sizures in dogs

A

Asguard

Kiss my dark side
Valued Senior Member
im wondering if anyone here knows much about vet med, specifically about dogs.

I have a maltess cross lasa upso and about 2 weeks ago she had a sizure. Now it was a hot day and it had never happened before so i belived it was a simple case of heat stroke, when the sizure stopped i tried to take her temp by ear (because the only other thermomitor i had was my oral one and i DEFINITLY wasnt going to use it for a rectal temp:p) and it read 37.1 but because i felt it was probably inacurate i put her in a cool bath and she seemed fine after that.

Tonight she had another sizure, and this time i happend to be watching her almost from when it started (because she fell off the bed and i herd her). Now if she was human i would classify it as a full clonic tonic sizure because she had the full on flailing around, drooling ect. It lasted aprox 1 min and she apears to be ok now

What i would really like to know is if there is any point in taking her to a vet, i mean alot of times you spend alot of money on vets and they STILL end up putting the animal down because there is nothing they can do.

Firstly

puple responce apeared normal first time but i couldnt check it now suggesting no bleeding in the brain (further more she would already be dead if that was an issue)

No sign of jaundus or cynosis

No residual paralisis suggesting snake bite and again she would already be dead (this was what the vet was most worried about the first time i called)

after the sizure she seems as responcive as ever (which isnt much for this dog)

she is aprox 4-5 years old

I would call a vet but its 2 in the morning
 
Well it could have been heat stroke if she was outside in the heat of the sun and she was very active like running or some thing like that. Or it could be a Brain tumor or some other illness such as epilepsy the later not being as likely due to age that usually shows in the first year or 2 of life in most dogs. But I am not a vet just an avid dog lover I have found that you should not ignore the small things like this as it can be a sign of something even more serious.
 
will get back to this shortly: i'm profoundly epileptic (simple and complex partial mostly, but can't even count the frequency), but more pertinently, i know several epileptic dogs and have dealt with it often.

more later...
 
Asguard said:
im wondering if anyone here knows much about vet med, specifically about dogs.

I have a maltess cross lasa upso and about 2 weeks ago she had a sizure. Now it was a hot day and it had never happened before so i belived it was a simple case of heat stroke, when the sizure stopped i tried to take her temp by ear (because the only other thermomitor i had was my oral one and i DEFINITLY wasnt going to use it for a rectal temp:p) and it read 37.1 but because i felt it was probably inacurate i put her in a cool bath and she seemed fine after that.

Tonight she had another sizure, and this time i happend to be watching her almost from when it started (because she fell off the bed and i herd her). Now if she was human i would classify it as a full clonic tonic sizure because she had the full on flailing around, drooling ect. It lasted aprox 1 min and she apears to be ok now

No residual paralisis suggesting snake bite and again she would already be dead (this was what the vet was most worried about the first time i called)

after the sizure she seems as responcive as ever (which isnt much for this dog)

she is aprox 4-5 years old

I would call a vet but its 2 in the morning
Click to expand...

Have you changed foods? New carpet? Neighbors spraying for bugs?

Heres a page with some good general info on different causes:
http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/Why.html
 
There are many reasons that could cause this reaction in the dog and all are good reasons to take the animal to the Vet.
 
Asguard said:
i put her in a cool bath and she seemed fine after that.
Click to expand...

typically, this is the best way to respond to seizures in dogs: gradually cool their body temperature as much as possible--and the emphasis on the "gradual" part: if you do something drastic, like throwing an ice blanket on them or placing them in an ice bath, you can easily induce another seizure.

and a minute is not uncommon, but anything much longer can lead to serious neurological damage, status epilepticus, or, in rare instances, death.

that she had a second seizure so soon after the first is definitely cause for concern, but keep these things in mind when you visit your vet:

when you put a dog on anticonvulsants, they pretty much must remain on them for life. it is very difficult even to gradually wean a dog from ac's; whereas humans can do it with some success.

also, suppose she's doing just fine on an ac for a couple of months and then one day you forget to give her a dose: the next day she'll be seizing like crazy. ac's effectively raise the seizure threshold, but after prolonged usage the absence of that ac will essentially lower one's seizure threshold drastically--even moreso than where it was prior to the initial administration of the drug.

and finally, the choice of ac's: phenobarbital sucks, but it's cheap and effective; at the same time, paradoxical reactions are common and your dog will either behave like a stoner or like a freakin' belligerent psychopath, minus the charming social skills. the (relatively) newer ones are much better--like sodium valproate (not that new, but still) and carbamezepine; i don't think they use the newer newer ones, like lamotrigine and topiramate, that much in dogs yet--but they can be expensive and dog's metabolize quite differently from humans, so their is a MASSIVE disparity in the recommended dosages per kilogram of body weight, i.e. a 150#/68kg person might take 1500mg of sodium valproate; whereas a 40#/18kg dog might take 6000mg. fortunately, you do not have a mastiff.

hope this helps some, epilepsy in dogs is a frightening thing and the best abortive measures, besides meds, are reducing stress, keeping dogs out of extreme heat or cold, etc. i just recommend careful consideration before putting a dog on an anticonvulsant.
 
um just on cooling, im not stupid. I know quite well how to treat heat stroke because i spend so much time treating it in humans:p the "cool bath" was only luke warm:p
 
Asguard said:
um just on cooling, im not stupid. I know quite well how to treat heat stroke because i spend so much time treating it in humans:p the "cool bath" was only luke warm:p
Click to expand...

sorry, maybe i wasn't clear--i meant that, with respect to seizures in dogs, cooling the body temperature is also one of the best responses.
 
We've been breeding Lhasa Apsos for about 25 years and we've had a couple that had seizures. Doctors haven't been much help. There's obviously bound to be a root cause that's purely medical and probably due to bad breeding, but many environmental factors can greatly exacerbate it.

With the one I have now I have adjusted his diet, including things he's not supposed to eat but eats anyway. I give him food with no preservatives and am careful to avoid food dogs are not supposed to ever have, like pork and chocolate. By process of elimination I discovered that rawhide was a big problem. Not only were people giving him rawhide chew toys, but I had a sheepskin rug and he was quietly eating it.

Since I got that straightened out, his last two seizures were two years apart.

You should own a dog thermometer. You're not going to get a good reading from his ear. Besides, if you sterilize it it's simply clean, and dog poop is hardly the dirtiest thing you'll ever get in your mouth anyway.;)

Dog body temperature does not remain as stable as human, it can vary arbitrarily between 100 and 102F and still be normal. But it only drops below 100 in a pregnant bitch who is going to start whelping within 8 hours. That's how we can tell that it's time to brew the coffee and get the kennel ready.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
You should own a dog thermometer. You're not going to get a good reading from his ear. Besides, if you sterilize it it's simply clean, and dog poop is hardly the dirtiest thing you'll ever get in your mouth anyway.;)
Click to expand...

There's always the option of a good infra-red reader. Spendy, but it avoids the ick factor.

~String
 
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