Dog seizures - anyone have experience with these?

[grinningghost]

Our 5 year old golden retriever has been having seizures since she was 2. Up until now, they've never included loss of bowel or bladder control. But I think we might have, unfortunately, turned that corner. We woke up this morning to find 3 separate piles of poop and a puddle of pee on our carpet downstairs. She was acting a little strange last night before we went to bed. She kept walking up to me and whining. Like she couldn't sit still or something.

I'm thinking she may have had a seizure in the middle of the night and not realized what she was doing and had a bunch of accidents. She NEVER has accidents in the house - not since she was a small puppy. So this was really weird.

Has anyone had experience with this? I'd hate to see this be the beginning of something worse.

 

[luvstiggertoo]

Oh I hope and pray that you do not go through what we did.
Our Keeshond "Barney" had regular seizures for about 5 of his 8 years.
The behavior you describe was exactly what he went through just before a seizure. It got to the point where we could tell it was about to happen. We'd always scoot the kids out of the room because it was just so painful to watch.
After his seizures, Barney lost all bladder & bowel control. We could not get him out of the house quick enough.
The vet finally prescribed phenol barbital, which reduced the number of seizures, but did not eliminate them. Unfortunately, it also destroyed his liver and shortened his life. But is was so painful to see him go through this.

HUGS to you and your furbaby!

 

[Chuck S]

We had a dog that seemed to sense when she had a seizure coming on...we gave her a mild valium (with the vet's approval). It worked well, she never got to the point of loosing control of her bodily functions, but her seizures were pretty severe. When she felt a seizure coming on she'd always start bumping lightly against Mom until she got her valium. The seizure would start, and she'd still get a little wobbly, but not nearly as severe or as lengthy as without the valium.

 

[PandyPaws]

Ummm, yeah It happened to my Jesse (Collie)
He began getting the seizures in April of his 4th year....and he died on Halloween, after months of trial and error looking for the right meds.

I'm so sorry you're going through this...hoping for a good oucome for you

 

[Boots]

DD had a dalmation who had seizures. Her vet said it was quite common in dalmations. I really don't know too much about it but I do remember that Freckles had them.

 

[Rob&Jan]

We had a Golden that started with seizures at about the same age as yours. I'm afraid they got progressively worse and the loss of bodily functions did start to occur. The Vet started with a single drug and we ended up with what the vet called a drug coctail as it contained a number of them. I'm not a Vet and can only relate our experience but we did have to have our dog put down as his quality of life got to be so bad and he was suffering. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I hope your dog responds to medicine and lives a long and happy life. Good Luck

 

[grinningghost]

Thanks so much for all your stories. Our dog has been on phenobarbital for a few years now, and it seems to cut down the number of seizures she has. I'm afraid she might be getting worse now. I've got a call into the vet, so we'll see what he says - maybe just an adjustment on her meds. She seems fine today, but she was definitely acting strange last night. Something was up with her. I really wish she could talk and tell me.

 

[cinlee3]

Our Cocker started having seizures around 5. Vet never put him on meds for it and he lived to be 15. He did start having bowel and bladder problems in his last year. It was very difficult to watch him go through the seizures, but he did not have them every day. We would just keep him calm and reassure him. He would try to walk around so many times we would wrap him in a blanket to keep him from hurting himself.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this with your dog.

 

[Disney-Kim]

Our dog had seizures for years until we got a good Vet. This really made all the difference. Our dog takes phenobarbitol. it took years and blood tests to get the dosage right and he has not had a seizure in almost 6 years. (that we know of...but we always knew).
Yes is bad for the liver but he has full blood tests/liver enzymes every 6 months to monitor the levels.
The seizures were too hard on him and would have ended his life sooner imho.
He is 10 years old and has been on phenobarb since he was about 3.

If you have any more questions feel free to PM or ask.

The Vet really made all the difference. If anyone is having a bad time with their dog...get a better vet.

 

[CindyBeth]

Our previous dog was 1/2 golden and 1/2 lab. He started having seizers at 8 months old. He would go thru a 2 -3 day period where he would have several seizers and just be out of it for that whole time. Pheno bartial did nothing for him and they kept upping and upping his dose. One night we had to takie him into pet emergency (he couldn't walk from the seizers and was so out of it) and there we met a dog neurologist, who put him on a experimentaly medicine that works along with the pheno. It worked and we were able to cut the pheno back to 6 pills a day! He was up to 18 a day previously with no effect. And once we got the dose right, it cut his seizers back dramtically! The medicine is Potassium Bromine. Maybe you could find someone who knows about it. Our dog died at 6 years old(cancer), but we would have had to put him asleep without the Potassium Bromine, he seizers were so bad!

 

[Ranatra]

My 11 year old poodle has had seizures since she was 2. Last summer she started having "clusters" of seizures. Like 3-4 a day. We took her back in to the vet, he did some blood work and doubled her dose of phenobarbitol. It hasn't completely eliminated them, but now maybe only 1 every couple months. She usually loses control of her bladder during a seizure, and right before a seizure she paces the house, and then she hunts me down, she seems to want to be right next to me. I can usually tell when it's coming on.

 

[Disney-Kim]

We always knew when a seizure was coming too. Our dog would act funny and sort of disoriented. He would pass gas and pee during a seizure usually. So I would grab the doggie towel when I saw him start to look like a seizure was coming.