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Seizures And Keeping Him In A Kennel At Home (and Getting Another Dog?


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Well, it turns out that Monty's seizure at the track wasn't a one-time deal. We were awakened at 3 this morning when he had his second one in the kitchen. I guess I'll be re-reading the information I'd read months ago on epilepsy in dogs (and printing a bunch out).

 

Anyway, we've been kenneling him when we are out, since he has some separation anxiety and is playful enough to want to get the cats to play with him, and the kennel seems too small should he have another one when inside it. It is not wide enough for him to be able to stretch out his legs straight when lying on his side. I'm glad he wasn't in there when he had his seizure so we (hopefully) have time to make any adjustments to his living arrangements while we're out before he has another one.

 

My questions:

 

Would kenneling him be a bad idea at this point, and should we absolutely let him have at least some house-roaming ability? We can babygate off the kitchen (which has the access to the basement stairs) and have done so this morning. We could go back to locking the cats in the "back bedroom" area (the two bedrooms and bathroom) but would have to move at least one litterbox in there for them while we're out. We don't have a lot of breakable items in our house to begin with but the two display racks can be moved into the back bedroom and out of his access entirely by putting it in the cat's food room.

 

Has anyone here had more than one dog and one of them with epilepsy, and how did the non-epilepsy dog react? Monty still wants another dog, really really bad, but I would worry about the other dog flaking out at the situation and maybe getting fear aggressive or mistrusting Monty after it happened. But then I've heard of dogs that warn people of impending seizures (and think Monty felt weird last night and he might have been hinting that this was going to happen so maybe that wouldn't be that helpful).

 

His seizure did scare the snot out of the cats, but when Monty was ambulatory again - even if he didn't seem to really recognise things like stairs, windows, the cats, and me - Fruity did come up and give him a sniff and (completely out of character for her) purred at him and gave him a couple of friendly nudges with her head. She has NEVER done that with him, nor did she ever do that with our prior dog. It was like she was trying to reassure him. Shade Man just gave him a hugely wide berth and kept an eye on him from a distance.

 

Thanks for any insight you can give me!

 

Toni and Michael (and Monty and the cats)

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My friend keeps her seizure hound in a very large padded crate when no one is home. The rest of her pack is allowed to roam free throughout the house. Even the best of friends might attack a dog having a seizure. Better to keep your boy safe and sound. So far her boy has never had a seizure while in his crate.

Carol Ann

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Molly Weasley Carpenter-Caro - 6 Year Old Standard Poodle.

Gizzy, Specky, Riley Roo & Lady - Our beloved Greyhounds waiting at the Rainbow Bridge.

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One of our volunteers has a seizure hound and she bought an x-pen and padded it. It has a few pillows and a fluffy bed and blankets in it too. This gives her hound more space to move around and if she has a seizure, she is protected from getting hurt on furniture, etc. It works really well.

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Guest crazy4greys

One of our volunteers has a grey that has seizures. She keeps him in an x-pen at all times when she is not home and at night so the other greys don't go after him when it happens.

 

 

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Until recently, we have kenneled Ryan when we leave. He typically has his seizures in the wee hours of the morning.

 

If you have another option until you figure out when he has his seizures or can figure out what is causing them, I'd go that route.

 

Jet is usually asleep when he seizes and only wakes up when she hears us.

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If you have multiples, then crating is usually a good idea. You never know what the other dogs will do. I know JillysFullHouse has experience with this.

 

As an only dog, it's really what you feel comfortable doing. For me, I would think crating is safer than not. :)

Jennifer and Beamish (an unnamed Irish-born Racer) DOB: October 30, 2011

 

Forever and always missing my "Vowels", Icarus, Atlas, Orion, Uber, and Miss Echo, and Mojito.

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If you cannot crate the seizure hound, even thought that would be best, crating the non-seizure hound would be an alternative. I just posted this about living with a seizure hound (might be helpful). Natalie was always crated when we were gone...

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If you cannot crate the seizure hound, even thought that would be best, crating the non-seizure hound would be an alternative. I just posted this about living with a seizure hound (might be helpful). Natalie was always crated when we were gone...

 

 

Thanks to everyone! (I bookmarked the post you linked to.)

 

(Unfortunately he had another seizure this morning and has an appointment with the vet this afternoon - 4:00 was the earliest appointment available. I'm typing absolutely everything I can think of that's gone on yesterday and this morning so I have a record for her. Thank goodness I'd researched and bookmarked a lot of information before he even came home!)

 

You all are wonderful!!!

 

toni

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Since he is currently an only dog, I would stop kenneling him if you can. Confine him to a safe room where things won't be knocked over onto him if he seizes and knocks into them.

I can only speak from Ryan's seizures, but I wouldn't want him seizing in his kennel, as he'd likely break a foot or two because he'd manage to get them out between the bars and snap one while still thrashing about. If not a foot, a toe or a toenail

 

 

Ryan had such a violent seizure one morning and made it into the living room and seized against the wall and bounced him into the solid stand with the TV on it. I had to tackle the TV before it landed on him as that TV was rocking and on its way off the stand and onto Ryan.

That was the night I was more bruised from the seizure than he was. He also got up onto the couch and flew off it into me, knocking me over as I was trying to catch him. That was a very bad night. Thankfully, none of his seizures have every been quite that violent since then.

