MY dog has seizures.

He's a six year old Black lab, pure bred, He's had them since we got him... he was about six weeks old. Vets don't know what causes them, we don't know what causes them, they used to be brought on by waking up suddenly, but he just had one that wasn't brought on by anything. Sometimes he can have one, then have another one... the most he had was three in a row.


I just... need to find out of anyone else has something like this, and what I can do to stop it.

Is he on anything for them? Prednisone is usually used to treat them, but it has a lot of rather gnarly side effects...

sometimes there just isn't any way to "know" what causes them. is he on medication? sometimes it's warranted, sometimes it's not. if the seizures are getting worse (more frequent, etc) it may be time to talk to your vet and reevaluate.

the most common medications are phenobarbital and potassium bromide, but there are others. there are a number of good canine epilepsy websites out there, the epil-k9 mailing list is a great resource. Canine Epilepsy and Dog Seizures Table of Contents - Canine Epilepsy Guardian Angels is a good website with a lot of good info.

My dog has seizures, too

My 4 year old Leonberger mix has had seizures for about 3 years. We don't know what causes them, thought it could be his thyroid. He is on medicaiton, but before we got that stabilized, he had cluster seizures. One night, he had six in a row. It was so hard to watch. But, he is on phenobarbital three times a day, potasium bromide twice a day and a thyroid medication twice a day. He still has them once in a while, but not as bad as before. We have to be very careful with what he eats, he eats an all natureal dog food and treats and we have to be careful that he doesn't get alot of table scraps. He is the sweetest dog.

Phenobarb, not prednisone. :doh: I can't keep my own name straight today.

dont medicate unless hes having seizures regularly (at least once a week) seizure medication can have horrible side effects.

my suggestion to you is to keep a DETAILED journal...
write down anything that seems to be happening before during and after a seizure.

anything can trigger a seizure, i had a cat who had seizures every time mum cooked cod! raw cod wasnt a problem, bringin home fihs and chips (cooked cod) not a problem, but if she cooked it in the house...at first we thought it must have been the teflon pan, changed to a stainless, still having them, and it didnt happen when cooking anything else, turned out the small of cod cooking set off his seizures...
my frineds dog couldnt go neer lilies without having a seizure..
hypoglycemia/low blood sugar can cause it...how often per day does he eat?
stress can trigger, light sound, smell ect, heck even something he ate.

my parents cocker is 7 yrs old, a couple months back he had his first (and hopefully only) seizure, it seemed to have no trigger whatso ever when we looked at it at the time, but when we looked back, only 5 minutes before hed been outside to pee and gotten REALY worked up barking and snarling at something...after comming inside he was unsettled and then he had a seizure, the vet thought it was a combination of stress (somehting outside had spooked him) and the fact that hed decided not to eat that day.

good luck, seizures can be scary (im epileptic) but also can be extreemly random.

We've asked about eight vets, none have ever suggested anything because they don't happen often. About on every six or more months. More often when he was younger. This is the second he's had in about a year. From last july, to this July that is.

The thing that bothers me is that he was so young when he started . Please check with vet if they become cluster seizures . Keep track of how often and how long they last .

infrequent is a good thing...
definatly try and keep a journal.

Hi, this is huskymom. I am new to this chat room. I have a 2 yr old siberian husky who started having seizures this past january. He is on 3 different seizure meds, potassium bromide, gabapentin and phenobarbitol. We are presently trying to get him off the pheno. It's a trial and error method. He was having a seizure about every two weeks or less. I recently saw a neurogolist and hopefully she can get solomon regulated. A seizure is a scary thing to watch. It's comforting to know we are not alone.

My 3-year-old Jack Russell had a seizure last evening. He's been extremely healthy and has eaten all kinds of foreign objects since he was a puppy. He was very destructive until age 2 and ate DVD's, stuffing from a comforter, styrofoam, etc., etc., etc., even my husband's seizure pills, but never had any health problems.

I had him and my other dog, a 6-year-old collie/terrier mix (the unhealthy one) outside for about 1-1/2 hours. They roam around and eat grass, leaves and whatever they can find. After I brought them inside, I fed them their raw diet - yesterday was canned mackerel, raw egg and raw chicken liver and gizzard. About an hour after they ate, I heard a ruckus in the living room and went to investigate. Vito, the Jack Russell, was doing something that I can't even describe and I thought he was playing with the other dog. I yelled his name to get him to stop but he didn't and then I could see that he was having a seizure. It seemed to last a very long time and I didn't know what to do. My son tried to pet him and talk to him to get him to calm down, and he bit my son (not hard) and scrambled to get up, had a wild look in his eyes and scrambled ("spinning his wheels" on the laminate flooring) from the living room to my son's room. My husband and son said when he reached the carpeting in my son's room, he seemed okay. He then ran back out to the living room and sniffed (kind of frantically) the area on the floor where he had had the seizure. He was panting, so my husband gave him a drink and then took him outside. He was not lethargic after the seizure at all and played normally and has been okay ever since. We did notice, though, that his nose was warm after the seizure and it's usually cold and wet, which it is this morning.

