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Looking for experiences with epilepsy/seizures

3K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  Magwart 
#1 ·
Last Friday night, I had to rush Keeta, 10 yrs old, in to emergency for seizures. She ended up having cluster seizures, went into shock, and the vet wasn't even sure if she was going to make it to morning. Blood work was normal and didn't pinpoint any internal organ problems of toxicity. X-rays were taken, and part of the abdomen cavity was showing a strange haziness which disappeared in follow-up x-rays the next day. Vet even did an ultrasound, but no organ abnormalities or tumors were found.

She was shot up full of Valium, and kept seizing, so she got a shot of phenobarbital, and that seemed to do the trick. We've done follow-up more in-dept bloodwork and urine analysis, and she is healthy as a horse! There is no explanation for why she went into shock, other than the severity of the seizures, but she has not had seizures, not even minor tremors all week since being on phenob.

The phenobarbital is making her very tired, very groggy, very unsteady, desperately thirsty, and incontinent. She does have spay incontinence that she had since she was around 2 years old, but it was kept under control with her raw diet. I know there is usually a 2 to 3 week adjustment period for her body to get used to the phenobarbital, so I'm hoping the fatigue, the constant thirst, and the incontinence will all resolve themselves in the next two weeks or so.

So I'm looking for other stories of apparently healthy dogs developing epilepsy - if anything inducing the seizures was found or not, how your dog responded to phenobarbital, how long the side-effects lasted, and how your dog has been doing long-term.

Have to say I was very impressed with the vet clinic - all the vets in my town (80,000), take turns being on call for emergency. I didn't know this vet, but she stayed the night at the clinic to watch Keeta, and the vet tech that was called out came by the next day on her day off just to see how Keeta was doing. I was very moved by their concern for my old girl. :)
 
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#5 ·
castle, in people it it is all a matter of dosage. i am sure your vet did a neuro check which can be pretty accurate. sometimes dosage is cut back until a seizure occurs and then add a little more. actually with people and and all the ne drugs it is abit mor than trial and error. i am hopeful you will still have good years ahead with your pal.
 
#6 ·
It's is nearly unheard of for a 10 year old dog to have epilepsy. At that age seizures are generally caused by something else. Toxin, tumor, endocrine disirder(thyroid). Not sure what bloodwork they did, but if they did not check her thyroid, I would at least have that done.

The most likely cause is a tumor. The phenobarbital will control the seizures, until it doesn't. If it is a tumor, eventually it will grow to a size that even phenobarbital can't control.

I am very sorry your poor girl is going through this. Seizures are terrifying.


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#8 ·
It's is nearly unheard of for a 10 year old dog to have epilepsy. At that age seizures are generally caused by something else. Toxin, tumor, endocrine disirder(thyroid). Not sure what bloodwork they did, but if they did not check her thyroid, I would at least have that done.

The most likely cause is a tumor. The phenobarbital will control the seizures, until it doesn't. If it is a tumor, eventually it will grow to a size that even phenobarbital can't control.
I didn't know that epilepsy is dogs does not just spontaneously develop later in life. Can it develop like this for no reason in humans?

I'm not quite conversant in medical/blood work protocol, but the blood work did look for kidney and liver failure, red and white blood cell count (and types of white blood cells). I did ask for copies of the results, so I can refer to them with some guidance as to what I'm looking at. A few people on message boards have mentioned the thyroid levels, so this does seem something to check into.

Brain tumor - possibility of this was discussed. We'd need an MRI which as mentioned won't be easy to get. At this point if the medication keeps her seizures under control, we'll just go by quality of life before deciding on the next step. I just can't see brain surgery done on a dog - is it done? Not sure if I would consider it, especially at her age.

Hi Castlemaid,

My dog is on phenobarbital. For the most part, we have had really good seizure control on it. We had to adjust the dosage once as his levels had fallen below the recommended therapeutic range. In terms of side effects, when we first started with the phenobarbital, I noticed some increase in appetite and thirst as well as very slight ataxia for the first week or so… since then, nothing really.

Given the severity of Keeta’s seizure event - and that fact that the valium shot did not work - I suspect the vet gave Keeta a loading dose of phenobarbital. Loading doses are designed to quickly bring the pheno level up to the therapeutic range. Dogs who are given the loading dose often have much more pronounced side effects as the initial dosage level is higher than what the dog would need once the pheno level is within the therapeutic range. I think that the side effects you are seeing now will significantly diminish, if not disappear, once the dosage is adjusted to maintenance levels and the dog adapts to the medication.

Wishing you and Keeta all the best.
Thank you for this! Just getting this kind of feedback really helps.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Hi Castlemaid,

My dog is on phenobarbital. For the most part, we have had really good seizure control on it. We had to adjust the dosage once as his levels had fallen below the recommended therapeutic range. In terms of side effects, when we first started with the phenobarbital, I noticed some increase in appetite and thirst as well as very slight ataxia for the first week or so… since then, nothing really.

