Seizures in dogs

[Carolinamidwife]

I have a 4 year old toy poodle who has had, that we know of, three seizures spanning 2 years. Two of them were in the last month.

They seem to be related to her sleep, I even thought the first one was some kind of night terror, but now I have seen her go from asleep to seizing.

When I took her to the vet she was skeptical that what I saw was seizure activity. Blood work came back fine. I made a video of the most recent seizure to show to our new vet.

So, how does one live with an epileptic dog? I'm worried that she will seize while she's at home alone and injure herself.

Thanks in advance

[Weevil]

So sorry to hear about your dog :(  We rescued a dog who was having a lot of seizures and I know how scary they can be.  It is so important to find a medication regimen that will keep the seizures under control.  Phenobarbital was the first drug our vet put our dog on, but it didn't do much.  It took a while to figure out but we eventually found a combination of KBr (potassium bromide) and zonisamide (we get it from the 'human' pharmacy) and now his seizures are well controlled (only one or two mild ones the past couple of years). 

Good luck with your dog *hugs*

[tea_time]

I have a toy breed dog (Italian Greyhound) and he has occasional idiopathic seizures.  They aren't uncommon for his breed at his age, so we weren't too worried.  Also, both of our vets (old and new one) were familiar with these seizures.  We won't start meds unless they're more frequent than 1x a month or increase in intensity (more than the current 4'ish minutes total from start to finish).  This was the Vets advice.  Right now he only has them about 2x a year. 

Have you googled or looked up seizures in poodles?  Is it common with his breed?

[livacreature]

My mom's blue tick hound is epileptic.  He's on phenobarbatol now, he still seizes maybe a couple times a year.  It is very frightening when he does.  He first gets a blank stare, and then his body goes completely rigid and he starts to shake.  He usually looses bowel and bladdar control, and his back legs tend to give out on him.  She's concerned about him falling off a couch, but in the ten years she's had him, there hasn't been any evidence of him seizing alone (fortunately).  With him, his heartworm preventitive seemed to make them worst.  He would almost always seize a few days after taking that.  Now they are more random. 

Fortunately, when he comes out, he is not aggressive so it is easy to support his back legs during the seizure to prevent hip injury.  Some dogs, like some people can be aggressive and don't respond well to being touched while coming out.  Typically he is a bit tired after the seizure, but it doesn't seem to bother him too much.

Good luck!