Thanks, fellow dog lovers, for any light you might be able to shed on this problem.
Can you ping the dog lovers to this thread, please. I need to tap into some dog-loving wisdom and experience. Thanks so much.
We had a beagle that had seizures. The vet told us it was akin to epilepsy.
There was no harm to the dog. He was just out of it.
We got some doggie barbiturates if we could catch the early warning signs. It happened every three or four months. Nothing linking the events together.
It’s more than likely your dog has developed epileptic seizures. My boxer developed them at about 4 yrs. vet prescribed Phenobarbital to keep her seizures in check mostly.
Are you feeding it anything made in China, including toys or chew bones?
Be careful with the flea stuff. One brand sold over the counter causes seizures in dogs. It is a cheap brand, can’t remember the name. If you can get away with not using it in the fall and winter, I would definitely try. Also, when we bathe our dogs, leaving the shampoo on them for 20 minutes kills the fleas and eggs. We didn’t use flea shampoo, just a dog shampoo that had oatmeal in it for dry skin.
good luck! My basset had diabetes and we gave him insulin twice a day.
I “inherited” my dad’s little dog when she was 8 years old. She had a history of seizures that I somehow never knew about. She had a rash of seizures the year or two after Daddy died, which I later attributed to stress. We settled in together and she would still seize once or twice a year...in clusters for a week/two weeks, then maybe nothing for 18 months. I did not have her on heartworm or flea medicine. She was only 3 pounds and rarely went outside. I did have to treat a couple of times with Comfortis to get rid of fleas, but she wasn’t on anything she took regularly. Some dogs are just prone to seizures.
You need to get to a facility that can perform an MRI upon your dog’s brain and run a myriad of tests to rule out other diseases that cause seizures. There is only so much a veterinarian can do in normal clinics and all diagnoses without the further tests are conjecture. It costs to identify the source correctly and methodically.
One of my dachshunds developed seizures at two yo, they were sporadic but as she aged, they became more frequent and longer duration, finally had to put her on phenobarbital at seven yo, we waited as long as we could. She had a great life and lived until she was fourteen. The 4:50 thing is very odd and I would be looking around for so something that is happening at that time in your home or neighborhood. Here are some things that I think triggered her seizures.
1). Sudden noise, and lights. (How about an alarm clock)
2) Food changes, although my vet said not possible, I think there was a big connection
3) colder weather
4) if you have an electrical fence, get rid of it.
Hope this helps.
As you probably know many people live fairly normal lives with “epilepsy” (known as “seizure disorder” to physicians).There are medications that humans can take which,as I said,allows them to live reasonably normal...if not entirely normal...lives.My guess is that a seizure disorder can be successfully addressed in dogs as well.
If you have any doubts, simply ask for another heartworm product. There are many.
But I do not see why you cannot bring it up with the vet. Tell him you read about it and wondered if there is a problem. Some doctors and vets don’t think about things unless the patient brings it up. Not necessarily “untrustworthy”, just not always thinking, or always aware of all possibilities.
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As for epilepsy, I would be surprised. At 10 your dogs are quite old, and usually epilepsy shows up in youth.
However, if it should be, don’t worry. Pheno as mentioned is very effective. Few cases are so bad they cannot be controlled well. Although, I say this from a human perspective, my dad having suffered for some 60 years now.
Also, listen to vetvetdoug. He actually is a vet.
There are a lot of possible reasons for the seizures. A lot of times a “cause” is never really found (usually results in a diagnosis of epilepsy), but causes can be ruled out. Some of the tests are very expensive. Did your vet ask you questions about what your dog’s eyes are doing during one of her episodes? They should have talked with you about this and the variety of tests available to help diagnose. If you don’t trust your vet, find another one!
The most common extracranial causes of canine seizures are:
hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level)
Since you said she has diabetes, is it possible that her sugar level dropped sharply those three times? You did say they were the same time of day.
Another cause - fleas and internal parasites (hookworm mostly).
Heartgard is one of the more tried and trusted heartworm preventatives. I had to use it in a slow-kill heartworm treatment of a senior rescue lab. I would never skip heartworm medications for either of my dogs after adopting a heartworm positive dog.
For flea control I use K9 Advantix - monthly during heavy tick season, less often in the fall. No reactions and no fleas or ticks.
My mother had a dachshund who had seizures, was on phenobarbital for years and one day she watched him pass a worm - not tapeworm but she didn't know what kind. He never had another seizure and never needed phenobarbital again.
My son’s bulldog has seizures. The dog had them regularly each month. He’s now on phenobarbital and that seems to have broken the cycle. A holistic food source they are using said that Rosemary in dog food can trigger the seizures. They have the dog on pure meats and vegetables and this has helped. They are also working with a holistic vet. No flea meds and they also have other methods of treating him during a seizure. The dog also is on a valium suppository. Not sure this helps because of the breeds.
Our 4 year old Border Collie began having seizures about 6 months ago - first starting after a Hearguard dose...we stopped those and bought an automatic feeder that we set feedings for three times a day (instead of once) with the same amount of food.
He will have seizures still, but not as often and usually when he’s too over-active.
A cold pack on his spine will calm him down quicker and stop reoccurring episodes, which he had at first.
I had two Irish Setters, litter mates, male and female. The male developed seizures at about two years old. The female never developed them. The male lived under medication (Phenobarbital) until he was about 12. It was scary when he had seizures, not dangerous to me or my wife, but he couldn’t see where he was going and a 130 lb. dog wandering around and running into things was dangerous for him.
Here is a web site that I found very helpful in understanding what was going on.
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/
I wish you good luck with you dog.