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Old January 7th, 2013, 01:52 AM
reksav reksav is offline
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My boys had a few seizures.

We came home today and there was a urine spot on the carpet, we thought not too much off it other than maybe he really had to go or something scared him. (By him I'm referring to Flint, a 7 year old husky/lab.) Then a few hours later, around 6pm, his head cocked to the side with his mouth pried open, fell to the floor and started convulsing very violently, he urinated and defecated a little in that time along with very very thick saliva. We rushed him to the vet since we had no idea what was going on and had never seen anything like it before and were told "it was probably a seizure thanks for your money now go away." Here we are now at 1am and we just woke up to him having another, in our bed with us, what a mess ... We are going to get him into our normal vet today to see what can be done but I was hoping that I could get some insite on all this from some members here. Is there something we should or shouldn't do while the seizure is taking place? After?

Scariest thing I've ever ever seen before, really was hoping it was a 1-off and I'd never have to see it again.

Thanks in advance for any support, help and info!
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Old January 7th, 2013, 12:24 PM
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pbpatti pbpatti is offline
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Wow, how scary is that! We have a member on here that has a lot of information about seizures. I will send her a message and have her check in here. I hope that your vet visit goes well.
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Old January 7th, 2013, 01:01 PM
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Rgeurts Rgeurts is offline
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Hi reksav

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Seizures are horrid, and so scary to watch. At your boys age, I would be concerned about underlying health issues, especially since these are his first seizures, and cluster (more than 1 seizure in a 24 hour period-sometimes back to back). Instead of researching all my links and taking the time to type everything out, I'm going to copy and paste what i had written for someone in a thread in November. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, or send a pm. I'm more than happy to share anything I have. What I am pasting is long, and a lot of info, so hopefully it doesn't overwhelm you:

A few of the first things I would have checked is liver,kidneys and Thyroid. When you request the Thyroid test, make sure your vet requests a full Thyroid panel, not just a T4. Sibes and Mals are both prone to Epilepsy, Auto-Immune disease and Immune-Mediated Hypothyroidism. If the liver and kidneys aren't functioning properly, or your girl has developed a liver shunt, those can trigger seizures, so good to rule those out first. The Thyroid can also cause seizures, especially if it is in the "low-normal" range. The best place to have a Thyroid panel is through Dr. Jean Dodds at Hemopet. She's the leading authority in Auto-immune disease in dogs and will tailor the Thyroid panel to your specific dog (breed, age, previous health issues etc). As she has proven, the "norm" for standard Thyroid tests do not fit all dogs. There are many factors involved when determining the proper range. I'll post a link at the bottom of the page. Your vet can draw the blood and send it off to her, or you can go to any vet, have the blood drawn and send it off to her yourself. She gives all the instructions on her website

Now for vaccines! Vaccines are a huge issue, especially in certain breeds (Northern breeds/Akitas are affected often). Vaccines and over vaccination can cause something called Vaccinosis, which is one of the likely culprits in my baby's Auto-Immune disease. If your girl has been vaccinated within the last 1-6 weeks, I would suspect that. Most vets will tell you that vaccines do not cause harmful side effects such as seizures etc, but they can, and often do. Some may say that due to lack of information/continuing education on their part, and some rely on those annual visits. So please, before you take someones word on anything (including mine), do some research on your own. There's so much information available now! Again, Dr. Jean Dodds has a lot of good information on her website regarding Vaccinosis as well as Hypothyroidism and seizures. And never allow the vet to give all vaccines on the same day. The Rabies should be given at least a week to 2 weeks after the other vaccines. Also, never let them vaccinate while your dog is having active seizures.

The next is Epilepsy. As I said, your girl is prone to Epilepsy, sadly, due to her breed. The onset for Idiopathic Epilepsy (meaning no known medical reason/cause for the seizures) is usually between 3-5 yrs old. Some dogs will have the onset between 1-2 years. If that's what it is, it's manageable with medication. There are several medications available, but Phenobarbital is the most commonly used. Now, having said that, I would not allow them to ever give my baby Phenobarbital as a first choice. It's extremely damaging to the liver and there are better choices out there. My baby doesn't take anything now (he was on Phenobarbital, