Dog Seizures

Our dog had this shaking/trembling problem with her head when we first got her, which seemed to disappear. Just recently, it seems to have come back, but a little worse: she twitches.

She has been doing that and has been losing her balance (her legs just go out from under her as if she were slipping on ice) as well all this morning so far (or at least since around 8:00 AM). If she doesn't lose her balance she'll sort of put her back legs closer together (I guess to prevent her from losing her balance) and walk slowly.

It seems to be over now, as she's relaxed and going to sleep. My mom thinks it might be something neurological. Whether it's serious or serious yet or not, I don't know.

 

Well, it's hard to say without more information. Firstly, is she an older dog? Has she shown any other symptoms other than shaking and her back legs giving way? It could be any number of things like age, nausea, seizures, etc.

 

She's fine now, but the legs giving way was something new today, most likely from whatever episode she was having. Although I do know that when I had a cold once, I felt weak all over, but I was still able to get around.

Um, she's a terrier mix of about 10 years old, I think. I'll ask my mom later, because we got her shortly after we moved into our current house, and I don't remember which year it was. I know it was quite a number of years ago, as I was 13 years old in this house, but I'll get you an exact number later.

 

Ah okay, my dog is around roughly the same age as yours. Honestly it is very difficult to tell what could be going on with them. My dog was experiencing what yours is currently - shaking and her back legs were giving way, this then lead to her falling over completely, sickness and not wanting to get up/go outside full stop. We thought it was seizures or something more sinister, but we got her checked out and it turned out that it was actually to do with her ears.

Even if she is ok currently, maybe it would be best just to get her checked at the vet?

 

I believe my mom was going to do that. I'll confirm it with her when I pick her up from work in a few hours.

Maggie also used to have trouble with her ears, but it's because she has an allergy to grass that I'm not sure still exists, though her ears are nice and clean now. Medicine took care of that.

 

Just an update: About three weeks ago, we took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with epilepsy and was started on phenobarbital, which the vet said may need to be upped depending on the results. Other than that, though, she's in excellent health and blood work came back normal.

Her episodes generally lasted only about 30 minutes before we started her on the medication and when we first started her on her medication. For about these three weeks, she's been fine, but before I left to get my mom from work this evening, she started having an episode at about 5:05 PM, which was still going on when we went over to a friend's house about two hours later, and it was still going on when we got back -- either that or another one happened.

Anyway, so she couldn't hurt herself (because of the twitching she does and because she loses her balance) by getting on the couch, for example, and falling off the edge and onto the laminate floor, we left her in the bathroom, where she can't climb on anything but the toilet, which she doesn't do, for about four hours (with a rug and jacket to lay on and some water). I had to come back home to get something, and it was still going on (or, again, it was another episode because I turned on the light -- see the paragraph below for more on this). We just got back about 30 minutes ago, and when let her out of the bathroom, she was still having an episode and lost control of her body and rolled over on her back like she usually does, though, actually, before she didn't go completely on her back, just her side, but tonight she did.

Now she's acting like she can't see and isn't responding like she usually does (she did eat, though, so that's a good thing). I was moving a treat back and forth in front of her, and nothing. I can only think of two things in regards to the eyesight problem: it's from the seizures because, even when she's not having seizures, she'll sometimes squint her eyes like she has a headache or the light's bothering her or because when we left it was already getting dark, so suddenly seeing the light being turned on in the bathroom when we got back probably didn't help (and it's probably why she's still having an episode or an entirely different episode, because it's a stimuli), similar to how humans first wake up in the morning and are bothered by the sunlight temporarily when we first go outside.

Right now, she's in a resting position, though, so I think it's passed for now, but we're going to take her to the very tomorrow. Her medication probably needs to be upped either because it's not strong enough or because her body has gotten used it. She's also being leaving pee spots on my bed, probably because she also loses control of her bladder.

 

Best of luck to you, Amaury! I hope everything works out. Our dog has seizures a lot, where his back legs stop working and he can't figure out why, and he gets really shaky like you said. It's really sad.

With him, he can't be on any medicine as they don't really know what the problem is. It could have been from a hard birth (his mom was a rescue that had puppies that very night) and we think he might have suffered some brain damage from his first home (They gave him back after six months and aren't exactly the most animal-loving of people) but he also might just be prone to seizures, some dogs are.

All we can do is try to keep him calm and comfortable as long as it lasts. But aside from his seizures, he's a pretty healthy little mutt, so I really hope that everything works out for your dog. :)

 

Thank you.

She doesn't thrash around or anything like that, so we're not *too* concerned right and are hoping it's just epilepsy and not a brain tumor or something.

It's something like this, though her trembling/twitching isn't quite as noticeable and is pretty mild. She'll sometimes have a pretty noticeable twitch or sudden jerk, but most of the time it's just small twitching:

Spoiler

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what happens with our dog. Like, almost exactly. The worst part is knowing that he has no idea what's happening or why. So I really hope that there's nothing really wrong with your dog, like there's not really any reason for our dog to have seizures. Some dogs just get them, and I hope that's the case for your dog, and I hope that she remains healthy and happy for many years to come. :)

 

Doing some searching this morning, I came across this. The rising temperature would explain the nasally-sounding breathing she was doing, like what humans go through when they get colds.

This has been the worst one to date. Not because of the physical aspect (as that wasn't any worse than previous episodes), but the length. It started around 5:05 PM and was still going on when we left to go to our friend's house around 7:00 PM and when we got back from our friend's around 11:00 PM. Either that or she had three different episodes, the latter two either being residual effects or from the light being turned on after being a dark bathroom for four hours:
Before I picked up my mom and before we left: 5:05 PM - 7:00 PM
When I came back home myself to get something around 7:40 PM
When we got back around 11:00 PM

For the second one, when I came home I checked on her and she was standing in the very small space between the sink and the wall to the left, likely because she was dealing with the temporary blindness at that time and therefore didn't know where she was and was confused.

