Any other Doodles out there with Epilepsy and/or Seizures?

[Rae]

This past Thursday morning we woke up at 3AM to find Bella in the middle of a Grand Mal Seizure. The seizure lasted about 5-6 minutes (after we got to her) and then as she was "coming out of it" she turned totally viscious - tried to attack me and then our other doodle (Rozee pushed me away and got between Bella and myself!). Of course, as soon as possible we rushed her to the vet on call at our clinic and she felt it was Epilepsy. We're also having her thyroid checked. Since Bella also has Addison's Disease we're checking to make sure there is no connection (we're being told that the two are NOT connected at all). Any other Doodles out there with Epilepsy? We'd love to connect and compare notes. This was the most awful experience we've ever had with any of our dogs.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Here is just one discussion, there are many. You can search for seizures on the upper left hand corner of the page. After seizures (post ictal state) it's common to have abnormal behaviors.
Seizures

[Debbie and Toby]

I am so sorry. Our Toby was also just diagnosed with epilepsy in November. His seizures have all been grand mals, mostly during the night, and has them in clusters of three. It is very, very frightening. When you say she was "totally vicious", I wonder if she was still disoriented. When Toby had his first one, he was very disoriented as he came out of it. Growling, barking viciously at us, etc. He was in his crate, I wanted to help him but was afraid of him. The main thing is to speak softly to her, comfort her and protect her from harm. We are now trying to educate ourselves as much as possible so we can be better able to deal with this.

[Abby and Raya]

My last labradoodle fought a long battle with epilepsy. We have another discussion going under Seizures. Hope you are all having a quiet night, but if you need anything, let me know!

[Leslie C.]

Hi, Rae. My Golden retriever had a seizure disorder that began at around the age of 2. There are some really good websites out there, one has a nice chart that helps you to track the possible antacedents (things happening before the seizures). The more you become educated about the seizures and the quicker your dog comes it to therapeutic range with medicine the easier things will be. I found that my dog's seizure threshold seemed to be influenced by her deworming medicine so I switched to a different kind and tried to minimize the chemicals she was exposed to. In fact, I tried to feed her a natural diet and also tried acupuncture before placing her on medicine. She was placed on Potassium Bromide and a small dose of phenobarb. The Potassium Bromide was initiated at a loading dose which upset her stomach but got her seizures under control more quickly. I also remembered that weather changes / like storm fronts rolling in or big changes in weather pressure seemed to influence the pattern. Her seizures would also come on when she first woke up and walked out of the cage. Timing the length of seizures is important and also talking to your vet to determine if some emergency meds like Valium suppositories are needed at home (for the dog). The post seizure phase can present itself in many ways . . . I remember my dog needing to pace and seemed to disoriented for a period of time afterwards. Once things settled down, I was able to give her a bath (she usually was incontinent during her grand mal seizures). My dog lived a long, happy life and did well with her seizure medication routines. Check out the information and resources on this site: http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ This is the one with the chart & other great bits of information. Take care, Things will get better and easier . . . ~Leslie

[Cocco's Mom]

Cocco is three years old now. When she was one and a half she had two seizures. I not sure if they were as severe as Bella's. Her head mostly was shaking and she didn't seem to know where she was. I just gentle held her and pet her until it stopped. Her seizures were about six months apart. The vet could not figure it out. Lots of times she does "bite the air with her head tipped back. I tried to keep a journal of what was going on in the house or what she ate before she had the seizures. Then they just stopped. Thank God she hasn't had anymore since. She did not become viscous after either of the incidents.

[Rae]

Bella has now had a total of three seizures - the first was the worse and the only time (Thank You, God) that she was vicious and Debbie is probably right that she was very disoriented and probably more scared than we were. The second seizure came five days later and lasted about half the time of the first and after 15 minutes she was up and playing like nothing happend. The third came just a week later. Our vet has put her on phenobarbital (0.75 grain/ 12 hours apart). She had blood work done last week and her Pheno level was 18.6(range 15-45) and her liver function was <10 which is great. So far so good - no more seizures and we're keeping our fingers crossed. The vet said his goal is one or less seizures a year - sounds good to us but NEVER sounds even better.

Bella also had Addison's Disease - guess she really drew the short stick! We really appreciate all the kind thoughts and help from our Doodle Family. Wish we could meet each of you in person.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

These new lab results sound great...here's hoping she has turned the corner and the worst is over. She is such a cute little girl.

