My dog just had her third seizure last night

and damn was it scary. They seem to come like clockwork, every 8 days. Last night she had three in a row, each one worse than the last. I seriously though she was going to die, and ended up staying up all night watching her. Of course today she's fine, as if nothing happened. I'm taking her in to the vet today even though I don't have the funds to pay for it.

Does anyone have any experience with this? What can I expect cost wise and drug wise? Do these things go away?

Is that the type of dog you have?

and probably inbred to the extreme. She's a beautiful dog, but has way too many health problems. In two years she's cost me about $3000. She's worth every penny, but I'd really like to get her healthy for longer than a few months.

My female is very healthy, no trouble at all, my boy however has had some trouble.... he broke his hind legs when he was 6 weeks old, he has breathing problems etc.... and seizures. They started when he was just a baby. I took him to a Vet neurologist, they gave him tegretal which he still takes, once day... it's about 30 dollars a month. It has cured him, he hasn't had a seizure in over a year!

I love Bostons, and people that own them are special. I hope your baby does okay. I know it's tough. If you would like, feel free to pm me with any questions you might have.

I am going to attempt to post a pic of my boy.... I dunno if it will go or not...

On edit: can't figure out how to upload from my computer...Oh well!

My sister had a German Shepherd who had seizures that sound exactly like what you're describing. They put the dog on some type of medication to help. The dog eventually died (not sure if it was related to the seizures), but I believe the medication helped to reduce the number of seizures. If you'd like, I'll ask her what type of medication it was.

I'm sorry, my neighbor's beagle had the same problem. I know some meds help, but it's always scary! I don't know the costs associated, but I do know that the problem never went completely away.

When did they start? Has she always had them, or are they a new issue? Also, what kind of dog and how old is she?

You're doing the right thing, taking her to the vet. He/she should pull for a bunch 'o bloodwork. Could be the thyroid (mom had a dobie with that problem) or any number of other things. My mom spent about $30/mo on meds to treat the problem.

Let us know how it goes...good luck to you both.

They started three weeks ago. Everything I read on the Net said that they're not dangerous (which is really hard to believe if you've seen her have one), so I was kind of waiting to see if it was a chronic condition. It is, so off to the vet we go, again. She just completed two knee surgeries and is finally walking/running at 90%, then this happened. :(

I never really found them dangerous, per se. I always worried about our staircase, but she rarely went upstairs.

At worst, she'd find a corner and put her nose up and seizure in the corner. There was the one time that she did manage to hit the fireplace (cold ashes) before she found a few corners. I had to scrub the walls - there was a nearly perfect line of dark ash smudges in my living and dining rooms.

The vet never liked her to continually seizure- that is why we broke it up with the valium if it got too bad.

Problem is, she hangs out on the stairs almost all the time when I'm out. I might have to put up some gates.

They aren't too expensive to buy. Maybe $25 for a removable one, slightly more if you want one to screw into the wall.

And we went through the whole gamut of medications with her. For most dogs, the seizures are reasonably easy to control with medication - she was something of an outlier.

The last medications that she was on were Phenobarb and Potassium Bromide, iirc. The KBr was the cheapes of the two- it was dirt cheap- something like $5 for a few months worth. The Phenobarb was a bit more expensive.

The KBr was sort of a drug of last resort- it used to be used in humans as an anti-seizure medication. On the other hand, it was easily obtained at my local pharmacy - didn't have to go to the vet to get it filled.

Just a few things- even with medication, our dog would have some periodic grand mals. They didn't happen too terribly often- maybe every couple of months. Our vet ended up prescribing a shot of valium (to be given rectally) in the event of a horrible night. It's pretty much what they would give after a terrible cluster of seizures- and it saved us quite a bit of money to keep that on hand. Giving her a shot of valium at home was way cheaper than taking her in for an overnight stay which included being hooked up to an IV with valium.

Another thing my vet told me to do - after a series of seizures, your dog may not want to eat. She always warned me about letting her get too dehydrated. Her advice was to keep a couple of jars of baby food (like creamed chicken) around to give her post-seizure.

Good luck - I know it can be a rough road.

my 16 year old cat had siezures for two years. very scary meds did not help her. she was way ok other than that. we all got used to them, and it seemed as though she felt better than ever right after her episodes. she passed this summer-we were glad we did not follow the advice to put her down.

I have a Aussie terrier and would love to see a picture of yours if you have one.

And you are correct-medication can be extremely helpful. Hopefully the phenobarb will work well for this little guy.

Not a terrier. I don't think I've ever seen an Aussie terrier!

This was taken a while back- She's almost a year old now. She's an absolute terror, digs, leaps like a rabbit, and outruns my dalmation/lab mix. I'm totally smitten with her now and with the breed.

They suspected she was being poisoned.

They couldn't find a culprit and the seizures continued so eventually they had her put down.

had a very bad seizure disorder and it is frightening. They will most likely put your dog on Phenobarb and that will help some. Our Lab continued to have seizures but not nearly as often. Just remember the best thing to do is stay quiet, don't pet her or even speak to her until she has stopped the seizure then just quietly reassure her because she will be confused for a bit. Good luck, it is frightening to watch and it just tears your heart out but like people I doubt they ever even remember having them.

Trying to snap her out of it, saying things like, "bye bye car" and such. The way she stares at me is terrifying, and the foaming mouth, and it seems like she can't breath. I guess I'll just have to get used to it.

After suffering through a half dozen, (including 3 in 3 days) we took him to the vet. He gave us low dose phenobarbital, 2 per day.
very easy to give, and since we started medicating him about a year ago , he has only had two, very mild seizures.

The drugs have had no effect on his weight or activity level. He doesn't "act" drugged in any way.

Our vet said the danger to ignoring them is that the dog can reach a point where he goes directly from one seizure to another to another with no time to recover. This, obviously, could be fatal pretty quickly.

Best of luck with your pup. They're worth the time and the money.

and I was able to relate many of them to cleaning/lawn products. Rug cleaners, someone's lawn chemicals a couple of blocks over, Febreze, and various other things like that seemed to contribute. I don't know if you have changed a soap/detergent or other cleaner lately, but in the case of our dog, these were major contributors. She is 16 years old now and hasn't had any seizure in a year - before that, it had been about two years.

We made the (very difficult) decision to put our dog down, becuased I was afraid of his behavoir post-ictal (after the seizures) and leaving him home alone with our 9- and 12-year-old children.

He was extremely disoriented and somewhat aggressive. For example, when the nanny came to the house (same woman who spent every summer day with the kids for two years) he acted as if he had never seen her before, and was threatened by her.

He was snarling and snapping my my very little niece.

He snapped at me when I tried to get him off the bed (a bedtime routine that involved George racing me to the bed to get settled right on my side of the bed, then having to go down).

It was scary as hell.

I believe I have a number of web URLs bookmarked at home that will help.

No, they are probably not going away. Yes it can be treated with medication, but you have to follow the medication schedule religiously or it can get worse.

When I was trying to price daily phenobarbitol on the web, I think I was finding something on the order of $0.75 a day for the required medication.

When I find the web links at home, I'll post them here.

Are used to reduce seizures in people.
Don't know if they work in animals but they may be helpful.

Very cheap in generic form.

We gave him phenobarbitol for a bit, but he was constantly in a fog.

The vet had the idea that there might be an inflammation somewhere in his brain, and gave him a single dose of prednazone (sp? the steroid they use to suppress the rejection syndrome for organ transplants). It worked; he didn't have another seizure for the better part of a year, and it didn't impair his behavior. (And by the time they resumed, there were significant other medical problems.)

We figure that one injection bought him nearly another year.