What does a dog seizure look like?

[Pomp]

Is it violent? Can you wake a dog up when he/she's having one?

[Athebeau]

It just depends on the level of the seizure...some dogs have had seizures and the owners are not even aware of it.

There are basically 2 types of seizures;

A grand mal where the dog falls on her side and has uncontrollable muscle activity like kicking legs, salivation and may urinate and have a bowel movement. The dog is unaware of you, her surroundings or her own actions.

The other type of seizure is a Petit mal which doesn't result in convulsions, but the animal loses consciousness...it may look like she jsut collapsed.

When I have been present during a seizure I usually just wait it out and make sure the dog is safe from hitting up agaist anything. In one really severe seizure with an old dog the dog never recovered from the 1st seizure and just keep going into seizure after seizure...when I called the vet they advised me to just keep popping phenobarb into the dogs mouth...she eventually came out of it. The dog had a history of violent seizures, so, when I called the dogs vet he was not surprised at all...now, if this had been a first time and was this horrible that dog would have been rushed to the vet pronto.

[bubbatd]

Well put ,Athe . It's scary when they progress into the Grand Mal. If your dog awakens when you're patting it, he's just having a bad dream.

[sparks19]

A golden Retriever we had when I was a child had bad seizures all the time. The best thing you can do for them is just talk them through it. I know people say they aren't aware of whats going on but I know when children have seizures they are very aware of whats happening and can hear you talking to them. Just be soothing and gentle when you speak. Then go to the vets

[Pomp]

Thanks for the all the info.

I was a little concerned because of my dogs tends to twitch and make little noises in his sleep. He wakes right up when I pet him, so I just wanted to make sure. I guess he's just dreams.

[bubbatd]

Awww !!!! He's running through the fields and having fun !! Now that you know, let him dream on !! The only time I woke up my pups was when it seemed more like a night mare !

[smkie]

i think he is dreaming..seizures there is a better term but i am not all here today can run the full range from a spacey look for a few seconds..where you cannot get their attention to the full out fall, and urinate..very scary for them as well as you.

[PFC1]

My dog runs in his sleep. Its funny. He also has had at least two grand mal seizures. Not funny. You will know the difference.

The dog will not resond to anything during a grand mal seizure. I just try to talk him through them. When he regains conciousness, he is very very disoriented. He seemed very scared. He even seemed to have been afraid of me at first until he regained his bearings, so be careful. I could see a scared dog coming out of a violent seizure biting out of fear. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, he was pretty much back to his normal self. I think it probably was worse on us watching him go through it than on him, though.