Seizures

[Abby and Raya]

Hi Everyone. I just joined doodle kisses and currently have a healthy doodle (fingers crossed). I did lose my first doodle to severe epilepsy. If anyone is dealing with seizures in their doodles and looking for support and someone to talk to, please email. I have been there and understand what you are going through!

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

Abby -

It is good to have you in this group. Mariner, is on phenobarb to prevent seizures. At 7 weeks old Mariner fractured his skull. As result lost his eyesight, started having seizures, and had to relearn how to do everything from walk to peeing. He was with the breeder. They took exceptional care of him. Betty (the breeder) taught him how to walk, to pee, etc. She was unable to keep him for the long term. When we heard of his situation, we decided to adopt him as we already had his older brother (Boomer) and a "Mini" GD. We thought that they would be able to give him the support he needed, and they do.

Over the past year Mariner has regained a significant amount of eyesight. We have had to adjust the phenobarb and now he is seizure free. He does still have a major sight deficit. But, only if you know an you tell. It is difficult to tell how much he does actually see, as his other senses and his ability to memorize the environment are very keen.

Hopefully we will not need your help with his seizures but we do appreciate your offer. Thank you

[Richard Crowe]

Thank God that Holly is healthy but, our previous big dog (Sara Lee - German Shepherd-Golden Retriever-Wolf) had seizures. The began as rather small seizures but, in a few years escalated to grand mal seizures. That was totally frightening, my beloved 85 pound dog flipping around the floor. I laid beside her, held her and placed a quilt under her head so she would not damage her skull.

We brought her to the vet who prescribed a regimen of potassium bromide (KBr). The vet started with a large dose to bring her KBr level up quickly. However, the side effects of the KBr were as frightening as the grand mal seizure. Poor Sara lost control of her hindquarters and could hardly walk and definitely could not squat to urinate. We thought that the seizures may have been from a brain tumor or something like that. As I am writing this I am reliving my fears of several years ago.

Once we found out that her hindquarters and balance problem was a side effect of the medication, we began reducing the amount we gave her. We ended up with just a fraction of the original dose. This kept Sara stabilized and she never had a seizure again. Sara lived for a couple more years until succumbing to mass cell cancer. She was a wonderful friend and a great dog but health was not one of her high cards.

Apparently KBr therapy is somewhat safer than phenobarbital (Pb) and is quite often the first choice of vets when treating dogs with seizure problems. Twenty percent of the dogs treated with Pb develop life threatening liver problems. If KBr cannot control the seizures alone, it can be supplemented with a smaller (and less dangerous) dose of Pb.

KBr is a horrible tasting concoction. I would put it on bread and the dose down the bread with some type of gravy so Sara could tolerate it. She did pretty well that way.

Here is a very informative web site regarding seizures in dogs.

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/PotBr_Adj.htm

By the way - Bless you Abby for giving mariner a good home.

[Abby and Raya]

Andy is the one who adopted Mariner, not me. My doodle is Raya. :)

Andy, I am glad to hear that Mariner seems to be doing quite well, considering the rough start he had!

My epileptic labradoodle was Lila. She was an F1 and was an amazing dog. Her seizures started at almost 11 months and she was gone right after she turned 2 1/2 (last October, I can't believe that it's been almost a year). She had her first seizure and we waited until a second one. She was put on Pb and then as things got worse, we went through every drug out there. We went to numerous neurologists, had an MRI and no one could figure out what was going on. Everytime she had a seizure it was worse than the ones before. I did everything I could for her, but we never got control of her grandmal seizures. She was having anywhere from 1-10 per week at almost an hour each. And with a 75 pound dog seizing, it tooks its toll on both of us. She started to have severe brain damage by August of last year, lost the use of her back legs, loss of bladder control and just felt awful all of the time. I let her go in October, she let me know it was time, and it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

I got my new baby Raya last December and she helped with the healing process of losing Lila!

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

I can only imagine what you went through. I am sorry for your loss. I am sure you did all you could for her.

Mariner, thankfully, only had one grand mal seizure. It was very hard on everyone. It was midnight. We were fortunate that we were able to talk to our vet (besides having a regular practice, he is an emergency Vet)
while it was happening. He told us exactly what to do and got us through it. Very frightening. I don't know what we would have done if we weren;t able to speak to our vet as it was happening.

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

Mariner - Is on a very low dose of phenobarb. Our vet is on top of his levels

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I wonder if any of you know if this could be a type of seizure: My Jack has a very strange thing that happens occasionally with his jaw. He is fully conscious when it happens, but the movements are definitely involuntary. His lower jaw spasms and his teeth click together very audibly and very rapidly for about 15-30 seconds. The vet said it doesn't sound like epilepsy, but could be a type of petit mal seizure. I have seen full-blown seizures in my last dog, when she got very old & sickly, and it was nothing like what happens to Jack. There is no pattern to it that I can discern. He can go months without having one, and then it may happen twice in a week. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

Is he foaming of the mouth while this is going on? Mariner was having something similar. It was happening mostly at night. He would have foaming and mouth movements. We thought it was allergies. Spoke to vet - said it was seizures. This was while Mariner was off phenobarb. I would keep an eye on it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

He doesn't foam at the mouth. Thank you for your input, as nobody else seems to have ever experienced this. I will definitely watch it.

[Abby and Raya]

I would keep an eye on it. Lila started with full blown grand mal seizures, but I do know other dogs who started with small involuntary movements that progressed into full blown epilepsy. I would start a journal and write down everytime you see it happen, along with where you were that day, what Jack did, ate, etc. Every little thing you can think of. If it does get worse you will want to know what had been happening.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Boy, am I glad I thought to ask about this here. Nobody else I have asked has ever heard of this. Thanks for your input, I will definitely start to keep notes on it.

[Abby and Raya]

Glad to help!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack has been going through a very bad time recently with his immune system issues, and last night he had another one of those jaw-spasm episodes I asked you all about before. My daughter commented that maybe the stress of the other medical issues (intense itching, hair loss, infections, etc) could be bringing on the spasms/seizures. Has that been your experience? Jack's allergy specialist does not seem to think they are connected, but it makes sense to me. Thanks for any help.