6yr old having seizures

[l0v1n6b0x3r5]

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I have posted here...

This is gonna be a long one.

Libby my 6yr old brindle female started having seizures on Tuesday 4/27/10. At about 7:30pm she went into one. She was outside with my male boxer and the only thing that alerted us to something being wrong was Rocky growling. We went outside to find Libby pinned up against the fence and Rocky on top of her growling. We got him off and Libby started going in circles and falling over her back legs. She eventually fell on her hind legs and lost control of her bladder. She sat for a minute and then got up but seemed to be blind. Panting and drooing excessively. We would call her name and she would look the other way. The seizure lasted about 5 minutes with about 5 minutes of blindness, and another hour or so until she was back to normal. She kept pacing, sniffing everything, checking everything.

Wednesday 4/28/10 - 10:55pm.
Sleeping she sat straight up and was nipping at the air which then turned to more of a chomping. I got down on the floor with her and did my best to calm her. This lasted about 2 minutes. Following was a lot of drooling and panting again. She seemed to snap back quicker from this one.

Thursday 4/29/10 - Veterinary appointment.
Vet doesn't listen to symptoms and tells me that its not seizures and she is fainting from stress. Huh? I didn't say she had fainted. Prescribes Vallum. 1 pull every 8 to 12 hours.

Friday 4/30/10 7:30am
Woke up to find drool and blood on floor. She must have had one between 6:30am and 7:30am (they were checked on at 6:30)

8:00am
Libby has another "chomping" seizure. Lasts for 2 minutes with drool and panting following. 1+ hours to fully recover.

Vet calls me and asks me to come back in Monday. Other vet was wrong to give the vallum and should have given the pheno-barb.

Sorry so long. I guess I'm just looking for people with similar symptoms and what was the diagnosis?

 

[Cami]

I know how frightening it is to witness your baby having a seizure. My girl had one and I was beyond distraught.
At the time we were in the process of finding out if she had thyroid issues (she did). They are known to contribute to seizures. Once she was on medication for her thyroid she never had another one.
The cause of a seizure is oftentimes hard to diagnose. More often than not they never pinpoint the cause but hope that the pheno helps to lesson their frequency or stop them all together.
I ran across something in my search after my girl had her seizure. Maybe it can help you. Here is a link about using ice packs to stop a seizure or shortening it.
Using an ice pack to stop canine seizures

Another thing to think about.....over the past 3-6 months has she shown ANY oddball symptoms? Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, skin issues, infections of any kind, tiring more easily, not interested in something she used to do, moodiness, potty issues, etc....anything that you didn't put too much stock in at the time and it may have only happened once or twice?

Here is further info on seizures and thyroid. Not saying that this is the cause but something interesting all the same.
Canine Hypothyroidism and the connection to seizures in dogs.

Anything you might think of you should tell your vet.
I hope the meds work!

 

[jaxsonsmom]

seizures

I had a 7 year old girl, that had thyroid issues, and was on meds for it. She started having seizures-all the same symptoms that you are describing. The vet put her on a liquid medication for them, I can't remember the name. Anyway, She started on a very high dosage to get it into her system and she looked and acted like she was drunk-vet warned my about this, but once we decreased the meds she wouldn't be like that. This medication worked great for a while, definitely reduced the number of seizures-she actually had 7 in a very short time frame. As time went on however the seizures got worse, stronger, coming more often. It got to a point where the poor thing did not know where she was-and I had to do what was best for her. The vets said it was quite possible that there was a brain tumor, which was causing the seizures. I hope this is not the case for you, and hopefully the meds help her out. It is a horrible thing to witness and you feel horrible because you cant do anything for them at the time. I am sorry to hear you are going through this.

Tammy

 

[DiverDiva]

Do you use yellow cheese as a treat? I used it a lot as a training treat, especially for agility. Oscar has had 5 seizures. Our vet had a thyroid test and other tests done and everything was normal. DBF's dad clipped and gave us an article from the paper about annatto, which gives yellow cheese the bright color, possibly causing seizues. I stopped giving him yellow cheese and he has not had another seizure. It might just be coinicidence, but he is not getting any more yellow cheese. I posted a link to the author's website in the "Toxic to dogs" thread.
http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/dog-health-issues-questions/91220-toxic-dogs-6.html

 

[joeys mom]

So sorry to hear you are going through this... I am too :( My first question is... Did they do blood work when you went to see the Dr. ? After my Joey had his 2nd seizure ( i wasnt sure if the first was a seizure) I took him to the vet and the first thing they did was the blood work to check his kidney's, liver, red and white blood cell counts. The way they told me was... by doing the blood work they can tell if there is a problem in the body from the neck down i.e infection, toxic poisoning etc. If the blood work comes back ok then there could be a problem from the neck up i.e. epilepsy or possible tumor. In our case the blood work all came back good and since the first 2 were very mild we waited so see if the seizure's were following a pattern. They were... they were happening about every 2 to 3 weeks and by the 3rd and 4th seizure they were getting worse. So after the 4th seizure we started the phenobarbital. So far so good, If he still has them after being on the meds for a few weeks we will have to do a MRI and/or catscan to check for a possible tumor. I hope this is not the case for your baby or mine. Please keep us posted!

 

[l0v1n6b0x3r5]

Update on Libby...

Lib's seizures seemed to stop. She didn't have any for 4 days... until this morning. She had one small one. Just the jaw smacking and it only lasted for about 20 seconds. The next was about 2 hours later, same thing. I took her back to the vet on Monday and they put her on phenobarb. Called the vet this morning and she just said to keep an eye on her and that it will take awhile to get into her system.