Rosemary & Seizures

[Burpdog]

I sent Marilyn the link for Honest Kitchen for one of her dogs and she commented that it had rosemary in it and she remembered something about not giving seizure dogs rosemary. So I did some searching. Here is one of things I found from another board (maltese):

 

I wanted to bring something to attention that had been brought up by another not long ago and was somewhat overlooked.<BR itxtvisited="1">I think it was dwerten who mentioned Rosemary poisoning.<BR itxtvisited="1">I had been caring for my older daughter's maltese, who, in the past six months had gradually been having little "spells" eventually progressing to grande mal seizures. It was horrid and the vet could find no reason, thus wanting to put her on phenobarbitol for epilepsy. I was so astounded as the dog had been perfectly healthy and now was at death's door with no energy and seizing several times a day (at the worst). When I read that article I remembered my daughter had put her on Eukanuba due to being on the go and unable to make it to the store that sells Canidae. As I recalled it was SHORTLY after that the "spells" began and escalated. I decided to check out the ingredients and sure enough there was the Rosemary. We stopped the feedings of it and within a week or so the seizures were all but gone, with another two weeks finding her seizure free. Her energy level returned and she was fine. I checked with the vet and she had not heard of Rosemary causing this, although that didn't mean it wasn't so. (I commend her for being honest). I found other articles on the net regarding the same. My guess is Rosemary may not cause it in all dogs as not all have a sensitivity to it and small dogs may need less of it to induce such symptoms. Rosemary and its extract are used as preservatives in some dog foods and snacks. <BR itxtvisited="1">Another friend of mine recently had a maltese that had a seizure. I asked if she had given her anything new to eat. She found the new snack she was giving contained Rosemary. I believe it was Newman's. Her bloodwork came back fine, just as my daughter's dog. She threw the snacks away and the dog has not had another seizure since. <BR itxtvisited="1">I just wanted to put this out there for reference, in case anyone runs into a similar problem.

 

[greysmom]

Someone mentioned this in Lindsay's thread about her Sophie's seizures too. What a weird thing! I wonder if there is any correlation with human supplements? Off to The People's Pharmacy!

[Guest LindsaySF]

I had never heard of this until someone mentioned it in Sophie's thread. Her other foster home had been feeding her Wellness CORE (which contains rosemary extract). When they returned her I switched her off of that and onto Taste of the Wild. She doesn't cluster as badly as she used to, which I assume is the result of a better cluster protocol with her medications, but the rosemary could have played a part, who knows.

 

On the canine epilepsy site they also list other herbs and essential oils that can reduce the seizure threshold, these include: eucalyptus, fennel, hyssop, pennyroyal, sage, savin, tansy, thuja, turpentine, and wormwood. I have looked into some natural supplements for managing Sophie's incontinence but some of them contain these ingredients, or ingredients that are diuretics and Sophie already has a problem with that. It's tricky, you need to read labels really well!

 

 

 

~Lindsay~

 

[Guest MZH]

I read somewhere that rosemary extract is OK, rosemary is not. That said, I wouldn't rish the extract either unless I learned a lot more about it. (I was in the same boat 3 years ago; all the good food had rosemary/extract in it.