my dog has been seizing all day long :(

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Krejlooc

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That guy, his name is Texas. He's 5 years old. This morning, after we got up and I was making breakfast, I thought I heard him fall off the bed in the other room. Suddenly he came running into the living room looking all sorts of fucked up. His back was arched over like a cat that was hissing, his legs were flicking up and down erratically, his eyes rolled back into his head and he started foaming at the mouth. Naturally, I ran to my dog and tried to calm him down. His episode ended shortly, and he had the post-seizure wobbles like normal, so I picked him up and brought him back to the bed to examine him and make sure he hadn't banged his body up. There, on the bed, he seized up again and expelled his bowls and bladder on the bed uncontrollably and again started foaming at the mouth.

I rushed him to the vet and he's seized up 4 more times since. They've ran a battery of tests on him, all have come back without any conclusive answers. Toxicity is normal, x-rays don't reveal anything weird in his liver, blood looks fine, urine test shows elevated bacteria levels but other than that it's fine. I spent over $600 today and found out nothing so far.

This isn't the first dog I've had that has had seizures - I had a mini schnauzer before that had diabetes and would get epileptic seizures if his blood sugar dropped (we had to give him twice-daily insulin shots), but he never had seizures with this frequency.

Tomorrow a neurologist is going to look at my dog and see what's going on. Pretty scary shit. My dog is my best friend. It's been a pretty terrible day :(
 
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here he is being a stinky puppy. What's been heart breaking today is that the seizures have done a 180 on his personality. He's been growling at everybody who touches him - myself included. He's normally a very loving, very well trained dog. He doesn't even hate cats - he loves the kitties in the neighborhood when we go on walks and will let them sniff him without freaking out.
 
Oh man...Nothing breaks my heart then a dog in need. I hope everything works out for you and your pup man.
 
Oh no :(

I hope he ends up being ok.

My mom's pug has had seizures for most of his life, but never as bad as the ones you describe. With the pug it ended up being a combination of diabetic seizures and stress, so we had to watch what he ate (and give him sugar water right after a seizure), and try to keep him as stress free as possible. Don't know if that's the case with your dog, but maybe the sugar water will help.
 
This happened to my dog poohbear. Unfortunately we had to do expensive MRI scans and a spinal tap to rule out serious things like brain tumors and stuff. On the bright side, in the end it ended up being a vestibular disease caused by low thyroid and is treated with about $30/month worth of thyroid tablets. If the brain scans come back clean, make sure you have them check the thyroid levels.

Our vet bill at the end was $4000.... :(

Good luck! I hope everything works out man.
 
I also learned today that other dog owners can be fucking pricks. This dude showed up at the vet around 1 pm today for an appointment for his pug. Apparently the pug had eaten a pork bone a few days ago and the guy wanted some tests run to make sure it wasn't messing up his stomach because he hadn't passed it yet - a noble thing to do. But because I had brought my dog in as an emergency, he had to wait. So an hour goes by and the guy is sitting there, and he comes into the room (where my dog and I are) and starts loudly complaining about why he isn't being seen.

"So this dog here, is it some kind of emergency or something? Because this is ridiculous."

This was maybe a good 10 minutes after my dogs latest seizure, mind you. The vet told him that yes, it was an emergency and it wasn't something that could wait, and the guy got pissed.

"So this mutt's emergency is more important than my champion breed dog? Is that what you're telling me?"

Luckily the vet went off on the guy and told him that his pug having a little gas didn't constitute an emergency, and unless the dog had obviously pierced his stomach from the pork bone, he could afford to wait a bit until they stabilized my dog.

What a fucking prick. I wanted to tell the dude off.
 
mattwhite924 said:
Oh no :(

I hope he ends up being ok.

My mom's pug has had seizures for most of his life, but never as bad as the ones you describe. With the pug it ended up being a combination of diabetic seizures and stress, so we had to watch what he ate (and give him sugar water right after a seizure), and try to keep him as stress free as possible. Don't know if that's the case with your dog, but maybe the sugar water will help.
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his bloodwork showed he had a slightly high blood sugar level, but I attributed it to giving him a few tortillas the night before while I ate mexican food (tortillas are seriously his favorite thing in the world). Normally I just give him a piece, but I'd been out of town earlier this week and it was our first evening together in a while, so I gave him two whole tortillas cut up that he gobbled up. They were flour tortillas so we thought maybe - possibly - it had elevated his blood sugar level. It's something to keep an eye on. Beyond that, he eats a normal, healthy diet.
 
