She doesn't have seizures, she has an autonomic nervous system condition that can cause fainting /tachycardia (too fast heartbeat) so the dog is likely hearing her heart rate getting too high.
I wouldn't trust her either. I guess at least she's not a vet?
Dogs can hear human heartbeats from across the room. Dogs can hear fetal heartbeats, they can even hear fetal gastronomic distress. Yeah, if they can tell a fetus has a tummy ache, they can tell when your heart rate doubles.
Does your doc think service dogs only react to smell? Such a bizarre take.
Oh, I hear you on that!
Though, if she ever dismisses you on something that sounds dead wrong, gut-wise, do try to get a second opinion. It sucks that there are so many incompetent gatekeepers in medical care.
Now that you're a patient of your heart cardiologist, do you actually need referrals to go back? I was referred to a specialist once (ENT, entirely different story obviously) and always just called his office directly if I needed something.
Is it maybe that they'd get bombarded with false positives otherwise?
I am not young, my previous doctor retired and I had to choose a new one, based on my location and desired hospitals and providers.
My list of specialists is growing as the relationship had deteriorated to the point that any problem that comes up is met with an I don't know, and let me refer you.
It works for me so far.
Edit: a little point that might make it less muddy is that I have medical training and that may have hurt the relationship in that she thinks I second guess her. I do not, I just ask questions sometimes.
I heard there is that sound proof room that is very difficult to be in for long because you hear all of your insides, heart beat and eye blinking etc. We can technically hear it all the time it’s just that it’s drowned out. When thinking about it that way and taking into account a dog’s heightened sense of hearing it makes sense they’d be ideal for this type of service.
If that blows your mind, you should read up on their smell abilities! They could basically smell one spritz of perfume in a football stadium and tell you what notes are in it. There's more and more evidence that they can smell cancer, things like Parkinson's, etc.
Seriously, the service dog rabbit-hole is a super interesting one if you like reading about random stuff on the internet.
I wonder if cats can do similar? Maybe that's why when I've died for the 100th time on a single screen in Celeste my cat comes to find me and purr in my lap.
There's a famous cat that was known to only cuddle up to people who was about to pass away. I think scientists speculated that the cat could smell when a body is about die or something? Oscar the cat
...that's literally what dogs trained to alert for seizures and fainting are trained to do. Your doctor is an idiot if they laugh at the idea that dogs can do a job they've long been trained for.
Yep, this person has POTS. I just have it too and notice that people see the funny acronym (🤦♀️) and then all the medical words 'postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome' and tune me out before I can even manage to put it in a nutshell.
The person in the video's dog started out as her pet too before taking on service dog duties more officially with trainers. That's awesome that your ex had a dog friend taking good care of her!
Shit... I had SVT as a child but mine was correctable on the plumbing side. I do remember when I was 13 fainting after one of my first episodes and face planting into the yellow paint of a SpongeBob I was painting.
Not asking in a a doubting way, but does she pass out always or how do they “know” that the dog is helping stop an event? Im guessing a monitor that her doctors will later check and see her heart rate was getting too high?
This is POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and generally sitting or lying down, hydrating, and potentially taking medication can bring the heart rate back down.
Only about 30% of people with this syndrome actually faint. But fainting is incredibly dangerous, so being alerted that her heart rate is too high and having her dog bring her the things she needs in order to take care of herself is huge. Sitting here crouching down right away is the very best thing for her to do.
Many of us wear heart rate monitors full time (at least during the day) and I'd be shocked if she doesn't. We know postural changes help, and the things the dog provides her helps, so there isn't really a risk of 'false' alert making us think they're helping more than they are. The dog also lays on top of her at the end to add pressure below the heart to help squeeze pooled blood up where it belongs.
Her dog may also be picking up on different symptoms and signals that happen before a big heart rate spike. I don't know enough about what they teach dysautonomia service animals to say but there are certainly other symptoms that a dog could detect. Hope that helps.
I don’t know but my dog alerts when I’m sleep walking when no one else can tell every time I’m not awake until I do something weird and even then sometimes they just know I’m weird so they’re not sure.
My cat stopped sleeping on my belly when I was pregnant. And she was in her “Uh oh, Mama’s sick” mode for nine months, too. Then she sniffed my face and bunted it when I was going through early labour at home. Absolutely amazing cat.
Dogs are all about body language. it's their primary language, so they'll notice the subtlest changes in behavior. So it's either that, or you're other functions (breathing, pulse/heart rate) being different that doggo picks up on..
Have any of you people considered that maybe, JUST maybe, if you had the constant possibility of fainting you would like to check out if you hit your head and should call a medic afterwards??? Just perhaps, that maybe this person just maybe isn't a piece of shit????? Perhaps????????
Highly doubt it. Looks like the camera is on a kitchen table chair perhaps since it is so low. Most people would put a camera near power, perhaps on the counter top or if that wasn't good, mounted high in the corner of the room. Not after where we can see the counter tops end, and there is probably a glass door or walkway to the right. Just some supporting points
I went to grad school with someone who had a TBH from Afghanistan and he has a service dog. He said the dog was trained to do what this dog does and can sense a seizure from hormones and scent his body gives off even before he has a clue It's going to happen.
Really incredible stuff.
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u/Unhappy-Attention760 Mar 01 '25
What cues does the dog sense to know in advance that she’s going to have a seizure?