[Amaryllis]

I suffer from seizures. I don't get tonic clonic seizures (flop around on the floor), I get absence (I disappear mentally for 5-10 seconds) and simple partial seizures.

Simple partial seizures are when only one small portion of the brain seizes. I'm awake, aware and capable of interacting, but, depending upon what portion of the brain is seizing, I'm hallucinating or having searing abdominal pain or my heart is racing. This is mostly controlled by medication, but enough medication to entirely stop the seizures is debilitating, so I put up with a certain amount of seizures in exchange for not feeling like death from the medication.

Anyway, as I was working through abdominal pain yesterday, a thought occurred to me. Dogs get tonic clonic seizures, can they get simple partial seizures? If so, what would a dog suddenly assailed by hallucinations or abdominal pain do? A lot of the time, when people say "my dog bit me without warning", they just missed the warning signs, but is it possible there were none?

It's even more suspicious to me when people describe the dog as vicious and totally out of character one second and totally normal the next. Simple partial seizures don't create a post ictal state, at least I've never experienced it. (Post ictal state is basically brain exhaustion from the seizure. You see it after tonic clonic seizures, and the person or dog is very tired, nonresponsive and nervous.) I'm seizing, then I'm totally normal without transition.

I don't know, I just have to wonder.

 

[Pawzk9]

Yes, dogs can have absence seizures - while my epileptic dog never did a seizure that wasn't full out twitching, screaming and urinating, I've seen some interesting videos of them. There's some thought that Rage Syndrome (where dogs viciously attack and then go back to normal, without seeming to realize what they've done) might be a seizure disorder.