I'm no vet, but isn't any bacteria in the urine the sign of a UTI? The seizures could be related to an infection that should hopefully clear up with antibiotics. We also have a friend with a seizure-prone dog; it must be scary to witness, but said dog is still kicking at 14. Here's hoping whatever your buddy has is manageable.
 
BriGuy said:
I'm no vet, but isn't any bacteria in the urine the sign of a UTI? The seizures could be related to an infection that should hopefully clear up with antibiotics. We also have a friend with a seizure-prone dog; it must be scary to witness, but said dog is still kicking at 14. Here's hoping whatever your buddy has is manageable.
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I'm also not a vet, so I'm not sure why or how, but they managed to rule out UTI today. Thats what they originally thought, however. He's got some pills to help the bacteria, but they said it didn't explain his seizures.

30yearsofhurt said:
Did those tortillas have onion or tomato in them? Cause you may have poisoned him.
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of course not. they were flour tortillas fresh off the comal.
 
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Helping me nurse a hang over a while ago. He's still attached to the hip, like he's laying at my feet while I type this right now. He hasn't seized in several hours now, so hopefully he's alright.
 
LookAtMeGo said:
Are his eyes steady or do you notice them darting around a bit? Is his balance ok?
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they're steady now, and his balance is currently fine. After each seizure his balance was really off for about an hour each time, but that's normal. His behavior has been mainly normal beyond that -- his extreme agitation not withstanding, although he was extra lovey-dovey last night. kept wanting to lay in my lap and things of that sort. I thought he simply didn't feel well.
 
Are his bowels being released during this? Is there deep moaning during the seizures? I had a similar experience with a much older dog. He was having regular grand mal seizures in constant intervals (every 2 hours). Long story short, I had to put him down.
 
Krejlooc said:
I also learned today that other dog owners can be fucking pricks. This dude showed up at the vet around 1 pm today for an appointment for his pug. Apparently the pug had eaten a pork bone a few days ago and the guy wanted some tests run to make sure it wasn't messing up his stomach because he hadn't passed it yet - a noble thing to do. But because I had brought my dog in as an emergency, he had to wait. So an hour goes by and the guy is sitting there, and he comes into the room (where my dog and I are) and starts loudly complaining about why he isn't being seen.

"So this dog here, is it some kind of emergency or something? Because this is ridiculous."

This was maybe a good 10 minutes after my dogs latest seizure, mind you. The vet told him that yes, it was an emergency and it wasn't something that could wait, and the guy got pissed.

"So this mutt's emergency is more important than my champion breed dog? Is that what you're telling me?"

Luckily the vet went off on the guy and told him that his pug having a little gas didn't constitute an emergency, and unless the dog had obviously pierced his stomach from the pork bone, he could afford to wait a bit until they stabilized my dog.

What a fucking prick. I wanted to tell the dude off.
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What a dickface. And the purebred culture can get fucked for several reasons.
 
Krejlooc said:
they're steady now, and his balance is currently fine. After each seizure his balance was really off for about an hour each time, but that's normal. His behavior has been mainly normal beyond that -- his extreme agitation not withstanding, although he was extra lovey-dovey last night. kept wanting to lay in my lap and things of that sort. I thought he simply didn't feel well.
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Aww. He just wants his daddy to take care of him. :)

Ok. I thought I would ask because with what my dog had her eyes were darting all over the place and she couldnt stand on her own sometimes.
 
najehe said:
Are his bowels being released during this? Is there deep moaning during the seizures? I had a similar experience with a much older dog. He was having regular grand mal seizures in constant intervals (every 2 hours). Long story short, I had to put him down.
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the second seizure he released his bowls. It was really heart breaking, he spread all his paws out like he was trying to brace himself and it just sort of fell out of him. It wasn't like he squatted and pooped, it just popped out uncontrollably. My dog is obviously house trained, and he sleeps at my hip in the bed, so he was releasing his bowls on his own bedding which dogs don't normally do. It wasn't liquid, it was solid. He also urinated uncontrollably. Beyond that, he hasn't had accidents all day. That was the only time.
 
man I'm sorry for triple posting, but I just need a place to vent. I'm so nervous right now for my dog, I can't get my mind off this. He's asleep next to me right now. I'll be crushed if this is something critical. He's truly my best friend, the best dog I've ever had. He's the first dog that was truly, entirely mine, not the "family" dog. I got him when he was small enough to fit in my hand. I was really lucky, I worked a job at the time that let me bring him in, and he spent the first 6 months of his life in my lap. We bonded basically immediately. He's so in tune with me, we can communicate through eyes alone. I mean that literally, I can shift my eyes and give him commands to sit, shake, etc.

