MY dog has seizures.

[ButterSticks]

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.

[Zoom]

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

[elegy]

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.

[CrystalP]

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.

[Zoom]

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

[FoxyWench]

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.

[ButterSticks]

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.

[bubbatd]

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 .

[FoxyWench]

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

[huskymom]

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.