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Grand Mal Seizures

14K views 111 replies 34 participants last post by  Azgs 
#1 ·
I'm at the emergency vet. Sitting in the waiting room. My dog collapsed and had a grand mal seizure this morning. Then a second seizure while en route to the emergency vet.

Not sure what caused it yet. He has slightly elevated body temperature.

Anyone else dealt with this?

*I know seizures can have a wide variety of causes... just beside myself with worry and want to make sure I annoy the vet and ask about every possible angle. :(
 
#2 ·
Oh no! How old is your dog? Any recent flea/tick Meds? Any plant injection? Mushrooms in the yard?

Seizures will CAUSE an elevated temperature too. But a fever from infection can as well. Has he been feeling ok otherwise?
 
#3 ·
He's 18 months. No flea and tick or any other meds. Hasn't eaten anything that wasn't food, though he is a "grazer" outside. But we've been in a drought so there aren't any greens or mushrooms for him to eat. Went through the house to see if there was any evidence of an accidental poisoning - nothing turned up. I even counted my perscriptions to see if there was a dropped pill or something but all my numbers added up.

He has had a mild case of conjunctivitis, just a little eye goop in the left that we were letting run its course. He has been a bit more restless the past few days. A little whiney,clingy, and wanting to play a lot more than usual. Thought it was because I hadn't exercised him as much as normal this week. I did pass that info to the vet. Didn't get the impression he thought it was relevant.

They're doing a full blood panel to start. It's really busy in here. Lots of pups got into turkey carcasses I guess. They dosed him with phenobarbital, but I think his blood work keeps getting pushed back because more dire cases are walking in. I've been here over an hour now...

Just want to make sure he isn't in organ failure or something :(
 
#5 ·
The whiny restlessness could have been a pre-Ichtal period. They know something is wrong inside.

I hope he is ok and the Meds stop the seizures. Has he had anymore?

Yes, vet techs call today Brown Friday. Due to all the GI issues.
 
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#6 ·
Oh, so sorry. My 10 year old dog started having seizures and in the end it turned out they were due to a fungal infection "Valley Fever". Any chance of something similar in your area, as far as fungal?

The titers are often inconclusive until too late, best to go for a PCR. If there is any chance it is fungal. It wouldn't be Valley Fever, but there are other fungal infections native to your region you might want to research. They tend to cross the "blood brain" barrier fairly easily and result in siezures.

I hope it's just something minor.
 
#12 ·
Sorry this happened, hope they can find a cause and possible solution. Do you have other dogs in the home? I only ask as some can act aggressively to a dog who is having a seizure. Found this out the hard way.



Were they able to treat the fungal infection? and were there any further seizures?
 
#13 ·
Blood work came back. He has slightly elevated white counts. The vet isn't sure if it's related to the seizure or if it's from the slight congestion and conjunctivitis he has... Everything else is within normal ranges. So the lack of kidney and liver involvement has pretty much ruled out poisoning. They did a few antibody tests... but nothing yet. No dietary deficiencies either (they were concerned it could be a possibility because I do home made instead of kibble...)

I gave the go ahead for an MRI and spinal fluid analysis.

Concerned about enchepalitis. Need to rule out a brain infection.

He's staying over night and probably most of tomorrow. Maybe longer depending on results from the aforementioned tests.

Thank you for the well wishes everyone!
 
#19 ·
Thank you everyone for your concern and questions. I've got a list going to discuss with the doctors.

I got an update this morning, and he's not doing too well. He still has a fever, now he has nausea, has been vomiting, and was described as "very withdrawn".

Not sure if these are new symptoms of what ever is wrong or if he is experiencing side effects from the drugs they've been using...
 
#21 ·
This really sounds like a toxin exposure or an infection. Not primary seizures(epilepsy). Depending on how frequently the seizures are happening and how much Meds they are giving him to keep them at bay, maybe the drugs could cause him to be withdrawn. But everything else, his age, the persistent hyperthermia, the GI issues, just sounds like something else is causeing the seizures.

I am very curious as to what the spinal fluid analysis says. Did the MRI reveal anything.
 
#22 ·
Any slug or snail bait/traps? Tomato plants? Fertilizers?
 
#23 · (Edited)
Have the vet check for RAT LUNG WORMS ASAP!

You are in the South, and we have confirmation of this parasite in dogs in Louisiana, causing mysterious neurological symptoms (seizures, rear-end paralysis, and other symptoms that look a whole lot like meningitis). In their advanced lifestage the worms can move into the brain. In the first one we had with these nasty thing, every test was coming out negative and the dog's neuro symptoms kept getting worse at the clinic -- we thought we were going to lose him.

It was a shot in the dark from an amazing vet who figured it out reading PubMed at 2:30 in the morning looking for any leads, and found one case of them in a human child in New Orleans with similar symptoms. The treatment for dogs is Panacur for at least 7 days -- a treatment that's so safe and cheap it's almost worth doing just in case.

They get can rat lung worms from eating snails outside. Since our first case, our rescue's vet has now seen several of them. Most vets aren't connecting the neuro symptoms to a parasite, as this one is still "supposed" to be super-rare in the US. We are totally sure they're here though.

This paper on research in Australia gives you some background on what they do in dogs (and people):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361490/
 
#26 ·
Just curious, when was he boosted for rabies, distemper and parvo?

So many things can cause seizures, distemper, meningitis, encephalitis, poisoning, epilepsy, probably cancer if it in the brain, not real common, especially in a youngster.

I hope they figure this out and they can get busy on treating it. Poor guy. Those nasty seizures are awful to witness. My parents' Cujo had epilepsy which started with the huge long seizure. He had some brain damage from it: a hitch in his walk and reverted to a puppy for a little while, but his brain formed new paths, and everything did come back to normal. So if you see some differences, might mention them to the vet, but don't panic.
 
#29 ·
Yes. They tested for heavy metals.

Right now they are thinking some sort of infection due to the mild fever and nausea.

They did find a healed skull fracture. Probably from the head trauma he received last spring. The vet didn't think it was related but I'll probably seek a second opinion on that next week if we can't figure out the infective agent on the off chance the fever and GI symptoms aren't related to the seizure. Could be that it was a late on set post traumatic epileptic episode.

It's been around 32 hours since he last ate, he isn't taking the food they offered. He must be feeling miserable. :(
 
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