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Dogs can predict when a child will have an epileptic seizure up to several hours in advance, according to new Canadian research.

Dogs that predicted a seizure did so up to five hours in advance. But the average warning came between two and three minutes before an attack.

One dog, a sheltie-spitz cross, sat on a toddler before a seizure to prevent her from standing; a Rottweiler positioned himself on either side of a toddler before an attack to cushion the toddler's landing; and one dog would stop eating and drinking for hours to be with a three-year-old.

"But the worst part of the disease isn't a seizure, it's fear of the next seizure," says Kirton. "By knowing when a seizure might happen, it could liberate them and free them to do what they want to do."

Gregory Holmes, a neurologist at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire, says the dogs could be detecting a change in smell. "People have autonomic changes, such as increased sweating, which a dog could pick up on."

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1137619.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996047

 

[Mason]

That's pretty interesting. Wonder why only some dogs could detect it, though.

 

[ZootedGranny]

I've heard about this before.

I also remember this being a story on Unsolved Mysteries about 40 different times.

 

[way more]

I've heard about this before.

I also remember this being a story on Unsolved Mysteries about 40 different times.

Insane theories from Unsolved Mysteries +1
Regular theories +1,000,000

 

[Deleted member 1235]

and they can predict earthquakes.

dogs are cool. maybe they can predict uncontrolable shaking. sweet.

 

[DaveH]

Go dogs!

 

[Fatalah]

I think Unsolved Mysteries showed how dogs could find cancer cells on a body just with their nose.

 

[White Man]

This is old old old news. I think it was one of those things that was medically known without their ever having been official research done on it. Could've sworn my old neurologist mentioned that they trained dogs specifically to do this.