# Seizures



## BorderKelpie (Dec 3, 2011)

Wow, what a survivor she was. You must have been really devoted to be able to maintain her that well for so long. 

Growing up, I had a Rhodesian Ridgeback that had seizures. I noticed that besides the usual stress triggers, when he stole food, especially sugary junk food, he would seize. Considering his size, he had no trouble counter surfing and if anything tasty was left out, he snagged it. 

I wouldn't rule out a full moon, but I would think there would be more obvious triggers. Come to think of it, working in trauma services - full moon could have something to do with it. It can sure make people even weirder. 

That would have been an interesting thing to track. I wonder if anyone has?

I am sorry for your loss, but rather impressed with the amount of wonderful care you showered on Trina.


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

BorderKelpie said:


> Wow, what a survivor she was. You must have been really devoted to be able to maintain her that well for so long.
> 
> Growing up, I had a Rhodesian Ridgeback that had seizures. I noticed that besides the usual stress triggers, when he stole food, especially sugary junk food, he would seize. Considering his size, he had no trouble counter surfing and if anything tasty was left out, he snagged it.
> 
> ...


Awww, well thank you, that is so kind of you to say. :angel2: We loved our precious girl so much, and we were happy to make sure she had the best life possible. Having a dog with seizures doesn't have to change a person's life style, but a person does have to make life adjustments. Such as, not being gone away from home for any length of time. When medicine has to be given 3 times daily, one has to be available at all times to make sure the dog gets their meds. Also, with Trina, she was always super sensitive to anything that was different. She loved her daily walks, but she would always get very nervous and stressed when anything was different-- with us, or within the home. The seizures really took a toll on her mental state, so we learned to make our home as quiet and peaceful for her as possible.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier was, Trina had cluster seizures a lot and we found that Rectal Valium was extremely useful for her. Not always, but it did help. To make it work effectively though, it has to be administered immediately. Rectal Valium doesn't totally stop the seizures, but it does help the dog to start calming down.

As for the full moon, I believe it's possible for some dogs to be affected by the moon, but I don't really understand how or why it happens. A full moon didn't seem to cause anything unusual with Trina, but I know there are websites out there that discusses the possibility of it. 
I miss my baby girl so much. I feel so blessed to have been able to have her in my life for as long as I did. 
Thanks again for your kind words. 
Kathy


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## Manxcat (May 6, 2013)

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence about humans being affected by the full moon (hence the term lunatic) but not sure about animals - although they say wolves bay at the moon so who knows? When you think of the strength of the moon's pull - enough to forms the tides - then it is probably/possibly affecting far more than we give it credit for.

Pippin gets seizures, fortunately not frequently and only a couple gone to grand mal. We also have the rectal valium but unless she's in full grand mal it's practically impossible to administer by me and ends up half in... 

However, we are very stuck about triggers as they've all happened first thing in the morning! We keep a loose diary as to food / exercise / over-excitement but are still at a loss. The worst have always been Saturday mornings too, which is a bit strange. I was worried she was having them during the night so bought a baby monitor as the dogs don't sleep upstairs with us, but so far nothing.


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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

*Merlin*

My minipoodle Merlin from 20 years ago had epilepsy. The seizures started in the middle of the night when he was about 3 years. I had never experienced anything like that before so we thought he had hurt himself falling off the bed. It turned out to be a seizure that caused him to fall off the bed.

We never did test him for a tumor, which I regret now. We tried the different medications but his cluster seizures came regularly several times a month. The worst part was not the seizures themselves, but the post ictal phase afterwards where they sometimes could not see but wanted to walk around without stopping. It would sometimes take hours of our walking him on a leash so he wouldn't hurt himself before he would stop walking.

Since we had to work, we sometimes had to leave him at the vets or the vet hospital where they would give him valium for the seizures. He got worse and worse and eventually died at a little over 4 years, probably from an overdose of medication.

We never did try to combine the medications as you described or give them multiple times during the day. Perhaps if we had, we would not have lost him so soon.

