Seizures

[Saffron]

Sandlot,

 

On the safety question, Roocroo has already covered it. Thanks Roocroo. If others are crated when supervision is not possible, and you are alert to the issue and the need to separate fast in the case of a grand mal, you will be fine.

 

It is not that other dogs are mean -- Grand mals are really scary for humans and dogs!

 

I hope you had hopeful advice from your vet today. Seizures can certainly be controlled! Tucker almost certainly has many good years ahead of him.

 

We maintained and kept safe non-grey Nell for 5 years after diagnosis on a cocktail of drugs. Grey Murphy is doing really well on Pheno. We check his blood levels every 6 months.

 

I hope I was not too abrupt. It just seemed that no-one else had mentioned the attack factor, and it is very real . . .

 

Any update?

 

 

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Another safety thing to do, is wedge something under your bed so Tucker never has a Grand-Mal stuck under the bed. Henry once had a Grand-mal with his head and shoulders under the bed. Not good! Our bed has legs in the middle, so we just slid a body pillow and then a crib mattress under the bed, and the middle legs hold the body pillow and crib mattress in place.

[Guest sandlot13433]

These are excellent suggestions! Thank you all so much. No safety advice is ever given too harshly...it's so much better to be straight forward when it comes to the safety of our hounds, so the advice is greatly appreciated. I would never have thought about the possibility of Tucker getting stuck under the bed. I am going to shove some stuff under there today. We were unable to get a vet appointment today, but will see the vet tomorrow (Tuesday) at 4, so I will update for sure after that. Please definitely keep the advice coming. I would never be able to foresee all the possible ways Tucker could get hurt, so it's helpful to get this advice and be able to be proactive. Thank you all so much!

[Guest RooCroo]

Another safety thing to do, is wedge something under your bed so Tucker never has a Grand-Mal stuck under the bed. Henry once had a Grand-mal with his head and shoulders under the bed. Not good! Our bed has legs in the middle, so we just slid a body pillow and then a crib mattress under the bed, and the middle legs hold the body pillow and crib mattress in place.

 

 

YES YES! Must agree on this one. Hoovie once had a seizure while halfway under the bed. We had to pull him out by his front feet, and were lucky we didn't get bitten. Same goes for couches and armchairs they can get their heads under.

[Guest sandlot13433]

Do people notice that the seizures tend to occur at night? I read on one of the canine epilepsy sites that seizures tend to occur when they are fast asleep, but my greys fall fast asleep not just at night, but throughout the day as well. So far, Tucker's three seizures have occurred in the middle of the night or early morning. I was just curious what others have experienced.

[Guest MZH]

Our Cullen almost always had his seizures while eating his breakfast. He never had one during thenight; the closest to that were two at about 5:45 AM. His first one was at that time too. They all have their patterns, that's for sure.

 

Marcia

[greypuppyluv]

I don't know what time of the day Phaelin's first seizure was since we didn't witness it (just found the "after-effects"). His second one was around 1am, the third was at 5:30pm and the fourth was at around 10am (all on different days). The 10am one hit as he was eating his breakfast. So, Phaelin's didn't all occur at night.

[Guest EmilyAnne]

There's a theory about nightly seizures being connected to diet. I cant remember how the theory goes. Henry's are mostly random now. Middle of the day, morning, evening, night. They used to occur more at night time.

[Guest sandlot13433]

Well, I wish I had better news to share. We have to wait for Tucker to have more seizures =O( I completely understand the vet's reasoning, she doesn't want to put him on pheno just yet until we establish a pattern for sure because he would have to be on pheno the rest of his life. So, we did blood tests and a stool sample and we shall just wait and see if/when he has another seizure. I sincerely hope that he doesn't have any more!

[Guest PeteysMom]

Patches had his first seizure just a few days after we started fostering him. We started him on Skullcap and he didn't have another one until 1 month later. After working with our holistic vet, we started him on some Standard Process supplements, along with the skullcap, and set him up on a very stringent feeding schedule (4 times a day, thought low blood sugar may have contributed) and he had a couple more seizures after that. What was weird was that his seizures always fell on the first day of a new moon. After being on the supplements and new feeding schedule for a couple months, he went seizure free for 2 years. We changed one of his supplements last October and he had a seizure. After that, we went back to everything as it had been and knock-on-wood, he hasn't had another! I'm hoping that we can continue with this regimen and never have to put him on hard drugs!

[Guest MZH]

Wow, that's amazing!

 

Marcia

[scullysmum]

Do people notice that the seizures tend to occur at night? I read on one of the canine epilepsy sites that seizures tend to occur when they are fast asleep, but my greys fall fast asleep not just at night, but throughout the day as well. So far, Tucker's three seizures have occurred in the middle of the night or early morning. I was just curious what others have experienced.

Scully's seizures always started just as he was falling asleep, I was actually able to watch it happening once, usually I was elsewhere when they started as like you said they tended to happen during the night. This is not the case for all dogs though, there are as many different types of seizure pattern as there are seizure dogs.

 

I am sorry to hear that Tucker has had more seizures since your first post, keep recording your diary and hopefully you will be able to find the right treatment for him.

Edited February 11, 2009 by scullysmum