I took this picture the day I got him:

KLXKChR.jpg


I've always tried to take good care of my dog, which is why I don't blink at throwing so much money for his vet visit, but I'm really worried that maybe it was something I did that caused this. Maybe it was giving him tortillas when we ate - I do that basically every time we eat mexican food. Maybe I fucked his blood sugar level. I just want him to be alright :(
 
Krejlooc said:
man I'm sorry for triple posting, but I just need a place to vent. I'm so nervous right now for my dog, I can't get my mind off this. He's asleep next to me right now. I'll be crushed if this is something critical. He's truly my best friend, the best dog I've ever had. He's the first dog that was truly, entirely mine, not the "family" dog. I got him when he was small enough to fit in my hand. I was really lucky, I worked a job at the time that let me bring him in, and he spent the first 6 months of his life in my lap. We bonded basically immediately. He's so in tune with me, we can communicate through eyes alone. I mean that literally, I can shift my eyes and give him commands to sit, shake, etc.

I took this picture the day I got him:

KLXKChR.jpg


I've always tried to take good care of my dog, which is why I don't blink at throwing so much money for his vet visit, but I'm really worried that maybe it was something I did that caused this. Maybe it was giving him tortillas when we ate - I do that basically every time we eat mexican food. Maybe I fucked his blood sugar level. I just want him to be alright :(
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All you can do right now now is to care for him, which you do. There is nothing else to do but to be patient and continue trying to find out what's going on. What's the life expectancy of your dog breed?
 
GameAddict411 said:
All you can do right now now is to care for him, which you do. There is nothing else to do but to be patient and continue trying to find out what's going on. What's the life expectancy of your dog breed?
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he's a mutt, so he doesn't really have a life expectancy, but he's only 5 so it's well too early to expect him to be near the end of his life.
 
Krejlooc said:
I also learned today that other dog owners can be fucking pricks. This dude showed up at the vet around 1 pm today for an appointment for his pug. Apparently the pug had eaten a pork bone a few days ago and the guy wanted some tests run to make sure it wasn't messing up his stomach because he hadn't passed it yet - a noble thing to do. But because I had brought my dog in as an emergency, he had to wait. So an hour goes by and the guy is sitting there, and he comes into the room (where my dog and I are) and starts loudly complaining about why he isn't being seen.

"So this dog here, is it some kind of emergency or something? Because this is ridiculous."

This was maybe a good 10 minutes after my dogs latest seizure, mind you. The vet told him that yes, it was an emergency and it wasn't something that could wait, and the guy got pissed.

"So this mutt's emergency is more important than my champion breed dog? Is that what you're telling me?"

Luckily the vet went off on the guy and told him that his pug having a little gas didn't constitute an emergency, and unless the dog had obviously pierced his stomach from the pork bone, he could afford to wait a bit until they stabilized my dog.

What a fucking prick. I wanted to tell the dude off.
Click to expand...

People do this all the time in the emergency room. The other night they had a critical patient come in and a patient comes out of their room to ask why it's taking so long. The nurse explains the situation but it doesn't even phase them. Their sniffles should be priority number one.

Sorry to hear about your pup. Hopefully they're able to find a cause.
 
Krejlooc said:
his bloodwork showed he had a slightly high blood sugar level, but I attributed it to giving him a few tortillas the night before while I ate mexican food (tortillas are seriously his favorite thing in the world). Normally I just give him a piece, but I'd been out of town earlier this week and it was our first evening together in a while, so I gave him two whole tortillas cut up that he gobbled up. They were flour tortillas so we thought maybe - possibly - it had elevated his blood sugar level. It's something to keep an eye on. Beyond that, he eats a normal, healthy diet.
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I wouldn't think that would cause it, but hopefully the worst is over, no matter whatever caused it. I'm sorry he's going through this. :(
 
It sucks. My beagle/dachsund has seizures sometimes and it's usually at night when we are sleeping, really scary to wake up to. Love my dog, I feel for you man.

