Our Miss Tippi passed from this life July 29, 2006. She was approximately 8-10 years old. She had an episode Tuesday morning. I rushed her to the vet. This episode lasted 24 hours, so it was much worse than anything we dealt with before. Her previous episode only lasted 45 minutes. She was not normal when she woke up. She barked and freaked out, banged her head, ran in circles much more than normal and ran into things. This vet told us she needed to see a neurologist, but until then gave her some prednisone and Baytril, in case it was an inflmmation or infection affecting her brain. She did not know what would happen and told us that flat out but did tell me that she had a good chance of coming out totally seeing as she went from comatose to walking around within 24 hours. She said most dogs with neurological issues do not come out of these states so quickly, so we were very optimistic. Tippi started eating on her own within about twelve hours. We were watching and waiting to see what would happen but hoping for continued improvement. The girls and I went through a total day of hell trying to calm her, stayed up all night holding her so she didn’t bang her head against anything. She finally calmed down and spent a day sleeping, which the vet thought was good as most neurological patients need rest. I bought her a soft sided carrier in the event she started banging her head again. She mostly slept. She woke up early AM Saturday and started freaking out. She died Saturday morning. We had our Miss Tippi for only 8 months. We were told she had issues because she was rescued from a puppy mill and her running in circles, occasional loss of balance, etc. was due to that. While she was rescued from a puppy mill, we now know that these behaviors were due to a neurological illness. Even when we thought these problems were behavioral, we didn’t mind. We only wanted her to be happy. The girls and I loved her, especially Nefreteri. Nefreteri carried her around and fussed over her like a mother hen. While this page is about Tippi, I do have to take a minute to say that I am extremely proud of both my girls in the way they handled this. They were both very strong, and kept Tippi’s best interests in mind. They were both extremely upset by tippi’s illness but remained calm around her so as not to upset her. When Nefreteri would find that she was too upset to stay calm, she would calmly let me know and walk outside to cry. Tippi’s real mommy was Nefreteri, and she could not have a had a better one. We would like to thank all of our friends who helped up through this emotionally, our friends with medical backgrounds that gave us information and answered our middle of the night phone calls, the vets that tried to help her, and our Sagittarius for comforting Mommy even if he didn’t know why I cried so hard. Update: New information that makes me miserable. I had Tippi vaccinated for rabies the day before her last episode. Her vaccine was due. Her last was a 3 year vaccine, so she had not been vaccinated in 3 years, certainly not in the 8 months I had her. I have been told by someone that has bred poms and had one with a neurological problem that those with neurological problems are not supposed to be given the rabies vaccine. It causes brain swelling. I don't know if this is what happened to Tippi, but PLEASE if your dog has neurological problems or symptoms of them, go to a vet that knows how to deal with them before vaccinating or giving ANYTHING. Pom Page Made Tippi Miss August. Thanks guys ! Please sign Tippi’s memorial book   Tippi's photo album Tippi's Page Site Map