seizures

[Jennifer Muraski]

My boxer is almost 2 1/2 years old, in shape, and was perfectly healthy. On May 2, 2001 I took her in for her scheduled DHLPP booster, Lyme Disease booser, and heartworm test. On May 4, 2001 she had her first seizure. I took her into the vet the sameday. He did a blood test and everything was ok, and suggested just to watch her. I called the breeder(very trustworthy),he said there has not been reports of seizures from any of the lines and suggested it may be and antigen reaction from the boosters. Since her first seizure, she has had one on May 5,6,7,9 lasting for about 10-20 seconds. Her worst one was on May 14th that lasted about one minute, see has not had any since then. Could it be a reaction to the shots? If anyone has any comments or suggestions, please let me know, the seizures are heartbreaking to watch.

 

[Robyn]

Jennifer, I'm so terribly sorry to hear about Sable's seizures. I know from personal experience how truly heartbreaking it is to see.

We had a heaven-sent stray named Mugzy. His first day with us, we had all of his shots done because of course we did not know what he had already gotten, if any. The second night we had him he seizured and actually went into status epilepticus, which is continual seizing. The battery of test was performed and he was diagnosed with epilepsy. Mugzy had been seriously abused in his earlier life and also seemed to have lived on the streets for a long time. We were never sure if he was born with epilepsy, developed it, developed it from the abuse (he was covered in scars including his head)or got it as a reaction to his shots. With out medication to control his seizures, his epilepsy would have been a death sentence. It was mentioned to me by his vet that he could have developed the epilepsy as a reaction to the distemper shot. Mugzy was also not given a very long life expectancy due to the SEVERE nature and frequency of his seizures. His seizures lasted for much longer than Sable's and he also typically had something called a cluster seizure where he would seize than stop than seize and stop and so on. This is dangerous because he did not have time to cool down between seizures and these types of seizures lead to status epilepticus. Despite all of this, Mugzy led a very full happy life until he was about 10. He acted like a puppy his entire life.

Please know that I will be thinking of you and Sable and I hope you get a strong diagnoses soon. Please feel free to email me personally if you would like to discuss this further.

 

[bugnbuster]

Hi Jennifer,

I know her scary it is to watch your dog have a seizure. My 9 year old female, Bugsie had her first major one on her 9th birthday! I thought she was going to die right then and there. I freaked out and didn't know what to do. Actually, I didn't even know she was having a seizure. I took her in immediately and was told she had a seizure (and was still midly seizing) and may have epilepsy. Time went on and the seizures began to escallate. It was so horrible to watch. Poor Bugsie also had to have her knee rebuilt. After that things really went down-hill. She was having daily seizures, although they were fairly mild. I took her in again and the doc tried a new medication combo. It made her very groggy...she couldn't walk on her own...I had her at the vet for three weeks trying everything. The doc was wonderful and tried all her could. We finally determined that she had a brain tumor. She was showing all the classic signs. Sadly I had to put her down about 6 weeks ago...very tramatic. I cry daily. I know this all sounds scary, but really have everything checked out. They can do scans to check for brain tumors. Good luck and my prayers are with both of you!

 

[Boxeromine]

Hello, I am sorry to here of your troubles. I too know the "terror" you feel first hand while you watch helplessly as your beloved friend has a seizure. Our 9 1/2 year old female had a physical about 5 months ago. She passed all her tests including her blood work with flying colors. The night before mothers day she was on the couch watching tv with the kids. Our son came into my office to tell me that she was "acting funning and twitching". I immediately went to her and her muscles werre twitching uncontrolled. By the time I dial the vets phone number, she went into a full blown grand mall (?) unsure of spelling, seizure. We rushed her to the Emergency clinic and after $1,000.00 we were told she has insulinoma. A rare form of cancer that begins in the pancreas and quickly spreads. The tumor releases large amounts of insulin into the blood. Thus, causing her blood sugar level to drop, thus causing the seizure. We have since spent 3 times the origianl amount, talked to vets from California to New York and have begun treatment. This is after five days in the hospital for her and our family crying for all five days. She has since started chemo therapy and predinsone treatments. She is stable for now. However, we don't know how much time we have left with our baby girl. She is the most remarkable Boxer I have ever met in my ten years of Boxer work. She has done the show thing but we moved her to therapy work instead. That is truely where her heart is and she loved it all. We hope and pray everyday for her to be with us as long as possible. We will not let her suffer. She desserves to dye with dignity and pain free. We will give her that. I just hope and pray I don't have to make that call for a long time. I hope your Boxer does not have this. But I urge you to look at all possible causes. THe earlier the diagnosis, the better the outcome. Good luck and God Bless.

 

[ststarr]

Jennifer,

We foster parented a boxer that was about 2-3 years old who had seizures. We didn't know what was going on at first, but we would walk in the room and he would be twitching and unable to walk. We just sat with him & did our best to soothe him and get him through it then promptly called the vet.

Buddy had some form of epilepsy (sp?) & was put on meds 2 times per day. His new owner has not reported any further seizures, though he had a few more before the meds fully kicked into his system. Our vet told us that often times touch and soothing words will ease them back when they are seizing. They recommend that if it continues for over 1-2 m inutes, to bring them straight to the vet.

Anyway, we had a much happier ending with Buddy than the other postings. He's a couch potato with a grad student and her boyfriend and now passes the time stalkin herparakeet and kitty. The meds worked great.

Best of luck