[Closed] Scary Dog Seizure Moment, any vets here?

Hope he pulls through, dogs never compalin,they just seem to get on with life.

Be very careful with kids, mrs, yourself when if he does it again.
I got bitten doing exactly the same as you, best just to make sure he can't hurt himself and leave him to come round.
Ours ended up on epilepsy tablets.
Hope he's ok though.

No kids and yes we'll be careful.

What's the story with epilepsy tablets how many how often and how much, just visiting the vet costs 80 quid these days..

Our first dog started having fits after banging her head when she was one. She ended up on tablets after loads of tests and had fits on a regular basis for the next twelve years. It was heart breaking every time she had one but the after effects were as you describe. She also became addicted to water which became a bigger problem. Took another thirteen years before I felt ready for another one. Good luck with him.

Don't know what sort of dog you have but if it's the STW favourite, the border terrier it could be this: Canine_Epileptoid_Cramping_Syndrome.
We lost our lovely BT to this a couple of years ago. Hope you have a more positive outcome.

Everything you've described mirror our dogs seizures. If he fits reassure, but keep your hands away from the mouth. When he comes round keep talking to him, he can hear but his eyesight will be blurred. Does he get right in your face? The more he comes round does he become hyperactive, pacing and whining?

Our eldest dog Dillon, a patterdale/whippet cross is epileptic. He's currently on 90mg of Epiphen, the tablets are 30mg, he has 1 1/2 morning and evening. This keeps fits at bay for the moment, he's had a few bad days here and there, mainly due to sickness which causes him to either refuse to eat or vomit, can be a struggle getting his meds in, the longer it goes on the more the levels in his blood drop, then the fits start.

Our vets are quite good, if he starts to eat grass, or vomits they give him an antiemetic and antibiotics to prevent things getting worse. We also have to be mindful of his diet, particularly anything with salt, it prevents the body absorbing the meds, thus causing fits.

The tablets are 5p, we pay £20 for 100 at a time, every 6 months he requires a blood test just to check his levels.

Hmm, not too happy about giving him drugs just yet, don't give myself drugs if I can possibly avoid it so I think I'm going to go down the hollistic/homeopathic route, having read a bit since posting this, lots of stories all coming up idiopathic (cause unknown) diagnoses, this is only the 2nd time it's happened, the first time my daughter witnessed it and to be honest we didn't entirely believe her due to her oft dramatic over reaction to things like spiders in her room.

So I'm due to revisit the vets in 4 weeks time and if he has another, likely it'll be drugs, but until then I think it'll be stuff like vaccinium, omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and vary the diet a bit, can't be altogether sure of the crap companies put in dog food.

my great dane had fits when he was about 1 year old,all test revealed nothing, after 2 weeks of the fits getting worse and more frequent,upto 3 a day,Put him on some epilepsy drugs and the vet said it wont stop the fits will only make them less severe and less frequent.started on max dosage and he had no fits ,over the course of around 12 months reducing dosage he had no more so i took him off altogether.vet was a bit apprehensive and gave us some steroid type cream to shove up his bum if he had a fit and wasnt coming around. He has'nt had a fit since going on the drugs or coming off them (fingers crossed). His sight however is not very good after a big seizure the day before he went on the drugs. reason i wanted him off the drugs was he was very lethargic and was'nt his normal self.

Our dog, who I love more than the Mrs (Tho' it is close), had a weird fit kind of thing, rushed to the vet on the brink of death, survived but it was days till he came home and months till full recovery.
We never found out the cause, but we decided if it happens again we're just going to stroke and comfort him while he dies.

Sounds like epilepsy. Ours dog suffered with it, started when he was a year old and very distressing to see. First episode was whilst I was cooking the Sunday lunch and the smells always got him excited as he knew he would get the remaining meat. Suddenly he's on the have a fit and 50kg GSD does a lot of thrashing. Managed to pick him up and throw him in the boot of the estate to set off to the vets. Not gone a mile when I look in the rear view mirror and he's stood up pacing around all confused. Vet diagnosed epilepsy and started him on barbiturates to control the fits which took a bit of time to get the dosage right but the fits became a rarity.

Sounds like epilepsy. However there are multiple causes of it and it will require more of a work up to get to a specific diagnosis. Lots do end up with the Idiopathic diagnosis. Having had 2 episodes it is likely he will have more, how far apart were they? They are pretty scary to watch your loved pet go through but It is best to leave them to have the seizure and not disturb them. Then in the period of disorientation that usually follows be careful of them as they may not behave normally ( this can last several minutes to several hours depending on your dog). Difficult as it is to detach yourself; but stopping and timing the seizure can help to give your vet good information about progression of disease.m

Age and breed of dog can give indications of more likely causes but bloods are needed to rule out metabolic causes and to check liver function before starting on medication.