He usually had his cluster seizures around the new moon, almost without fail. As I have said before on this forum, I got to hate the thought of a new moon because of what I knew was coming. He also had seizures at other times in addition to the new moon phase.

The experience with Merlin, whom I loved dearly, was so horrible that I switched to Portuguese Water Dogs. It has taken me 20 years to try poodles again. This time I was very careful with my breeder and I am being very careful with vaccinations because Merlin indeed had a VERY bad reaction to vaccinations, particularly Lepto. 

I appreciate hearing your story of how you were able to save your dog with combined medication and giving it 3 times a day. It is nice to hear a good story involving epilepsy.

I have only a few pictures of Merlin because I didn't have a cell phone with cameras 20 years ago.


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## Wren (Jul 2, 2013)

Our previous spoo was a wonderful show dog that developed seizures at about 14 mo. old and was re-homed to us by his breeder. He succumbed to the seizures shortly before his 4th birthday.

Like others here, we did the pheno and pot. bromide twice a day and rectal valium when he had cluster seizures. We managed the seizures and the post ictal phase, but we couldn’t stop them. The good thing was that once he recovered from a seizure, he was a normal happy dog and didn't know he was different from others.

The trouble with seizures is that the more seizures a dog (or any animal, including humans) has, the more frequently and severe the seizures they will have in the future. The seizures actually train the brain to seize, or perhaps, the seizures destroy the brains ability to prevent the electrical storms from occurring. I do wish research could get a handle on this for all living creatures.

The vast majority of the over 90 seizures he had while he was with us occurred in the middle of the night and without warning. I documented every seizure and I absolutely saw a correlation to seizure activity around the time of a full moon. After observing him for a while, I could also predict when he would have a seizure within 24 hours. There would be a very slight difference in his gait, or agileness, or amount of time he slept; something would just be slightly off. I never noticed any other triggers though.

It's nice to hear of a poodle that was able to be managed and live a full, happy life.


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## Coco86 (Oct 23, 2014)

Our smallest Toy Poodle Rosie will be six in June. She started having seizures in 2013, when she was four. She was put on Phenobarbital in November 2013 after her second (and longest) seizure. The seizures Rosie has are the ones where she cranes her head to the side and then flops over and kind of goes stiff. They only last for a few minutes, she comes out of it pretty quickly once we pick her up and take her outside for some air.

Usually before a seizure she starts shaking.

She's had five seizures this year, from May 2014 to May 2015. Both us and our vet think they are stress related, because she is a pretty high strung dog. After a stressful event such as family coming over for holidays or BBQs, she usually has a seizure a few days later. Her most recent one was set off by someone in the house yelling in anger...my parents were arguing about my oldest brother and whether to help him out of a jam. Rosie had a seizure a few hours later. 

Our vet advised us to keep her life as stress free as possible. The Phenobarbital has also improved her picky appetite, and she went from 6 pounds to 8 pounds! She's still really light and a healthy weight though.


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## BorderKelpie (Dec 3, 2011)

Just have to say it - MiniPoo, Merlin was gorgeous! I am so sorry you lost him so young.


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## ApricotsRock (Jan 10, 2014)

My first poodle had seizures. They developed when he was about 6 mos old and lasted most of his life-up until he was 12-13. At that point I took him off of the phenobarb because he was having so many other issues - he was less groggy off of it.

I always thought the worse of his seizures was caused by stress. We tried to keep him stress free as possible but we all know how easy that is....

But he lived his life to the fullest. I don't think it ever stopped him from doing anything with us. And he was our first kid - pre DD. So he went EVERYWHERE we went.


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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

Thank you, BorderKelpie. Merlin was an oversized mini with long beautiful legs. And a very sweet boy. He certainly deserved better.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

It's such a hard thing to watch...very upsetting. You certainly did manage this well. What a lucky thing that she got to live 14 years in spite of whatever it was that was causing those seizures. 