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Since he is currently an only dog, I would stop kenneling him if you can. Confine him to a safe room where things won't be knocked over onto him if he seizes and knocks into them.

I can only speak from Ryan's seizures, but I wouldn't want him seizing in his kennel, as he'd likely break a foot or two because he'd manage to get them out between the bars and snap one while still thrashing about. If not a foot, a toe or a toenail

 

 

Ryan had such a violent seizure one morning and made it into the living room and seized against the wall and bounced him into the solid stand with the TV on it. I had to tackle the TV before it landed on him as that TV was rocking and on its way off the stand and onto Ryan.

That was the night I was more bruised from the seizure than he was. He also got up onto the couch and flew off it into me, knocking me over as I was trying to catch him. That was a very bad night. Thankfully, none of his seizures have every been quite that violent since then.

 

I remember those nights all too well. Natalie and I would spend HOURS in the bathroom. It was tiled, I had rugs and bedding for her to lay on and it was safe! Not too big and not too small....

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As far as reactions from other dogs, my pack has twice tried to attack Saint while he was seizing and I had to put myself between him and the pack to protect him. I crate all of my dogs at night and when we leave the house, which isn't often since I work at home. Until I got a really big crate for Saint I lined his crate with baby bed bumper pads to prevent him from injuring himself while seizing. Luckily for us, we found the right combination of drugs and he has now been seizure free 3 years.

Judy, mom to Darth Vader, Bandita, And Angel

Forever in our hearts, DeeYoGee, Dani, Emmy, Andy, Heart, Saint, Valentino, Arrow, Gee, Bebe, Jilly Bean, Bullitt, Pistol, Junior, Sammie, Joey, Gizmo, Do Bee

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Guest ucodoggielover

We don't crate Deacon when we aren't home because his seizures are so violent. He's flown off of the couch, bounced off of a dog bed, etc., but luckily never hit the wall or anything hard. We keep our house very dog safe (I'm a clutz, too) so nothing can fall on him and always keep our office closed off from the furkids. In the beginning, it seemed crating him would set off a seizure?, so that's also a reason he's left out in the house when we're gone.

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We're trying to figure out the same thing here. Our first, Sanz has epilepsy. We got Tico over the summer and keep him crated while we're out. The baby gate is set up in the hallway to block off the stairs so Sanz can't get near them. It seems to be working. At night, both dogs sleep in our bedroom so we don't crate either one, figuring we'll wake up if there's a seizure (especially considering Sanz is usually sleeping in bed with us!)

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  • 14 years later...

Hi

   My dog has recently been diagnosed as having idiopathic epilepsy- he had his first seizure in his crate and we went out to do a couple of errands a couple days later and put him in his crate, he seemed to be stressed in his crate (we have a room camera) so we could check on him while we were gone.  

My question is should I not crate him, and just put in in another room in the house where he can be safe next time we go out?
 

 

 

 

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My first Greyhound, Piper, was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy a few weeks after coming home with me at 2 year of age.  I was still crating him at that point, as recommended by the adoption group.  He did not have his initial seizures in the crate.  I was concerned about crating him after seeing the seizures--preceded by lots of anxious pacing and the seizures were always very physical for Piper, followed by a period of confusion and struggles to get up.  He often lost control of bowl and/or bladder as well. I was afraid he'd get hurt if he dealt with all that while crated and I didn't want  him trapped in the crate after the seizure.  He did fine uncrated.  I was, of course, working all day away from home so the hardest thing for me was leaving him each day, afraid he'd have a seizure without me there to take care of him.

I'd suggest talking to your vet about whether to crate of not as well.  FWIW, I lost Piper the Perfect 8 years later to GME.  I am sure now that the GME was the cause of the seizures but that was not clear until the end.  He and I managed his seizures well through all those years and he lived a great life.  I miss him to this day. Best wishes for you and your hound. 

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Lucy with Greyhound Nate and OSH Tinker. With loving memories of MoMo (FTH Chyna Moon), Spirit, Miles the slinky kitty (OSH), Piper "The Perfect" (Oneco Chaplin), Winston, Yoda, Hector, and Claire.

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i will share that my dog who had seizures always concluded each episode w/ a release of bodily fluids- both pee and poop. he  would try to get outside and inevitably backed up to the door and did his business. what fun entering the house. 

discuss w/ your vet, has your vet considered meds if they are on a regular basis? each dog is very different, i found x-pens and gh did NOT work. large crates always worked best for me, personally. my 31" crate for my females is now cherished by my 35lb whippets. it's a loft vs a bedroom to them. think about easily washable crate mats(midwest & chewy has some thick faux fur w/ memory foam filler) that can be thrown in your washing machine.

even my 11 year old dog walker handled a surprise episode w/ ease. it's all common sense and not panicking.

good luck.

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I just noticed that you also asked about getting another dog.

Other dogs, even loving, familiar housemates, can become aggressive toward a dog who is having a seizure.  I managed this by having the dogs wear their kennel muzzles while when I wasn't at home. 

 

gallery_2398_3082_9958.jpg
Lucy with Greyhound Nate and OSH Tinker. With loving memories of MoMo (FTH Chyna Moon), Spirit, Miles the slinky kitty (OSH), Piper "The Perfect" (Oneco Chaplin), Winston, Yoda, Hector, and Claire.

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