Given the severity of Keeta’s seizure event - and that fact that the valium shot did not work - I suspect the vet gave Keeta a loading dose of phenobarbital. Loading doses are designed to quickly bring the pheno level up to the therapeutic range. Dogs who are given the loading dose often have much more pronounced side effects as the initial dosage level is higher than what the dog would need once the pheno level is within the therapeutic range. I think that the side effects you are seeing now will significantly diminish, if not disappear, once the dosage is adjusted to maintenance levels and the dog adapts to the medication.

Wishing you and Keeta all the best.
 
#9 ·
Look for t4. On her bloodwork. That's the most common thyroid value. Although if suspected I would get a full thyroid panel done, it gives lots of values for lots if the cascade.

Toxins can sometimes be ruled out with basic chemistries, but if it's suspected, then Special tests need to be done.

Yes. There is brain surgery on dogs. But is not done often.

I think you are on the right track with keeping her comfortable, getting her used to the meds and giving her a good quality if life. Phenobarbital can be tough to get used to, but must dogs do.

Keep some vanilla ice cream on hand for post seizure periods(old wives tail, but people swear by it),

Good lyck


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#10 ·
When Banshee had her first seizure, the vet told us the most likely diagnosis was a brain tumor. If it is you'll see signs such as loss of balance, head tilting to one side.

Here's the problem with diagnosing thru an MRI. First, they are extremely expensive. Second, if there is a tumor then what is the treatment for a senior dog.

I'm very sorry you and Keeta are going thru this. We treated the symptoms. Curcumin for anti-tumor properties and inflammation. There were a couple other things we were giving her but I can't remember. She went several months seizure free and then went into clusters in the middle of the night. If you search for the thread I created about Banshee and seizures Ugavet had given several suggestions for meds that were better than pheno.
 
#11 ·
Lucia, so sorry about Keeta. At her age I would think it is something more than eplilepsy. I hope this was a one time event. Keep her hydrated/electrolytes up. Sometimes dehydration from exercise or stress trigger episodes of clusters.
 
#12 ·
My mix suddenly started having seizures at 7 months old, we ruled out blood sugar and her thyroid and all that stuff so the vet said idiopathic epilepsy. She's been on phenobarbitol for 6 months, her side effects were bad for about 3 weeks. She is also incontinent but she was born with it, so that was pretty awful. It slowed down after the 3 weeks though, and she's been acting normal ever since. No seizures, either :)
 
#14 ·
Glucose should be something that is checked in a general bloodwork profile. It is also something that they could spot check when she came in having seizures like that. Insulinomas are a real pain, but if her glucose is normal, that is easily ruled out. Also the ultrasound not showing masses on her pancreas is also a good indicator.

Sadly as others have said, I would expect a brain tumor more than epilepsy at her age. Pheno can help for a time to keep the seizure threshold at bay, but eventually it stops working. They do at times do surgery for brain tumors, but it would depend on the tumor and if it was something that could easily be removed versus something that is deeper within the brain. Radiation or chemo could be an option if it is inoperable, however as you pointed out it needs an MRI with contrast to be diagnosed and at that point if it is that, you are looking at spending a decent amount with everything involved.

Most people opt to treat the seizures like we would if a younger dog suddenly developed them without a metabolic reason behind them. There is nothing wrong with that, it often helps for a period of time before things get too far along. I wish you and your girl the best of luck with this. <3 I am glad to hear that she responded to the anti-seizure medications. Some days when they go into clusters, we can never get past them. Even putting them under general anesthesia for a time to let the brain "reset" does not always have a guarantee. :( It can be very frustrating.
 
#15 ·
Hi, just doing a search and came across this post.

Wolfgang seized 4 times in June, totally out of the blue at age 6 1/2. We did full blood work and then went to get the MRI, spinal tap... Everything came back negative (thank god) - so pretty much by process of elimination its epilepsy.

He's responding well to the pheno - thankfully he takes his pills like a champ. We're staying on top of the liver levels every 6 months so I'm just hoping our boy will continue responding well!
 
#17 ·
We had a senior foster dogs come to us in rescue with a seizure disorder. She seized as you describe, with a cluster of very bad seizures one night. We ruled out metabolic causes. After the e-vet did a loading dose of phenobarb by injection (as Riley described), her seizures were well controlled by twice daily phenobarb pills.

She was old and wobbly to begin with, so I didn't notice side effects (I actually thought she got better, over time). The hardest thing about the medicine for us was making sure there was always someone home in the evening in time to give her the PM pill exactly 12 hours after the AM pill. A few times we had to board at the vet's clinic for the evening to make sure she got medicated on time, as we had evening commitments and didn't have someone who could help us.

We are now going on year knowing this dog. She was adopted and is doing great -- no more seizures. There's regular blood work to check the levels though. She's a very happy geriatric dog who loves life. The meds don't get in the way of that, at least for her.
 
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