I've never had a Poodle with seizures but my old Lab who got liver disease had them on account of that. And now my little old man Chihuahua, Jose` just had one the other day....very disturbing. He had his blood tested and there is nothing seemingly wrong. So, I fear a brain tumor or some other thing. 

I have no idea about the full moon but it sure might have something to do with a lot of things we don't know about yet.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

My spoo began to have seizures at about 1 year of age, approximately one a month. He is my service dog so I was even more upset because he would not be able to work then. I love him to bits. I started doing research on seizures and discovered that some dogs have them as reactions to some medications. I quit giving him Frontline and his seizures went away. 

He also had one seizure at the age of 5 1/2. It was triggered by being in a movie with rapid gunfire and flashes of fire (he had had a bad experience with a fire and firework that went out of it straight to him singing his ear). He has not had another seizure. 

I do wonder if once they have had several seizures they might be more easily triggered.


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

Oh, Merlin was a beauty! Thanks for sharing your story. It's nice to be able to talk to others who know exactly what it's like for our precious ones when they have seizures.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Kathy Ann said:


> Oh, Merlin was a beauty! It's nice to be able to talk to others who know exactly what it's like for our precious ones when they have seizures.


Yes, so terribly scary and heartbreaking to see the gorgeous, loveable, dog of our heart suffer so. It brings tears to my eyes just remembering it.


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

Also, we had a very hard time keeping Trina's weight down. Because she was on so many meds and the frequency of the meds, she was more susceptible to gaining weight. Walking her regularly helped but what really helped was changing her diet, and how often she ate. For a very long time, both my husband and I would take turns feeding her, and that was a big mistake. So I took over feeding her, and I made sure not to give her too much. We also changed her food to Wellness, and I'll tell you, that was the key for us to helping her stay at a healthier weight. She would still gain, and then lose and then gain again, but switching her to Wellness was absolutely the best thing for her.... and for us! That, and plus walking her daily.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

What I did was put my Spoo on a raw diet. He has never been healthier. A few times I have tried feeding him kibble, like when traveling. He ends up throwing up, even at top grade kibble.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

I had acquired a Leatherstocking female (Woodworks Chariots of Fire) about six years ago, and it turned out she was epileptic. She would have 6 to 12 light seizures a day. Her biggest trigger was a doorbell on TV. It would startle her and she'd jump up barking and BOOM...she'd get wobbly, her pupils would become enormous, she was non responsive and sometimes she would fall over and lightly quake. She ended up living with my best friend, and as she got older, they came as frequently but became more intense and always came with a trigger, like a doorbell or a loud knock on the door...anything that started her.


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## BeBe67 (May 13, 2015)

Our 9 yr old toy poodle -Brandie - has had seizuers. I am afraid it may be due to her flea pill. I have recently been told that the flea pill can cause seizuers in some pets? If that is true, I am afraid to give it to her and will go back to the topicals. 

Have any of you ever heard of such?

Thanks

BeBe


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

BeBe67 said:


> Our 9 yr old toy poodle -Brandie - has had seizuers. I am afraid it may be due to her flea pill. I have recently been told that the flea pill can cause seizuers in some pets? If that is true, I am afraid to give it to her and will go back to the topicals.
> 
> Have any of you ever heard of such?
> 
> ...


I know my girl never took flea pills but I bet it's a possibility. Hopefully others can chime in here and share about that. Have you asked your vet about it?


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

My Spoo got seizures from the topical Frontline.


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## DavidT (Apr 15, 2010)

Hi,

Our 5 year old Standard male started having Gran Mal seizures at about 18 months of age. He would consistantly have them about twice per month. Our then vet, trained in Asian seizure meds put him on Chinese meds which brought his seizures down to once per month. Our new Vet has now put him on Zonisimide and he has not had a seizure in 6 months. I dont know much about the moon theory since where we live, we dont get to see it very often. Zonisimide, by the way, has very few side affects...mostly he seems to lack the energy that he once had..but it is worth it. His seizures were horrible to watch.

David


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