My sister in law had grey hounds that had to take seizure medicine.
 
I hate to say this, and I absolutely hope it's not the case, but it might be a brain tumor. It happened to one of my family's dogs growing up, and the symptoms (seizures, aggressive/agitated behavior) were similar to what you described. Hopefully your neurologist visit tomorrow can rule that out.

Wishing the best for you and your buddy.
 
Very sorry to hear about your buddy. I hope everything turns out okay.

The way you described your dog arching his back and voiding his bowels reminded me of how my dog reacted after licking a little bit of marinara sauce from a bowl. He was in pain for hours and I had to take him out several times through the night. Later learned I had poisoned him with the tomatoes and garlic in the sauce. I then learned just how sensitive their digestive systems are and how much of our food is bad for them.

It sounds like there is something else going on with your pup, but I'd cut out the tortillas entirely in any case. Your dog won't be mad or upset you're not sharing them any more. I give my dog blue berries, apple pieces (no seeds!), broccoli, carrots, or pieces of his dog food for treats and he loves it.
 
Sorry OP, hope the pooch is OK!!! Hopefully something treatable.

On a side note, please don't feed dogs or cats people foods, it can contain stuff that is toxic to them. Two tortillas, here atleast we use alot of onion in the mix and as topping. Onion is toxic to both cats and dogs.. :/ tomatoes are usually not a good thing either for dogs, and the plant is toxic to cats.
 
Did they do an x-ray? I had a dog that started having seizures and was caused by a brain tumor. Don't mean to frighten you.
 
The good news - no new seizures today, he's acting normal again, and doesn't seem to be any worse for it all.

The bad news - neurologist has no idea what caused all this. Nothing to suggest to prevent it going forward or anything. All screens came back negative. Their best explanation is maybe he got into something that didn't show up in the bloodwork.

Their advice is to just watch him closely. I work from home, so I'm with my dog 24/7, so I'm super lucky that's possible. But I won't lie - I'm still super nervous and feel like I have kid gloves on around my dog now. I wish I knew what caused this just for peace of mind.
 
Did you ask them to check thyroid levels? That it what caused my dogs seizures, it was really hard to diagnose because its rare. I did all the brain scans and blood work and everything and they couldnt figure it out. We got no answers. Then we went to one vet someone told us about and she said in rare cases a low thyroid can cause seizures. Turns out thats what it was. Its not normally something they check when dealing with seizures.

Just an idea. The test isnt too expensive. The treatment is cheap. You said hes doing ok now and thats great news but if it happens again I would suggest at least asking about the thyroid stuff.

But ya hopefully it was just something he got into. Hope he stays well!
 
I'm really sorry to hear about Texas. My dog passed away about a month and a half ago now after complications for surgery. Had him for 8 wonderful years, and I miss him every day. Wishing the best for you, bud. I hope the vets can figure out what's going on and give Texas a long, fulfilling life.
 
LookAtMeGo said:
Did you ask them to check thyroid levels? That it what caused my dogs seizures, it was really hard to diagnose because its rare. I did all the brain scans and blood work and everything and they couldnt figure it out. We got no answers. Then we went to one vet someone told us about and she said in rare cases a low thyroid can cause seizures. Turns out thats what it was. Its not normally something they check when dealing with seizures.

Just an idea. The test isnt too expensive. The treatment is cheap. You said hes doing ok now and thats great news but if it happens again I would suggest at least asking about the thyroid stuff.

But ya hopefully it was just something he got into. Hope he stays well!
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No they didn't, but I have him scheduled to go back in a few days for an update exam. When I'm there, I'll ask them to test that, thanks.
 
I had a dog who started having seizures. We tried for a long time to try to figure out the cause, with different medications and diets, but in the end we had to put him down. He did so much damage to himself during the seizures, he even busted open his head on the floor once. It's one of the saddest things I've ever had to witness personally. I really hope you can figure out the cause and treat your buddy. :(
 
I have a greyhound with the exact same issue.The first time, he was about 4 or 5 years old and he seized 5 times in one day. They were horrific. They each lasted 5 - 10 minutes a piece, and he was just a totally different dog the whole day.

Then nothing for about 4 months, then he had another day similar.
Then nothing for about 6 months, then another day.

He's about 1.5 years seizure free.

The vet has come to the conclusion that he has epilepsy. He's been on Phenobarbital for about 2 years now, and hit's helped IMMENSELY. He only had 1 bout of grand mal seizures on the medicine and they were much less severe than the others. Then no seizures for 1.5 years.
 
