Dog Epilepsy

[trionam]

Just looking to see if anyone has had any experience with epilepsy in dogs, have an 8 yr old lab retriever and she has had fits since 2007 very few episodes so vet thought it best not to put her on meds at the time, she took a bad fit yesterday the first in about a year then today something different happened she cried out and couldnt move for about 2 mins and was shaking but nothing like yesterday,tough times means insurance policy could not be renewed,really worried if this new thing that happened today means her condition is worsening,I know I cant get an answer as such just though someone her might have been through something similar thanks.

[karenmac60]

I don't know much about this, but I've been reading up quite a bit recently as my cat has epilepsy. I found several things on dogs recently which describes a similar thing to what your dog had and it seems to be just another kind of fit - less severe than the regular fits. If your vet is anything like mine, he'll be happy to give you some advice over the phone and reassure you - give him a ring and check it's nothing more serious.

Have a look at this website too
http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/FAQ.html

[dotty.]

My dog Bingo was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was about 2, the vet gave us a prescription of phenobarbitone one twice a day. Bingo only had maybe one attack a year, he would whine persistently for no reason just before he started to seem to go wobbly and bump into things, then he would keel over, his eyes would stare and his legs would go rigid and straight , sticking out 4 different ways so he was lying on his chest/stomach and looked like he had collapsed. His tongue would hang out and he would wet himself.
We were told not to crowd him, not to move him, just let it pass. It was scary, Bingo took around 5 minutes to recover and always wanted a drink of water straight away after the attack.
I had Bingo put to sleep last August, he was nearly 15 years old and had lost the use of his back legs due to a spinal tumors. He was a great dog and I miss him.

[trionam]

thanks guys,dotty so nice to hear that bingo got to 15 was very upset yesterday thinking that things might be getting worse,Its interesting that your vet did give a perscription our vet reckoned was best to leave it be unless the fits got more recurrent we had pet insurance at that time so it would have been fine,we couldnt afford to renew the policy a couple of months ago when I enquired today they said they couldnt take her now as she was over 8,hopefully she wont have another fit for a long time and might enjoy a good quality of life.thank you for the link Karen Im having a read through now.

[karenmac60]

My cat has fits every 3 weeks or so trionam, and even with that frequency the vet chose not to medicate him - although I understand that with dogs the fits can be much longer (my cat's last around a minute) and are therefore riskier to the dog's health.