I was wondering if maybe he ate a toxic plant or something outside that may have caused the seizure. He once ate some weeds I was pulling out of the garden and then acted "high" and "spacy" all evening but has never had a seizure before. I'm hoping it never happens again. I've seen my husband have grand mal seizures and I had a mini schnauzer that had seizures from her congestive heart failure but every seizure, no matter how many you've seen, is always very scary.

yeah, i agree...keep note of when they occur so maybe you can pick up on other patterns and see how often they are , and if they decrease or increase within time. poor dog. Hope everything will be ok and you figure out what causes them

Eating certain things such as plastic or other toxics can definitely cause your dog to have seizures or seizure like episodes.

My mom has a beagle who would have seizures and the vet couldn't figure out why. She got him from a pet shop in the mall (I know) so I figured it was genetic due to bad breeding - even though besides the seizures he looked and acted like a dog who was very well bred.. One day I caught him chewing on a water bottle when I was over and figured out they use to let him play with water bottles because they seemed to be his favorite toy.
So, I went to a different vet and told him about the seizures and suggested they might be from chewing plastic, he told me I was right (in this case). Since they stopped letting him play with things that he can actually tear apart and swallow he hasn't had any seizures and it's been 2 years now.
As for what to do when a dog is having a seizure, NEVER pet it or try to comfort it, the dog doesn't have control of his body and they can suddenly bite etc (your son was lucky he didn't get bit hard AnitaF). You should just make sure the dog doesn't injure himself by running into a wall or something. Grab something soft, like a pillow, and put it in the way of the dog and whatever he might collide with. If he tends to stay in the same spot, just wait it out.
A dog will most likely be pretty tired after the seizure/convulsion so just let him have something to drink and give him some rest.

So, if your vet has ruled out other causes for your dogs seizures and nobody can figure out why they happen. I would watch what goes into his stomach. Good luck.

One of my off-springs had seizures after getting hold of a golf ball . The center is toxic .

I think the Labrador Retriver Club was doing research on epilepsy in Labs. They might be able to give you some info.

The AKC Parent Club of the Labrador Retriever

i have a 3 yr old siberian husky who has been seizing the past 2 years and they r getting much worse they are all happening in the middle of the night now between 2am and 5am she is seizing about every 2 weeks and the last one was 3 in a row with about a 2 hour calm down phase and 9 ccs of valium this last seizure to stop it (it used to be 2-5 ccs) she is on pheno and recently started 2 other meds. my husband wants to put her down they are horrible to watch the vet says we are goin to try these other meds the last one (three in a row) happened yesterday morning and she is acting very strange since then im sad to see other people going thru it too but im so glad i am not alone thank you for your post

You're not Alone Sonya

We currently are in the Same situation with our 3yr old siberian husky however, the difference is the valium dosages do not exceed 1 to 2 CCs per seizure. He is a pure breed male so statiscally he is at higher risk of seizures. He is currently on Pheno and Pot Bromite. My wife and i have been trying to research other possibilities why he is having them more frequent. Keep us posted on what you've tried for your dog. We've also tried feeding raw diet to see if that improves anything but we cant tell any difference and it got pricey. We will stop at nothing to find what will ease his episodes, but we also do not want him to suffer. So until then we are full force looking for suggestions/options. Grand mal seizures are NO Fun to watch.

I send tons of vibes to everyone who posted, especially to sonya37, whose huskies seizures are increasing in frequency.

My border collie who I adopted this past December had his first seizure a few months after living with me. It was characteristic of a simple partial seizure and only involved him becoming still, lips quievering, excessive salvation and his eye's rolling slightly back. He became unresponsive to gentle pushing, saying his name and offering him food and it took him about 5 miniutes after the seizure stopped for him to become responsive.

I work with humans with epilepsy and didn't want to risk the side effects of medication unless they really begun to increase in frequency, which knock on wood they haven't. My vet agreed so at this time he is not on any medication.

I was at a neurologist conference a few months back, and one of the things that stood out the most to me was that after two medications, the success rate of adding any additional medications onto a treatment plan was very small, and yet I know many individuals with various epileptic seizures and seizure frequencies who are on upwards of 6 to 7 different medications.

A percentage of people will never be able to have their seizures controlled by medication and typically this is referred to as intractable epilepsy. I'm not sure if it is similar for dogs but I imagine it may be.

The important thing to know that a seizure itself is not painful, and trying to minimize head thrashing during a seizure (if applicable) can go along way to help prevent injury.