Help Determine Cause Of Seizure

[Guest becstock]

My dog Sylvie has has 3 seizures since we adopted her 8 months ago. My vet has done blood work and an EKG but doesn't know what is causing them. My husband and I thought at first the seizures were heat related because the first 2 happened during warm months, but today proves that's not necessarily the case. Usually when she has a seizure she first throws up this yellow, foam/mucus stuff. Then she starts getting unsteady on her feet, when she's going through the seizure her leg muscles usually tense up. The previous two seizures she was not aware of what was going on, but I think todays she was more aware. I went to leave her to run and get the ice pack, our vet suggested putting an ice pack on her to help bring her out of the seizure quicker, but when I went to leave she tried to come with me. So I just stayed with her and told her she was a good girl to help calm her down.

 

Do anyone has an advice? Personal experiences with their dogs? I know there is medication available, but since her seizures have been so infrequent we haven't put her on anything.

[Trudy]

Seizure diseases are a long road to diagnosis.

 

Epilepsy is the diagnosis given by process of elimination. You may never know what causes the seizures. You may never figure out what triggers the seizures. You are a slight bit ahead of the game in that she has pre-seizure behavior that you can pick up on to know one is coming on. They also sound mild.

 

keep a log of her seizures and if they get more frequent or more serious, you can give it to your vet to look over as you decide what to do.

 

 

The yellow foam mucus stuff is bile - that may just be a coincidence that she is puking bile before a seizure or it may be a good indicator that she will have a seizure.

 

Jet pukes up bile when her stomach is empty, she's never had a seizure.

Ryan has violent grand mal seizures and is medicated and still has breakthrough seizures - I've only ever seen him puke up bile once and it wasn't anywhere near any of his seizures.

 

Ryan's seizures would be a very violent one followed by a still violent but not nearly as bad seizure within the next week. With meds, that second seizure doesn't always happen now. I still think the initial seizures are pretty violent, but don't really know if they are less so than before meds.

A drop in meds or very stressful situations will lead to seizures now as well as just a random breakthrough still happens with him.

 

 

Keep track of them and what's going on at the time and keep your vet in the loop.

[turbotaina]

You can also check for tick borne diseases. You can do a panel at NC State.

[Guest becstock]

The vet has checked her blood. I think we looked at her thyroid and sugar levels. Also heart worm disease. We even did an EKG. Everything came back fine.

Edited January 4, 2008 by becstock

[scullysmum]

As Trudy said keep a track of her siezure activity in a diary to help your vet....there is a variety of medication available....it can work very well in many cases stopping the seizures alltogether. Your Vet will be able to help you decide when or whether her seizures are bad enough or frequent enough to warrant putting her on medication.

 

Can I ask what age she is?....idiopathic epilepsy (that is of no discernable or known cause) usually starts when they are between 2 and 5 years old. My boy Scully (now at the bridge, but not due to epilepsy) started having seizires at 5 and was put on a combination of meds...phenobarbitone and Potassium Bromide...and was seizure free for the rest of his nearly five years of life.

[LBass]

There are many different things that can cause seizures--allergies, tick diseases, cancer, reactions to vaccinations, Cushings, encephalitis, etc. A thorough physical including detailed labs will help you and your vet decide whether there is any underlying health issue causing the seizures that needs to be treated. Many times, as in the case of my Piper, everything on the exams and labs looks fine but the seizures persist. That leaves the dx of idiopathic epilepsy--seizures of unknown cause.

 

Keep a log of your dog's seizures--date, time, description, anything unusual in the last 48 hours? This can help you keep track over time and notice any patterns that may help in understanding your dog's seizures.

 

Here are some great web sites with a wealth of good information about seizures and about helping your dog when a seizure occurs:

www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com

www.canine-epilepsy.com Has a great email list for support.

www.canine-epilepsy.net

Link to good overview info

 

Lucy

Edited January 4, 2008 by LBass

[Guest Maire]

Great information - my Kharma started her seizures about age 3. After adjusting from high doses of PB that made her so barky, hungry & restless--we're down to 2 cc K Bromide twice/day in food & only 30 mg Pb twice also . I didn't know about the comparison with Sod Bromide, too. She doesn't seem to notice it at all in her food bowl. She has gone as long as 3 mos now seizure-free, that's much better than every 2 weeks & than 2 days in a row when she had one. They are very violent grand mals with her head back mouth widely open & frothing and running activity with her legs. Pretty sad to see. I unfortunately had to re-home my first greyh back to the group because she vigorously attacked her during the seiz. It was like nips to say "Stop it, stop, it!" she finally bit her under her front leg and that was it. I hac had Maeve for 4 yrs and it was so heartbreaking to have to let her go at 8 yrs old. I just couldn't alwaysprotected her, poor girl- I never left them alone together, but this day I was in the shower and didn't suspect it was time for a seizure. My other greyh never bothered her at all with the seizures.

