More seizure questions

Peachy has now had three seizure-ish episodes in the last week. I have had two dogs that had seizures, but hers look a bit different. The first day, she fell forward. I thought she was unsteady on her feet because she has the broken hip that was never set and has had knuckling on the other rear leg. She puts so much weight on her front shoulders to compensate that they twitch and are very stiff. As I went to help her up, she lost control of her bladder and was foaming at the mouth. Her body was convulsing, but she never fell over on her side. She panted for a while afterwards, and drank a ton of water. She seemed to have depth perception issues . The second one was a bit different. It started with her tail twitching. Her tail is like a flag pole and goes straight up so the twitching is easy to see. Her back legs started twitching and her back paws knuckled under. It was like she was only having the seizure in her back half. She did lose bladder control and was foaming at the mouth. She never fell over, and remained standing the entire time. The one today was similar to the third one, but I must have caught her right as it was happening because the doorbell rang. As I was holding her to answer the door, her body was very rigid and she started to lose bladder control. I put her down and she could not keep her body up in the back end. She knuckled her back paws and her back legs splayed far part. She was frothing at the mouth and vomited some of her dinner. Again, her tail and back end was twitching more than her front end. She has an appointment Friday for acupuncture, but I don't know if I should cancel it. She just had a senior panel done 2 months ago and the blood work was normal, except for the staph UTI. That was cleared up after 3 weeks of Baytril and she is daily antibiotics now.
Her seizures are not presenting like other seizures I have experienced. She quickly comes out of them and today ran outside to bark at the neighbor's dog at the fence. The only after sign is lots of panting and she wants to be as close to me as she can get. Any ideas?

I wish I could help, I have no experience with this. Hopefully the acupuncture will help some.

The one thing I know about seizures is they can come in a wide variety of types. They certainly sound like grand mal. I hope she's okay. Lots of love to you both.

Aussie Witch wrote:The one thing I know about seizures is they can come in a wide variety of types. They certainly sound like grand mal. I hope she's okay. Lots of love to you both.

Thanks Rona. They have looked like grand mal to me too, but I was hoping someone would say they weren't. I have been keeping notes of the days and times and descriptions and will bring the information with me on Friday. She has had three of these in 1 week. She has fought through so many serious health issues that I finally thought she could enjoy a bit of time of being "healthy". If nothing else, she has known over two years of a warm bed, good food, and lots of love. I am going to continue to make life as wonderful as I can for this delightful oldster. She brings me so much joy.

oh Rebecca, no words of advice, just many hugs for you & Peachy. hopefully the acupuncture will help, and if not I know you'll get her in to see the vet. I hope she has much more time with you!

Tons of hugs to you and Peachy, Rebecca. She is a lovely old girl, and I think the acupuncture is a good idea.

I just spoke to my vet because she wanted me to pick up a black female rescue pug that is at her clinic. After discussing Peachy's three seizures in one week, we decided it would not be in Peachy's best interest to have another dog introduced, and that she was going to call in a prescription for me to pick up tonight. Usually two seizures in a month are a concern, and Peachy has had 3 in 7 days. Peachy still has her appointment with Dr. Jill, the holistic vet on Friday and I will report all of my notes, and how she is doing with the pheno to Dr. Jill. This just stinks.

Of all the things we've dealt with in this house, we've never (thank goodness) dealt with seizures, so I am no help at all. But lots of hugs and prayers for both you and Peachy.

Lots of good thoughts out to you and to Peachy. I don't have enough experience to be helpful. But Rebecca-0-Candace is our expert on seizures. She's on Facebook if you want to shoot her a message. Or I can send you her email.

dieselsmom wrote:Of all the things we've dealt with in this house, we've never (thank goodness) dealt with seizures, so I am no help at all. But lots of hugs and prayers for both you and Peachy.

Ditto this for me.

I hope the pheno helps and the visit with the holistic vet.

I don't have experience with dogs having seizures,but do with my cat. She's also on phenobarbitol 2x a day. I'm not sure if you want my input or not being Miss Stanley isn't a dog.

Trish

Thanks for the good thoughts everyone. Peachy seemed to have a comfortable night after her dose of phenobarb and was up at 4:30 this morning with her tail wagging. Trish, all experience and advice is welcome. Blanche, I can message Candace on FB. Thank you for that input.

I'm so sorry, Rebecca. I somehow missed this! How much does Peachy weigh & what dosage did they put her on with the pheno? I, unfortunately, have plenty of experience with seizures - with Pugsy, Bud, and now Zoe. Every one of them presented differently. Pugsy's were grand mal but few & far enough in between that they never put her on meds. She did pass away in status epilepticus at about 16 years old, though. Bud's were more of the petite mal variety but frequent enough that he was put on 15 mg. of pheno twice a day and they were well controlled until he passed away from cancer this past March. Little 12 pound Zoe is on 30 mg. pheno. three times per day (way too much, imo, but we're closely monitoring her liver values & they're good for now) and also .6 ml of potassium bromide daily, in addition to Chinese herbs & acupuncture. She still has break through grand mal seizures every 2-3 weeks but that's better than the weekly ones that she was having. I don't know how much the acupuncture really helps her seizures, but she definitely enjoys it. You can totally see her relax once the needles are in. I agree with Rona that it sounds like Peachy's are probably the grand mal variety and I hope that the pheno helps her. It really is pretty safe, in my experience. Better than the constant seizures anyhow. If I can help in any way, feel free to message me. Hugs to Peachy!!

I have no experience with seizures, fortunately, but wonder if it would be helpful to keep a video camera/cell phone handy to record the experience so the vet can see exactly what's going on.

