I'm going to miss my weird little Chihuahua housemate, but it's swiftly becoming time to find a new person or people to take care of him. It'll be extra rough for him and I both after Danae moves. I wrote up a description of him and his care and feeding instructions. With some editing from Danae, here they are! It's a lot, but I care about him and want to tell people as much as I can. Wanna know about caring for an epileptic Chihuahua?
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Hi there! I'm Rufus the Chihuahua's foster daddy!
My partner and I have been taking care of Rufus (also known as goofus, floofus, roof-roof, etc.) for quite a while now. I've always been a big-dog person, but I've come to care for and love Rufus so much! However, my partner and I are moving out of the country, so Evanston Animal Shelter needs to find new foster parents for him until he's ready for a forever home. So let me tell you about him!
Rufus is extremely loving and cuddly with people he knows. He is quite content to spend most of his time snuggling with me on my chair in front of the computer, or squirming up against me to nestle against me while I'm on the couch. He's often sitting with my partner when I get home from work and he gets so excited to hear me that he'll start squeaking and screaming (I don't have a better word for it!) and pulling against his leash to get to me as fast as he possibly can!
That said, we do have to keep him on a leash all the time (or in diapers). He's not neutered and will take nearly any opportunity to find something to lift a leg against and mark. He hasn't been neutered yet because he has epilepsy that is not sufficiently controlled for him to have surgery. His seizures are pretty scary the first time you see one, and they last a long time; as much as 45 minutes to an hour typically, and sometimes as long as two hours. They do not seem to cause him any harm, but we worry that he is scared and confused while seizing. I tend to put him somewhere safe like a corner of the couch with one of us and tell him he's a good boy and make sure he knows I'm around. He can't control his movement and can fall off of things while seizing, so if he's not on the floor it's important to be near him. Since his seizures are what are called partial seizures, he sometimes is able to move around while seizing, but he does so in a kind of drunken stumble. When he is seizing but mobile, he can be given food and medication, if done with care.
He's a very strong-willed dog. I'm told that's true of most Chihuahuas, but I've never had one before so it's new to me. He wants what he wants and is not afraid to let you know. The way he does that is to growl. I'm not used to dogs that growl so much. If you want to move him from his spot on the couch he growls. When you pick him up and set him down he growls. It's not a growl of aggression; just kind of a "Hey! That's not what I want!" I've gotten used to it, but I wasn't at first and was worried he was actually angry. His actual angry barks and snarls are distinct!
He takes medicine for the seizures, but so far it has not eliminated them. It seems to have reduced their intensity at least. He has seizures approximately once a week, and they are sometimes brought on by excitement. I've seen them start when his dinner alarm goes off, or when he's really excited by someone coming in to the apartment. On the other hand, they sometimes seem to start for no reason at all.
Rufus likes to play! His idea of play is to try to grab your hand with his forepaws while making excited growls and play-biting at your hand. I've tried to get him interested in biting at toys more than hands, but I haven't been very succesful I'm afraid. He has one toy, a lamb with a squeaker in it, that he loves, and will spend a lot of time biting and squeaking. I've tried introducing other toys, but he's not very interested in those either. He's stubborn. Good thing he's so cute. Rufus also likes to sing. Certain squeaky toys, when squeaked, will prompt him to make a high pitched noise that is somehow simultaneously adorable and annoying. We’ve found that if you make a sound that is a similar pitch with your own voice, this will also get him singing.
Rufus knows how to sit. Sometimes, though, he just doesn’t want to. He also knows the command “crate”, though he expects to get a treat after going in his crate at least *some* of the time. We’ve also been training him with the command, “Wait” before going through a door. The idea is to delay his inevitable lunge at another person who turns out to be on the other side of the door. Even when he really needs to pee, he is a very good boy and will wait a minute or so until you say, “All done”, which is how he knows he is allowed to go through the door. Admittedly, he does not wait properly when there is someone on the other side of the door. But he hesitates long enough to give you a chance to rein him in.
He is not very social with strangers or other animals outside of the people he already knows. Our cat is over twice his weight, but Rufus still tries to chase and bully the cat. I would recommend a home that doesn't have cats, for your own sanity. It kind of drives me crazy how often he tries to chase and pester our kitty. He also does not get along well with other dogs. He gets very snarly and aggressive and I just keep him away from them for everyone's safety and sanity. He can be pretty defensive when people he doesn't know come into his living space, but if you give the new person a few treats to give to Rufus, he warms up to them pretty quickly. It usually takes about five treats before he decides that someone is safe. He has a pretty good memory for people he has met. Once he realizes that a person entering ‘his’ territory is someone he knows, he gets very excited, and is often quite eager to cuddle with his long-lost friend.
Here are detailed instructions on his medicine, food, and potty habbits:
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MEDICINE
He is on two medications. Leviticeteram, and potassium bromide. They are both liquids and we give them to him with a dosing syringe. The numbers on the syringes seem to keep wearing off over time, but CVS or Walgreens will provide them free. He takes medicine three times a day. I give him his medicine, then a treat. He's not a big fan of the medicine, but he will put up with it. However, he gets upset with my partner when she tries to medicate him. One of the syringes we use got stuck while she was giving him a dose, then suddenly shot a lot of liquid into his mouth. Because of that, Rufus gets defensive and snarly when she tries to give him medicine. I'm not sure if he'll be that way with other people or not, but he is pretty responsive to treats when he's grumpy. I'll be happy to show you how I dose him.
Morning:
1.25 ml of levetiracetam
0.19 ml of potassium bromide
Mid-day:
1.25 ml of levetiracetam
Evening
1.25 ml of levetiracetam
0.19 ml of potassium bromide
I get up early to get to work, so his morning dose has been around 5:00 AM. My partner was giving him his mid-day dose around 2:00, but because of his more recent issue with her, I've been doing it when I get home around 4:00 PM. Then we give him his evening dose before bed around 8:30 or 9:00 PM.
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FOOD
Rufus eats 1/3 of a cup per day.
Morning
I feed him 1/6 of a cup when I leave for work at 5:00 AM.
Evening
I feed him 1/6 of a cup when his dinner alarm goes off at 6:00 PM. He gets so excited when his alarm goes off! It's adorable! You can also sing his dinner alarm to him. He recognizes it, even off-key.
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Potty breaks:
I take him outside in the morning at 5:00 AM, and before I go to bed around 8:30 PM. He typically goes out once during the day too. He can wait quite a while between going outside, but as I noted, he's really quick to pee on things if you give him a chance to. I think that's in no small part because he is intact; I hope he'll be much better about house-training once he's snipped.
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