Seizure Disorders and Epilepsy

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Comment by tom bold on February 28, 2013 at 11:56am

I have a 4 yr. old Labradoodle named Sherman.   Sherman started having seizures at a year and 8 months.  The seizures started with vommiting, followed by a short period of disorientation, then running in circles for a few seconds, then collapse with violent body movements and foaming at the mouth and snapping lasting from 20 seconds to 2+ minutes. 

 

Blood work taken within hours of the seizures showed no problems.  I never used any medication since the seizures were usually more than a month apart.  The vet did give me sedative pills for post seizures.  But I never used them.

 

Sherman has gone a year+ without a seizure.  His last seizure was Feb. 23, 2012. 

 

-  He had a total of 10 seizures from June 2010 (1 year 8 months old) to February 2012 (3 years and 4 months old) .  -  Average number of days between seizures was 68, shortest was 15 and longest was 109 days.

-  Seizures seemed to be linear in time.(Correlation R^2 was .984). 

-  His worst seizure was his first.  His mildest was the one that occured 15 days after the previous seizure.

 

Comment by Mary on December 9, 2012 at 1:25pm

Susan,

 I have a mini Labradoodle who had her first seizure at age 7 months. She had every test known to mankind, seen a neurologist, had a brain MRI and her seizures are idiopathic. I found out that her dad had seizures. She is now going to be 5 years old tomorrow 12/10 and still continues to have seizures. We had exhausted every seizure medication there is- she is currently on phenobarb and Zonisamide twice a day. Still has a seizure at least weekly or sometimes more that 1 a week. There is no other medication combination for her. We had her on keppra for a few months and she had over 200 seizures while on it. It did nothing for her. I know how you feel as I dealt with her seizures for 5 years now, even tried acupuncture, worked for awhile, then she had a big one and had to be hospitalzed. Belive it or not, she is a therapy dog and is very good at making people happy.  I would love to chat with you on this subject because it's going to be an ongoing thing for us but we will never give up!! I look for new things/research every day and for new medications, but they tell me there is not enought research done for dogs with seizures. DON'T GIVE UP! Please don't hesitate to e-mail me to discuss. We have good days and bad days, and the vet keeps telling us "she is one tough cookie." We alomost lost her a couple of times and she pulls through every time!  mgillam@ptd is my e-mail address.

  Mary

Comment by LucyR on September 27, 2012 at 12:37pm

Just want to say one more thing....I think that mild neurological symptoms after HW medications may be largely underreported.  As in Ozzie's case, the syndrome is quite subtle and might not be noticed by some owners.  It would be very good to have people observe their doggies very carefullly after HW meds and note any changes in behavior, no matter how small they may seem!

Comment by LucyR on September 27, 2012 at 12:34pm

Thanks Andy,  I am suspecting as much.  The vet is not on my side with this, which is kind of frustrating.  I guess the issue is in identifying the type of "seizure" that he experiences.  Right now, the syndrome is temporally associated with the 3rd dose of HW medicine.  But it's hard to put a label on the syndrome, since it involves staring up at the sky and looking around for something up there.  It's almost a permutation of "fly-biting" without the biting!  At any rate, I am not giving the meds anymore.  We just don't have mosquitoes here and I am not close to either standing water or livestock.  I would be surprised if he seroconverted but at least we will be able to pinpoint it if he does.  As I understand, it takes about 6 months for detectable disease to develop after initial "inoculation."  I hate this, but I am not going to risk continued neurologic damage to Ozzie!

Comment by Andy&Sharon BoomerShaynaMariner on September 27, 2012 at 10:14am

Lucy -

There is  a connection between the Heartworm meds and seizures.  They can and do lower the seizure threshold in some dogs.  This can be especially an issue when given at the same time as flea and tick topicals.  Remember you are giving your dog small doses of poison. 

Comment by Gayle,Sophee & Baylee on September 27, 2012 at 8:16am

Hmmm this is all kinda scary. Since I have only had Sophee a month almost i am not sure of any of this. She is due to take her heartworm meds and now i'm kinda scared to give it to her. We are waiting to close on our house and we do have woods n such by us and i feel i have to give it to her but just kinda scary. She has only had 1 seizure in about 5 months and it tears me up! I slept on the floor with my poor baby for 2 days till she returned to herself. I hope you find the solution...you may be totally right not off track at all...good luck! keep us posted!

Comment by Gayle,Sophee & Baylee on September 27, 2012 at 8:11am

Comment by John Scipione on September 27, 2012 at 3:19am

Lucy,

I haven't witnessed this type of behavior with Dooley, but I have read online that there is a possible link with seizure activity and heart worm medication.  As a matter of fact, Dooley's last seizure occured the day after we gave him his meds for heart worm (Heart Guard).  That was the last one before we started him on phenobarb, as they were increasing in frequency.  We didn't switch from heart guard though.   

Comment by LucyR on September 26, 2012 at 7:53pm

Ozzie appears to have developed some sort of sensitivity to heartworm meds.  He was on Revolution for 7 years, then vet recommended a switch to Trifexis.  After 3 mos he developed a "fear" syndrome that was characterized by staring into the sky.  I switched to Interceptor, but the symptoms persisted.  Took him off of meds for 3 months and the symptoms resolved.  In August we restarted Revolution since he had been OK with that preventive for most of his life.  After 3 months, the same symptoms began...looking up at the sky, afraid to go in the yard, fearful on walks.  A post on the Zoo this morning brought up the topic of "fly-biting" syndrome as a form of focal epilepsy that was likely to be associated with hallucinations.  Here's how I connected the dots in my mind...Ozzie's neurologic reaction to HW meds has precipitated some form of focal epilepsy, characterized by staring at the sky in a hallucinogenic state.  All of these HW meds contain structurally related compounds so they are related in the various products but differ in modfication of a ring structure-probably for patenting purposes.  The vet is no help, but I am convinced that HW is the precipitating factor since the symptoms recurred almost within hours of his 3rd dose of Revolution.  My question is..has anyone seen any type of neurologic reaction after HW meds?  Am I completely off base here?  Vet feels it is a behavior issue and has suggested Clomicalm...but I don't agree with that at all since the symptoms resolve when he is distant from meds.  We are stopping HW meds altogether (AVA) since we are not in a high incidence HW area, but will do semi-annual testing.

Comment by John Scipione on September 13, 2012 at 5:04pm

Gayle,

Your Sophee (and Baylee) are lucky to have such a loving Mama.

Not all drugs do, but I wonder if either the phenobarb or bromide come in a suppository form.  Anyone else know?  Probably not the preferred route by pup or parent, but probably just as effective. 

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