was AMAZING lol; it also really showed off the flatness of her occipital bone that goes along with the Chiari-like Malformation. Her CSF from her spinal tap did not show much other than a slight possibility of some inflammation, but nothing serious, thank goodness.

It has been almost a year now (11 months) since her first seizure occured on June 26, 2025, and she is doing great on her treatment plan. She gets 1 tablet of 16.2mg Phenobarbital in the AM and 1.5 tablets in the PM, 1 capsule of 10mg Omeprazole in the AM, and 100mg Gabapentin as needed for Neuropathic pain. The Omeprazole is to reduce the build up of CSF. I give her the Gaba when I notice she is fantom scratching/vocalizing more, pawing more at her ear/face, digging more at the sheets/nothing, or just generally seems to be in pain by my standards.

Right after the MRI, she was on a tapering dose of 5mg Prednisone for about 2 months, and that was rough to say the least. Many accidents in the house and waking me up 3-4 times a night to go outside, but we made it!

George has recently also had a few ophthalmologic and cardiological issues recently, but I will leave those for another entry. Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions for future blogs let me know via the "Contact" page.