[Debbie and Toby]

No more seizures....great to hear! I hope Bella stays seizure free! We also just had Toby's bloodwork run again a couple weeks ago, his phenobarb level was 26, with the "safe" range being 10 - 40. On the 32.4 mg dosage he was only at a level of 12, being extremely low, and most likely the reason that he continued to have seizures. He now is on 1 grain every 12 hours. Seems to be working!!! We just had liver acid/bile tests done today, will have the results back early next week, although the liver enzymes were in a normal range in his recent blood work. I love the picture of Bella...she is darling! I really hope she does well on the current dosage. You are right, "NEVER" sounds even better than once a year. I hope Bella and Toby both continue to make progress. Give Bella lots of doodle hugs from us! We are also keeping our fingers crossed for you and Bella!

[Mona Haight]

My Boston started having seizures just before he turned one, Grand Mal, they started getting more frequent and he got the "violent" tendency which is actually a disorientation with the last few. He has been on meds now for almost two years and no seizures that we know of. If he has one I make sure he is by himself when he comes out of it. My biggest fear is that he'll have one at the off leash park and what am I going to do when he's coming out of it. I told his breeder because the information says that if they have their first before 1 year of age they figure it comes from one of the parents.

[LG & Sadie]

My Goldendoodle Sadie has well managed epilepsy but does need to take phenobarbitol 2X a day....I remember being so overwhelmed when her first seizures happened at around 1 1/2 years old....doing the MRI and other tests to rule out anything other than epilepsy-and then worrying she would never have the life she knew prior to her first seizure. Luckily all my worry was wasted energy-because once she adjusted to the pheno-she was back to her old self. I took longer to adjust-and my friends and spouse teased that I was an over bearing and over protective Mom who wanted my dog to wear a helmet! But with time I relaxed and we only had 1 ocassion where her med needed adjusting. She is 3 now-and a very, very happy dog who enjoys life~

Sadie's first seizure did throw me for a loop...she had been sleeping while I was working on my laptop.....she jumped up and ran smack into a wall full speed.....then jumped up again and walked off balance toward me crying....and before reaching me fell to her side in a God awful seizure-Grand Mal. I was horrified and took a minute to even figure out what was happening while I held her.....Somehow I had looked at the clock and timed it.....she frothed at the mouth and when she finally came out of it she was just completely limp and confused. We had to carry her using a blanket to the car to bring her to the Vet. My heart goes out to your Bella and you as you all adjust!!!!

[Bear's Mom]

Hi everyone,
It is so nice to find a group like this online. I have a 3 year old Goldendoodle name Bear who we adopted from a friend about 6 months ago. When we adopted him we were aware that he had seizures, but they have gradually gotten worse in teh last 6 months. Every seizure he has had with us has been a Grand-Mal. He always urinates and foams at the mouth. Sometimes they are just shaking, other times they are wining and delerious-ness. He has been on Pheynobarb for a while now, always having his blood drawn and his levels adjusted. We now not honly have him on that, but a liquid medicine called Bromide. The vet was sure that would work, and unfortuanatley about a week ago he had a set of 4 cluster seizures and got more delerious than ever. He paced for about 10 hours, laying down for 15 minutes here and there. We would speak to him and he wouldn't know where the voice was coming from. That was the scariest he's ever been. He was barking all night long, but didn' want to be alone. I had to sleep on the couch with him so he's stop breathing so heavily. We gave him plenty of ice water and some vanilla ice cream to keep him cool, but nothing worked. He eventually snapped out of it in teh morning. Our vet is extremley concerened the these medicines aren't working and wants us to have an MRI that costs $1300! Does anyone have any other suggestions before we invest in an MRI where we might not even find anyhting!?!?

[LG & Sadie]

Unfortunately I don't....it seems you tried the conservative approach with the medicines to no avail in terms of seizure control. The MRI would let you know if there was some structural abnormality in the brain etc. and in case you are wondering there are treatable scenarios that turn out not to be epilepsy. I know before we went ahead with the MRI I asked our Vet..."is this MRI going to lead to Sadie getting well?"...she said it was kind of 50-50, we got lucky with Sadie and her brain was fine-which meant the MRI didn't show anything. I was very surprised how comforted we felt knowing that-because at that point it felt like, "Oh good...it is just epilepsy". My thoughts and prayers are with you and Bear....he is a beautiful boy!