Medication can have side effects and as such you need to take into account how frequently he seizures, how severe they are, any adverse reactions like aggression afterwards and if there are clusters ( multiple seizures in a short period of time) before deciding on starting medication.

I would start with some bloods test, (they may have wanted a starved sample for best results) and if that is all normal would discuss referral to a Neurologist or MRI scan and CSF tap, starting medication ( various different types) or if infrequent/mild seizures even opt for doing nothing but good careful recording of frequency, pattern ( ie time of day, at exercise etc) and severity to monitor and change plan if required.

Some dogs do better on 1 medication than another and some need to be on more than 1 medication to get reasonable control.

Good luck.

Again, sounds like it could be epilepsy. My aunt had a retriever/collie cross that came down with it when she was about 7 or so? IIRC the fits became more infrequent and she lived to a ridiculous age, 15 or something like that so it's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

Yes it's distressing but you getting upset won't help the dog. I'm sure you know that already though and tbh once it's diagnosed it'll be less of a worry since you won't be dealing with the unknown. Good luck to all of you, hope you get a conclusive diagnosis and the fits get sorted.

I'm pretty sure I've found out what caused it. In his morning enthusiasm, he often wanders into the shower to hurry me up in the morning, now he didn't this day, beause I'd locked the door whilst I bleached some of the tiles, that had gotten a bit mouldy it being saturday with no rush for work.

Now I didn't see him go in there, but he must have doubled back to find me, gone in sniffed about and got a dose of bleach fumes before the mrs went in, I'd warned her, but there's no warning him of course it's got to be that, too much of a co incidence.

it set him off retching and the rest is history, got to be that.

Must be more careful in future, we tend to take all the household products we use for granted bu it can be devastating for pets, we don't use weedkiller in the garden for precisely this reason, I feel awful now, it's totally my fault, I'm such a careless ****, can't tell you how bad I feel now.

this is only the 2nd time it's happened, the first time my daughter witnessed it and to be honest we didn't entirely believe her due to her oft dramatic over reaction to things like spiders in her room.

What was the cause the first time?

We're not sure, think it was also similar weather conditions, low pressure rain, lightning which was our first thoughts it was a few months back now and we hadn't really thought much more about it, I'm trying to remember wether we'd bleached anything then but it was so long back, we've really no idea.

You still taking him to the vet?

Went to the vet yesterday, booked in to go again in 4 weeks, if between then and now he has another 'turn' they will do blood tests.

Try and stay positive, I know nothing about non-human biology really - but perhaps like humans dogs can have one off fits that never recur again.

A diagnosis takes time unfortunately, you can't just diagnose epilepsy on a one off event - that is why they sent you home.

Our BT got hit by being too close to someone swinging one of those hard rubber balls-on-a-rope things and getting a proper bang on the head (she's tiny too). Fitted for around 10-15 seconds, ran around in circles like I-dunno-what not paying attention to anyone or anything. Then turned high-tail and ran full pelt out of the park, across two busy roads, with around half a dozen people chasing after her and was found sitting outside the front door feeling a bit sorry for herself.

It's never happened again - so hopefully yours is a one-off event too! 🙂

We had an epileptic dog, and the symptoms were exactly as you described. Seizure, followed by....being a completely different dog for 10 minutes or so. He'd be put in a different room after a fit, and the door shut... I still remember the crazed look in his eyes - no matter how long I'd known that dog, there could be no trust placed in him for those few moments. Then all of a sudden, he'd snap out of it. Just like that. Very weird and scary stuff if you don't know what's going on, but it was a semi-regular thing for him, and we came to expect it, but also we could see the smaller symptoms that would lead up to a fit (frantically licking the carpet was one...)

It was mostly controlled throughout the second half of his life through medication. The only other thing we did is buy a set of tongs, as he swallowed his tongue first seizure he ever had, and you don't really want to be sticking your hands in there.

Weirdly, our other dog at the time also started having seizures later in life (about 10 years old). He'd be very confused afterwards, but much calmer. Then same thing....snapped out of it.

lightning

Electrical storms seemed to be a contributing factor in ours too.

Electrical storms seemed to be a contributing factor in ours too.

Same here. My Fell Terrier had a strange event few years back during a thunder storm. He went completely rigid and boggly eyed. We stuck him in the car and drove to the Vet. By the time we got there (10 mins) he was right as rain and as keen as ever to introduce himself to all and sundry. Never happened again.

What's the story with epilepsy tablets how many how often and how much, just visiting the vet costs 80 quid these days..