Spoiler

For the third one, I opened the door and turned on the light, and usually when we get home and she's been locked in the bathroom (which we haven't done in forever until last night, as she can free roam), she gets all excited and starts whining. Well, she wasn't doing that and was completely quiet, and so when I opened the door and turned on the light, she was just sitting there completely spaced out and falling over, so my mom carried her outside to see if she had to go, and if she started falling, my mom didn't feel like she needed to stop it since the grass was soft, and she did fall over. Then she had a twitch and ended up on her back urinating (she had lost control of her bladder), and when my mom picked her up and stood her up, she was looking at me all spacey and her eyes just looked weird. She was, I guess, dealing with the temporary blindness, a first, and so she could hear me and knew the direction I was in, I think, but just couldn't see me. The fact that she was blind temporarily is further supported by the fact and she wouldn't go up the two steps and through our front door (because she couldn't see them) and just started pacing and going around in circles.

As a final note, and I know this will probably sound mean, but when she rolled over on her back, it was kind of cute, because it's something she (and any dog) does even she's not having an episode.

 

Well I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. It is very hard and it seems like your dog is having it a bit worse off than ours does. My wishes are with you. :)

Just saw the pic. That's really sad that your dog was hiding in that space. If there's anything that makes me sad, it's when a dog or a cat is hurt, sad, or confused. :( I really do hope that your dog gets better.

 

Thanks.

It's actually affecting my mom harder than it is me or Maggie -- she's not in tears or anything, but yeah. I mean, I'm concerned, but these things generally don't get me too upset. I'm not a real emotional guy as it is, but it has nothing to do with being manly or anything like that, as I'm not afraid to cry, I'm just not real emotional.

Well, not so much hiding as she just happened to get there, but didn't know how to get out because she couldn't see. However, the vet said her health was otherwise perfect and she didn't think it was a brain tumor, so we're not too concerned yet.

The vet upped her dosage. She was taking one pill of phenobarbital a day -- half in the morning and half at night. That's been changed to two pills a day -- one in the morning and one at night. Both ways keep the medication in her system. We started that about an hour or so ago since she already had a half this morning because my mom hadn't called the vet yet.

Just curious here, but what's your dog going through?

 

Kay, well, as long as it's not too concerning. :)

With our dog, I actually was mistaken when I said we don't have him on medication because they don't know why he has seizures; when I read the article I remembered the truth; he's not on medication because he doesn't have seizures often enough to warrant medication for life. With him, he's been having seizures for around six months to a year, though he's only a couple years old, and I was right when I said that they don't know what's causing it.

As for the seizures themselves, they're a lot like the one in the video. His legs usually give out and he can't control them, and he trembles and shakes. He gets really panicked while it's happening, and he also loses bladder control and he vomits sometimes. He'll just sit there and whine silently for the duration of the seizure, which usually lasts anywhere from two to ten minutes, though sometimes on a really bad day, it'll last longer.

Once the seizure stops he acts pretty lethargic for a few hours, we figure he's just exhausted and doesn't really know what happened. Like I said, though, aside from the seizures, he's a pretty healthy dog. lol, he looks like a baby Ewok from Star Wars. XD

 

Maggie started having them about two months ago now, and it was about one a week, though one time right before we took her to the vet and started the medication, she had one one day and then another the next day. They all lasted no longer than 30 minutes, though. Last night's was the first long one she experienced, which was about six hours.

Maggie's pretty tired / depressed after it happens for a while as well, but that's pretty normal as seizures can be exhausting.

 

Update: She's been having a seizure since about 5:22 PM (PT), and it's looking like a repeat of that night a while ago.

We're calling places, and we may have to leave her overnight at a city about 30 minutes away from here, but we may wait it out like last time because we don't know the place too well aside from where the shopping stores are, it's night, and it's kind of a high crime area, though it's probably only certain areas, but still.

Also, it's just that this time we're here and are seeing the worst of it, likely what happened last time, but we weren't here to see it.

 

Thanks for the update, I'd actually been wondering how your dog was doing. Keep us posted!

Also a quick update on my fam's dog that also suffers from epilepsy: his seizures went from about one a month to four or five total in September, with the seizures noticeably worse and much longer. We took him back to the vet and once they get the blood work in, we're probs gonna start putting him on medication for them.

 

Hers stopped around 10:00 PM, I think, but it took her about another hour to fully get out of it -- it's exhausting!

Took her to the vet this morning around 8:40 AM and then went grocery shopping, which is why I'm now only getting online. Anyway, because of the squinting she sometimes does and how depth perception is sometimes off when jumping up on the couch, for example, and from looking at her eyes, the doctor thought it might not be epilepsy and she's got a mass in her brain, but we can't know for sure without an MRI, which we can't afford. However, my aunt, while not a vet, thinks it is just epilepsy, because she had a look at her earlier when I dropped my mom off there and her eyes were back to normal as well as the rest of her.

 

Makes sense. Let's hope your aunt is right!

 

Oh, and also, the vet did give us Valium that we can use to stop her seizures, but we should only use it on the bad ones like last night's. For the smaller ones that only last 15 - 30 minutes, we should just let her get through them.

The bigger ones cause her body temperature to increase -- skyrocket, actually, I think, but not sure -- which isn't good. I mean, she was completely out of it last night when she was having it, like she wasn't even there. And on top of the twitching, we also noticed something new (unless it happened the last time this happened when we were gone): her right front leg was trembling pretty much like it was vibrating.

 

Ooh, yeah, that doesn't sound good. Well, good luck! I hope everything calms down and works out with your dog. :)