Seizure- Help!

Crazy for Collies · 05-14-2008, 04:47 PM

Well, last night I had a very scary expierience. I'll start by giving some background information...

About 4 weeks ago, my mom and I were out shopping when my brother called. He seemed frantic, and said Angel was slobbering really bad and acting like she was running except that she was not going anywhere. He thought she had rabies or something, but my mom and I calmly assured him that she was vaccinated. We both thought he was overexaggerating, which he sometimes can do. My mom dropped me off at a friend's house and that was that.

Well, she came home and was astounded at the amounts of slobber on the floor. She still thought maybe she had got something caught in her mouth or something, but she looked online and found out it might be a seizure.

So, last night we were all just hanging out, and Angel was asleep in her kennel. All of a sudden we hear this really loud scrabbling noise and run to her kennel. She's there, her eyes are huge, slobber is litterally gushing out of her mouth, and her legs are acting like she's running. She was like that for about 3 minutes while we coddled her, and then she all of a sudden stopped. She wasn't aware of anything that was going on, and her eyes were still huge. In about 5 minutes, she was back to normal, except that she couldn't move her back left leg. I looked online, and we found out that we should give her some honey to get her blood sugar up, so we did. A little while after she ate the honey, she could move her back leg again and was back to normal, although a little disoriented.

There are many things that could be causing it: Border Collies can have epilepsy, although it is pretty rare, low blood sugar, change in food (which we did), etc. She has a vet appointment today later this afternoon, so I'm hoping that will shed some light on it. In the meantime, anybody have any advice or suggestions?

ChrissyBz · 05-14-2008, 04:52 PM

I've been there. It's scary.

We have never found a trigger for Cassies seizures. Luckily they're infrequent. There are some other people here with more exp than me.

At the top in dog health, you'll find a sticky with a lot of good advice.

cshellenberger · 05-14-2008, 07:54 PM

Glad to hear you've made the Dr's appt BEFORE you came on the forum, many do not and expect us to diagnose for them.

I know this is a scary time, so know you have support here what ever the diagnosis.

ChrissyBz · 05-14-2008, 08:06 PM

True Carla.

and I just thought, you may want to ask your vet about getting some valium. Intra nasal or rectal. I've been told it can break a seizure.

As can a cold cloth laid on the back of the neck. I haven't had the chance to test this fortunately, as Cassie hasn't had one since I found out.

Also, you may want to ask about getting your dog titered for ehrlichia as that is one of the many ways it can present. And if you do, insist on a titer. My vet considers the snap test useless in diagnosis. In her opinion is a dog snaps positive the disease is usually advanced. All of our 6 titered positive but snapped negative.

We think that the ehrlichia is the possible origin of her seizures. Not the trigger tho.

Shalva · 05-15-2008, 08:58 AM

couple things :

blood work should be done within 12 hours of the seizure if you hope to find anything chemically going on....

breyers vanilla ice cream or another type of natural ice cream is very good for getting blood sugar back up as compared to the honey.

cold cloth or ice pack across the eyes will work well to help end a seizure a bag of frozen peas or corn works well.

intra nasal or intra rectal valium..... its in a syringe wtihout a needle you just put it in their nose or butt to end a seizure that you think is lasting to long.... I usually wait about a minute before resorting to using it....

get any and all other dogs out of the house or into a crate, they could attack a seizing dog.

start keeping track of the seizures what your dog eats, and how he is acting.... also be aware of how often your dog seizes.... and whether he clusters (has more than one seizure in a 24 hour period)

DO NOT get in your dogs face during or after a seizure and DO NOT put anything in his mouth.....

and yes a full thyroid panel.... FULL thyroid panel and full Tick panel is definitely in order.....

there is a great email list for siezure prone dogs and it is located on my dog cuinns page on my website as well as on the sticky post about epilepsy at the top .

good luck
s

heidiann · 05-15-2008, 10:07 PM

Oi! I've been there...

Topaz is our Epilepsy pup. If you read his blog (link in my signature) you can see what we've gone though with him.

Good to get to the vet and I agree with all Shalva has said. She's been a great help to me as well.

Let us know what the vet says. It's not easy to watch, but if they're able to be controlled then your pup can have a normal life!

Motebi · 05-16-2008, 08:34 AM

My standard poodle had a seizure once and it's a truly scary experience.

You may want to read this article:

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-...tonin_info.htm

heidiann · 05-16-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motebi

My standard poodle had a seizure once and it's a truly scary experience.

You may want to read this article:

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-...tonin_info.htm

We give Topaz Melatonin at night. It seems to help...however, he's not seizing at different times as well.

devinzbaby · 05-19-2008, 06:59 PM

my dog amy has seizures too every so often. But shes never had one in the winter or early spring. Amy has them around this time through september. And i find with her the warmer it is, or the warmer her body gets, the more she has them. Maybe that affected it a little?

Bella~Lugosi · 05-22-2008, 08:01 PM

My pup just had a seizure for the first time last night. It was a first for the both of us and boy was it scary! I have never seen that happen to a dog before.
I immediately called the Vet and he talked me through what was going on and to make sure the pup was going to be OK. I had to monitor him for the rest of the night to make sure that he didn't have anymore and then bring him in to the office 1st thing in the morning. So of course I used this computer as my vice to find out as much info as I could, while I had to stay up with my pup Lugosi. I didn't really find to much info of what it could be except for epilepsy. So I then contacted the breeder that I got Lugosi from and waited to hear back from him. So then I started to try and find things out about Frontline. Because that was the only thing that we did that morning to him. I look at the box and it said that it could be dangerous if swallowed. but that was it.....nothing about what the outcome could be or what could poss. happen! That's bogus don't ya think.
Anyway.....At the Vet: He didn't seem to worried about the Frontline approach. he sad that that stuff does not "usually" cause these kinds of problems. And then he said that Lugosi was to young of a pup to have developed epilepsy(he is only 6mo) already. So he thinks that he got into something toxic. So now, since we have been home, I have been looking EVERYWHERE trying to find what he could have possibly gotten into! I'm stumped. Does anyone have any suggestions???????
I am so scared for him

We get the blood work back tomorrow already, but the Vet said that the results wont tell you what he got into, it just tells ya what & if Lugosi has any long term organ damage.
Someone please give me some good news.....
Thanks for your input.