I have experience with this. My dog was having seizures of increasing frequency, even losing bladder control. They finally put him on phenobarbital, which made him very foggy for a few days, but eventually he was back to normal. He's been fine for almost 3 years now. It's a horrible feeling of helplessness when it happens, so I feel for you.
 
Krejlooc said:
The good news - no new seizures today, he's acting normal again, and doesn't seem to be any worse for it all.

The bad news - neurologist has no idea what caused all this. Nothing to suggest to prevent it going forward or anything. All screens came back negative. Their best explanation is maybe he got into something that didn't show up in the bloodwork.

Their advice is to just watch him closely. I work from home, so I'm with my dog 24/7, so I'm super lucky that's possible. But I won't lie - I'm still super nervous and feel like I have kid gloves on around my dog now. I wish I knew what caused this just for peace of mind.
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He didn't eat anything unusual did he? My girlfriends dog has seizures frequently when she eats fatty foods. When she eats low carb, low fat foods, she has no seizures. She had pancreatitis a couple years ago and almost died, but my girlfriend did a ton of research and put her on a completely different food that has no grain and is all vegetables and fish. It's expensive, and smells awful, but the dog (who is 15 I think) is like a puppy again. The difference it made in how much energy she has is pretty remarkable. She has also stopped having seizures almost completely, and when she does it's almost always after she ate something she shouldn't have.
 
Seizures are fucking scary the first time you see it happen to your dog but thankfully, many of them seem benign. This happened to my pit. She had one seizure one day and then nothing for five days and then another one. Nothing after that though and the vet ruled out many things already.

Sometimes it's just one of those things that happens. Just keep observing him and hopefully no more seizures happen. No more seizures today is a good sign and the more days that happen without them, the better his prognosis, from what I've been told by my old vet. Some dogs can live a long and healthy lives so long as the seizures happen rarely.

Your dog is very lucky to have you as a caring and loving owner!
 
OP, has your dog ever seized before in the past? Unfortunately seizures don't often get a concrete diagnosis as to why they're happening. There are drugs you can give to help control them though, both as daily management and in the event of one. If he isn't seizing for a long time/over and over again he should be alright.

So sorry to hear about that though. I can tell you really love him. It sucks when pets get sick :/
 
This thread hurts my heart. Hope things stay good OP. Our two mini schnauzers are literally everything to me and my wife. Even when one is under the weather, I feel bummed.
 
I'm sorry to hear this. I know how you ate feeling because I went through it a year and a half ago. One of my Beagles has epilepsy. He would typically have one seizure every 6-8 weeks. August 2014 he had 4 seizures in about an hour and we had to drive him to the nearest emergency vet, 2 hours away, while he continued to have a seizure or focal seizure every 20-30 minutes in the car. He spent 48 hours there are racked up quite a bill. They called it a cluster seizure episode. It took a combo of medications to break the cycle and return him to a normal state. The goods news is they adjusted his medication, adding Potassium Bromide to the phenobarbital he was already taking, and he has had 1 seizure in the since that time with no obvious side effects. Stay strong and ask about different medications to help the seizures.

Edit: don't worry about the agitated state. My dog did the same, he was growling as we were holding him at the vet. I think at that point their neurological system is so haywire it's not really them, if that makes sense.
 
As a kid we had a golden that would get seizures. It was a good 20+ years ago now and I don't remember what the diagnosis or cause was, but we were able to control it with a pill he took every day. Unfortunately he had hip dysplasia and a bad heart and we had to put him down at 5, but the seizures had nothing to do with it. He was a runt and just not really built to last.

Sorry, kinda went down memory lane there. My whole point of posting was to say it's not the end of the world, my dog had seizures and was able to live a life unaffected by them, so keep your spirits up and be there for your buddy as you learn more.
 
I also had a dog (golden) that had seizures. We rescued her from the pound. She was beat as a puppy and her hips never aligned correctly.

Her seizures were random, and honestly not too terrible, but they are scary. We would get on the floor with her and prop her body on our lap with her head hanging so she wouldn't choke on her tongue. We would gently stroke her and whisper, kiss her, and love her. I'm getting all teary eyed thinking about her. Such a sweet dog, but seizures were so scary. She'd get probably 2-3 a day. She lived 14 years.

Best of luck OP.
 
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