Hours long hypoglycemia/seizures episodes

[Melissa Tremblay]

Benji my 1.5 year old 30 pounds standard Goldendoodle (runt of the litter his brothers and sisters are 70-110 pounds) has weird episodes that ressembles hypoglycemia episodes every 4-6 weeks since he is 9 months (started when I've lost my 23 years old sister through suicide).

Our vet thought he had seizures due to unknown cause she's a holistic vet and told me he had anxiety and we should try something to calm him down and I chose to try chamomile tea. I bought all the chamomile tea I could find in my area and ive ran out last week (waiting for order to come in). He had another episode 2 days ago it seemed worst than others, he was shaking, shivering, he looked scared, couldn't walk, etc. As soon as we got at the vet hospital they took his blood sugar and it was very low gave him insulin and was 80% better. All his blood test was normal other than low blood sugar, cortisol levels normal, X-rays normal, she said his belly was a bit tensed so she gave him an injection to help digestion. Couple months ago he also had test for bile acids to rule out a liver shunt and came back negative and X-ray which showed he had a smaller liver).

His episodes are always about 2+ hours after he eats dinner. Generally happens after he gets either anxious/scared/excited but one time he woke up from a nap with an episode. It seems like the episodes didn't last as long when I gave him chamomile tea and fish oil Omega 3 mixed with his dinner. Before his episode starts, he seems off, runs desperately destructively, aggressive, barks, jumps, bites, he seems hangry/playful and then when he settles his head rocks side to side and he walks like he's drunk, falls over, has difficulty to get up at times and then he's like normal for couple of minutes he runs and then back in the episodes until eventually it gets worst. 

This week he's going to be tested his blood sugar for 12 hours to see if he's diabetic. The vet also proposed that we give him a diet without allergens and give him his food divided in 4 or more meals, and we choose HURRAW a Canadian Raw dehydrated food which is single meat: Pork, extra-lean ground, pork, lentils, pork liver, green peas, eggs, apples, pumpkin, flaxseeds, apple cider vinegar, cranberries, thyme, ground celery seeds, vitamins & minerals. (He previously was on pretty much the same type of food but it was Grand Cru from Canisource and contained more allergens with beef, white rice, whole barley, oat flakes, carrots).

In general other symptoms he has: pants a lot, drinks lots of water, pees often, little anxious, barks easily, eats anything and everything (cannot leave anything on tables).

Does anyone have experienced this or have recommendations? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I am sorry Benji is going through this.
On thing to remember when we talk about food "allergens": Allergies are very, very specific to the individual, and allergens are very very specific as well. An individual can only be allergic to something to which he/she has previously been exposed. So if a dog has never eaten beef, beef cannot be an 'allergen" for that individual dog. if a dog has has eaten pork in the past, pork can be an allergen, regardless of whether it is raw, cooked, dehydrated, etc. It is the specific protein molecule to which an allergy develops. Therefore, when switching diets for the purposes of eliminating allergic responses, you must feed a single protein diet which contains a protein to which that individual dog has never ever been exposed. The same is true for starchy carbs like rice, oats, etc. 
However, it's unlikely that the seizures are related to food allergies, or any allergies at all. 
I would strongly urge you to consult a veterinary neurologist. Whether a GP vet is "holistic" or not, they cannot be experts in the most current diagnostics and treatments of every single health issue/disease out there, any more than our primary care doctors can be experts in everything we may have. We see dermatologists, opthamologists, orthopedic specialists, etc and we can get that same expertise for our dogs. 

[Melissa Tremblay]

Hi Karen, 

Thank you for your answer. Turns out we choose to not give him the food we had bought and decided to try something else for a while to see how he does with more carbs and less proteins with ingredients he never consumed before and specifically designed for allergies because the episodes really seems to be related to the digestive system. We started giving him 4 meals a day instead of 2. We`ll be taking his blood sugar levels in the morning and after supper. All the tests he had was negative other than low blood sugar and small liver on X-ray.

Tuesday he had a different episode after eating his regular food for supper we gave him honey and he started feeling better but still brought him to the vet again showed low blood sugar gave him more food (vet allergenic) and they did a blood glucose curve test all night and turned out to be stable. 

We`ll see how he does but if it doesn`t seem to improve the next step is to go for a CT scan with a Neurologist Vet at a Veterinary College outside of our province. Unfortunately, we live in a small city and only have access to general veterinarians, I had to change vet twice because they didn`t seem to have any idea what to do other than treat the ``seizures``but now I think we are on the right track with this one. Also, we do not have a Veterinarian Neurologist anywhere in our province that`s why we are trying to rule out everything before we go there. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

One thing that many people, even medical professionals, do not understand is that carbohydrates can cause low blood sugar; as a person with hypoglycemia for more than 40 years, I can tell you that we need protein, not carbs, to keep our blood sugar levels stable. I am certain the same is true for dogs, probably even more so, since proteins are a dog's natural diet. Carbohydrates enter the blood stream quickly and raise the blood sugar levels rapidly, but unless protein is given, the blood sugar levels drop just as quickly, usually lower than they started out. Proteins will raise the blood sugar levels much more slowly, but then sustain the blood sugar levels for a longer time at a steadier level. Please be sure that whoever is advising you on the lower protein, high carb diet is qualified to recommend this and has a formal educational background in canine nutrition, which excludes most GP vets.