A woman received a surprising diagnosis soon after her dog began behaving unusually around her.
Kenzie Kinney Seymour owns a two-year-old rescue dog named Sunny. Suddenly, Sunny started displaying ‘antsy’ behavior specifically focused on Kenzie’s neck, according to the 31-year-old.
“She could sense something was wrong,” Kenzie explained to Newsweek. “Sunny wouldn’t stop whining, licking excessively, and positioning herself close to me, laying on my back, neck, and shoulders.”
Kenzie uploaded a now-viral video to Instagram showcasing Sunny’s peculiar actions. The dog was seen sitting close behind her and resting her head on Kenzie’s shoulder.
She captioned the video: “The day before I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, my dog kept climbing behind me and wouldn’t leave my neck alone.”
Sunny apparently has a history of foreseeing her owner’s health issues.
“She does the same thing with my leg that has permanent chronic blood clot damage,” Kenzie noted. “It’s always alarming when Sunny gets so antsy because it’s not typical for her, and I know she is sensitive to my health problems.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, a brain aneurysm is a bulge or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain.
The explanation continues: “Experts think brain aneurysms form and grow because blood flowing through the blood vessel puts pressure on a weak area of the vessel wall.
“This can increase the size of the brain aneurysm. If the brain aneurysm leaks or ruptures, it causes bleeding in the brain, known as a hemorrhagic stroke.”
Viewers of Kenzie’s video have shared similar experiences of their pets alerting them to potential health issues.
One person commented, “I had a similar experience recently with a non-trained dog alerting me. She was able to predict an episode of syncope before I even felt it and potentially saved me from what could have been hours of coming in and out of consciousness.”
“Dogs are so cool,” they added.
Another person remarked, “I swear my mother’s dog could smell my brain tumor growing and didn’t want to leave my side because she knew I was sick. Dogs are beautiful.”
These aren’t just anecdotes; research indicates that dogs can indeed detect changes in their owners, signaling potential health problems.
For instance, research showed that dogs could detect COVID-19 in humans. Among the six detection dogs studied, they achieved a 94 percent success rate in identifying the virus, as reported by PetMD.