Canine seizures

Does anyone have experience with canine seizures? My one year old Cocker had one a week ago and then a smaller one yesterday. All his blood work came back normal so we don't have a clue what caused it. the meds scare me to death. Any advice?

In most cases you will not find the cause ... I have a 8.5 yr old epileptic dog now... he takes phenobarbital 2 times a day and different herbal and natural aids

Sharky did he go a long time before you put him on meds? I've read that the Pheno is so hard on the liver and it scares me to death. What herbs and stuff are you giving him?

... I have only had him 7 months and he has been on the pheno at least 3 yrs so far all blood work is normal ... soon we will start reducing the dose ... he get standard process liver support and chinese tea pills plus others as needed

diet in his case plays a huge role ... when I got him he threw one grand mal a week now he has not seized in about 2 months ... GRAIN FREE

My 8 1/2 year old toy poodle has been having seizures since he was about a year old and has been on phenobarbital and doing well with it. We usually give him one pill everyother day and he does fine.

Thanks Keisha and Sharky

twokatz, that can be scary, I know. I don't have any experience with seziures in dogs, but our Monster started having seizures when she was about 6 months old. It started out with major drooling and twitches and after a few hours she went into a full blown seizure. Here, it turns out she found and played with the only ant trap we didn't throw away when we brought her home.

Now, according to the vet, every animal (humans included) is able to have a seizure, but each individual has their own tolerence level. They can be caused by something ingested, stress, lack of sleep, medication, any number of things. Seizures isn't a sickness, it is a symptom of something else and it could be a one time thing or something permenant. Heck, even I had a seizure one time when I was dehydrated and over heated. It can happen to anyone, and permanant medication isn't always the one answer.

Since his blood work came back fine, that is a good thing. You may want to talk to your vet about getting a prescription for mild valium. And, if he has another one start keeping notes about everything...what he ate, what he was doing, even the weather patterns. Valium alone didn't help Monster because there was some brain damage from the ant trap (and there were things in the blood work indicating that) which lowered her seizure threshold. But, we have realized that if there is a drastic drop in barametric pressure it will set her off (ie, a sudden rain storm or even heavy snow flurries). I have NO idea why, but if we see a storm coming we have to give her pheno and a valium. Also, if a lot of people are going to be around, she gets valium because she doesn't deal well with stress and it's best for her to just sleep through it.

But, this is worst case scenerio. I would talk to your vet again and see what he suggests and see if you can get some doggie valium just in case. Hopefully it was just a freak thing and not a permanant condition.

Thanks Calico. He had the first one (that we know of) a week ago before breakfast and we decided it may be low blood sugar. We live in Utah and we took him back to the breeder in Colorado yesterday as he is registered for 3shows this month, he had another one just as we got there so now I wonder if excitement plays a part. She is going to have her vet check him out good, he may not go to the shows. He also had Metronidazole and we didn't go to our regular vet and the vet gave him a higher dose than is good. Like you said who knows. And yes it is scary and heartbreaking. I hope your kittly stays stable and thanks for sharing.

My Charlie boy has seizures and is on phenobarbitol twice a day, he has bloodwork done every year and so far everything is fine. He still has seizures but they are milder, and shorter. He is the sweetest thing in the world and it breaks my heart.

How is he doing

Wow I am so sorry to hear that!

If at all possible, try to catch it on video. Sometimes the vet can make a better judgement as to what is going on if they can see it.

Good luck!

My Dalmatian was epileptic the last few years of her life. She lived to be just about 15 years old and I grew up with her. We let her go for a very short time without putting her on medications. It was just far to said to see her go through that trauma. Sadly the medications don't completely stop the seizures from happening, but it cut back on the number of seizures she had, probably once every couple weeks. She lived for at least three years on the medications. We ended up putting her down my Jr. year of high school because she was extremely old for a Dalmatian and was developing all sorts of health problems. The main concern was water around her heart and extreme arthritis that pain medications could no longer control.

This picture she was about 13 years old.

Our youngest Cocker is epileptic.. thankfully, his is a pretty mild case so far. He is not on any medications, and only has a seizure every few months or so. We've only had to change a few things.. mainly his grooming appointments. He gets his bath the night before and goes in later in the day so he can be done right away and get back home. He really stresses out if he has to stay in the cage waiting for long, and that can trigger him.

When I was younger we had a cocker that was epileptic. We found that what set her off was if she was hit on the head. I know that sounds awful, but we figured it out playing fetch with her. She had a bad habit of getting in front of the ball and watching it bounce off her head =/ I want to say she had a few others that we don't know what they were caused by, but she was able to be without any medicine b/c we were able to figure out what caused it.

Thanks for all the replies. The latest update is he may not have seizures, I hope! The breeder was scheduled to take him for a month or so to show him and after he had that first attack she requested we bring him to her anyway so she could have her vet watch him and check him out. I sent all his records to her vet and a detailed description of what happened. She called it something else and said it was probably a reaction to some type of infection he picked up at a dog show he had just gone to. He came home with diarrhea and not quite up to snuff, he was on Metronidazole and it could have been a reaction to that too. He has been fine and so this weekend the breeder is showing him along with his sister He is doing fine and having a good time playing with the kids and other dogs. I hope the vet is right and all will be well. We miss him but he is on vacation, today he's visiting Mt. Rushmore so he is having a better time than us and his brother is missing him to.