[LBass]

RE: Sodium Bromide (NaBr) and Potassium Bromide (KBr)...the bromide is the active ingredient that treats seizures. You can get it in chemical solution with either sodium or potassium. For some reason, most vets turn to Potassium Bromide first. Sodium Bromide is usually brought into play for dogs who have lots of tummy upset from taking Potassium Bromide. Sodium Bromide tends to be easier on the tum. I think that the dosing is a little different for the 2 meds but it is all about getting the same therapeutic level of Bromide on board to treat the seizures.

Lucy

[Cynthia]

The vet has checked her blood. I think we looked at her thyroid and sugar levels. Also heart worm disease. We even did an EKG. Everything came back fine.

 

Ok, but you need to specifically ask your vet to have a tick borne disease panel run. As Meredith suggested, NC state can do a complete panel. Rule out tick borne disease before going to the expensive tests like MRIs Even if ticks aren't a problem in your area, your greyhound likely lived and or ran in an area with ticks at some point in his career. And if he didn't the greyhound in the next crate probably did and ticks move from dog to dog.

Edited January 5, 2008 by Cynthia

[Guest becstock]

Sylvie had another episode today, now I'm not sure they are seizures. The two she had in the summer months were seizures, she lost control of her legs, wasn't aware of her surroundings, and her whole body shook.

 

Today I went up to her and noticed she wasn't steady on her feet, like a drunk person trying to walk. I got down on the floor with her and felt her heart was racing, she leaned part of her body up against me. She was aware something was wrong. My husband tried to get her to walk into the other room with more light and she seemed heavy footed, like she was trying to walk but her legs weren't working right. He carried her to the other room and we got her to lay down and she seems fine now.

 

Sylvie is 6 years old, she raced until she was 5.

[TheFullHouse]

She could be having two different kind of seizures. There are several ranging from focal seizures, which is what you are describing all the way to grand mal seizures which is what you described her having this summer. I would definitely have her checked out thoroughly and if they find it's epilepsy I'd get her on some meds right away. I'd also have a tick panel run.

[Guest becstock]

Update on Sylvie! We took her to a different vet, one that specializes in seizures and knows greyhounds very well. She wanted to do some more tests before we put her on medication, which I'm still nervous about doing. I'm worried that it's going to change her personality, but I also know she needs it to control the seizures. I wouldn't want her to hurt herself. Blood , urine, and a stool sample were collected/taken. We are having a bunch of new and repeated tests done. I know her thyroid's being tested and she's being tested for tick diseases. We get the results on Wednesday.

Edited January 9, 2008 by becstock

[Guest becstock]

We got Sylvie's blood work back, everything is fine! This is good, but it still doesn't really explain why she's having the seizures. Our vet just happened to be talking to another vet who also has a greyhound and mentioned our dog. This vet thinks since her blood work is fine that more than likely Sylvie is bleeding in her brain or has a small cut in her brain. As it heals and clots, this is what causes the seizures. The areas that are bleeding are very hard to find, but we could spend about $1,000 and have tests done. I love Sylvie to death, but that's a lot of money to spend on something that might not even be able to find the tear.

 

So right now our vet still does not want to put her on medication, unless she starts to have them more frequently. I talked to our vet again on Friday about the medication and the long term effect on her health of not medicating her. Our concern was what if she's having them while we are at work, I just happened to be home last week on winter break. Dr. Steins had said it all depends on how severe the seizures are which right now they only last about 1 minute. Dr. Steins said we could go ahead and start the medication now, but warned us about the side effects. Jeremy and I have decided right now to wait.

Edited January 12, 2008 by becstock

[TheFullHouse]

The side effects from any medication will subside with time and really aren't that bad in the grand scheme of things in my opinion. Hopefully your girl will start getting better soon.