I wish I didn't have experience with seizures but I have been dealing with them for a while with Norton. Peachy's episodes definitely sound like grand mals. I contacted Candace as well and I also joined an canine epilepsy board as well. That has been a great source as well. Their site has a wealth of information as well. www.canine-epilepsy.com

I rescued Stanley(vet thought she was a he) at about 6-7 weeks old in my yard and my neighbor's yard. Black birds were swooping down on her and she was a hissing ball of fury and fuzz. I just threw myself on top of her and rushed her to the vet. She had shredded plastic in her ears and was very dirty. I also found out she was blind in one eye. Fast foreward until Stanley came into heat,that's when the seizures started happening. With cats they can come out of heat and go right back into it again,so it took a couple months to get her spayed. The seizures weren't happening that often,but I did treat her with jasmine essential oil,lavender,frankinscence and brainpower under the advice of a holistic vet. I kept track of the seizures and they usually happened at night and were grand mal. She would scream and lose control of her bladder and bowels. The seizures happened a couple times a month and then about six months after she was spayed it was every 7-10 days. I noticed that they also happened either right on the full moon or the day beofre or day after. We also came to an agreement that this happened when her hormones were entering her body(coming into heat)and after they left her body(spayed)I did some reading up on it and this does happen. The seizures were coming once a week and then when they started twice a week,we put Miss Stanley on phenobarbitol. It got worse before it got better with the seizures because of the tweaking with the meds. I found with her,that it was best to split the dosing up to twice a day,instead of just once.
Changes in Stanley were she became very food possessive/agressive. If she wanted something off of your plate,she would jump right on it and growl. The other thing is she started to pull her hair out on her belly and pull at her toes. I had her checked for everything under the sun. This was caused by the phenobarbitol. If Stanley would get ill,it would bring on seizures. If she got very upset,she would have a seizure. She also will growl if you get too close when walking by or reach out and quick bite our ankles. I don't blame this on the phenobarbitol. She is a former feral and with her being blind in one eye,she's bound to get spooked. Thought the dogs are afraid to pass her in hallway. She also had Clara trapped in the bathtub.

Stanley did end up in the ER vet about five years ago. She had a seizure,came out of it and about an hour later had another and kept spinning and screaming. I brought her to the vet and they gave her valium and phenobarbitol and montiored her. I was able to pick her up the follwing day,but later that night I was back in there again with another seizure. They got her stable and I picked her up the following day and was fine. Just groggy. The last seizure she had was last summer and the only thing that was out of the ordinary was she was playing with Nermal.

She's now on 3/4 of 15mg. tabs 2x a day and gets her phenobarbitol levels checked every six months,plus liver and senior panels. She just turned nine and goes in tomorrow for a check up.

What I would suggest for you to do with Peachy is keep a journal. Jot down what time,what date,how long the seizures lasted. Keep track of any changes you notice and what happened that day. Like for ex. did she have a tummy upset and the stress from that brought on a seizure. or possible flea preventative,etc. And just keep her safe (I'm sure you know this)when she is having a seizure and talk in a soothing voice. When Stanley was done having her seizure she would always want to be near our black lab,Gunner and want wet food to eat.

Sorry this is so lengthy!

Trish

Thanks everyone. She hasn't had a seizure in 5 days since starting the phenobarb. She has lost a lot of mobility since her seizure cluster. The holistic vet did acupuncture and chiro care on her but her back was really tweaked. She pulled a muscle in her groin when her legs splayed apart during the third seizure. Since Friday, Peachy has had a hard time maintaining her back legs and needs help to steady herself back up. It has been hard to see her drag her legs. It makes me think of the strength Rachel's Kayla had to keep moving. I have been keeping track of the days and times. Right now there wasn't a pattern: an evening, an afternoon, and a morning. Peachy is on 15mg of Phenobarb 2'x a day. The holistic vet also wanted to make sure I had gel ice packs in my freezer. She said if I can put an ice pack mid-back, it will bring her out of the seizure faster. Thanks for the good thoughts. It is just hard to see the quick loss of mobility.

A relief to read Peachy has not had anymore seizures, sorry to see that she now has mobility issues, I hope she improves.
I have never heard of the gel ice pack trick, I wonder if it works.

Erin wrote:I have never heard of the gel ice pack trick, I wonder if it works.

It does - we use it on Zoe all of the time:

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/icepack.htm

We also give her a little ice cream after a seizure to stabilize her blood sugar levels:

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ice_cream.htm

PugLady3 wrote:

Erin wrote:I have never heard of the gel ice pack trick, I wonder if it works.

It does - we use it on Zoe all of the time:

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/icepack.htm

We also give her a little ice cream after a seizure to stabilize her blood sugar levels:

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ice_cream.htm

We do the same but also give him a dropper of Rescue Remedy. That works to settle him down very quickly. It is so frustrating sometimes thinking that you are doing everything right and then they have a seizure. I have switched Norton to Core Wellness thinking maybe it was grain causing the seizures- no such luck. I don't know at this point which is so typical of epilepsy- it is all trial and error.

Norton's Mom wrote:I have switched Norton to Core Wellness thinking maybe it was grain causing the seizures- no such luck. I don't know at this point which is so typical of epilepsy- it is all trial and error.

Grain free is definitely supposed to be helpful, but I've also heard that rosemary can trigger seizures & it is present in A LOT of dog foods. I was really surprised when I started checking labels for it!

Thanks for the tip about ice cream. I try not to keep in in the freezer because I will eat it, but for Peachy, I would do that. I need to get more rescue remedy. I had it for Clara, but haven't replaced it yet. I will check Peachy's bag of food to see about the rosemary.

You'll also want to look out for melaleuca alternifolia(tea tree oil) and thyme. They both can cause seizures,especially in the essential oil form.

I'm so glad to hear that Peachy is doing well

Trish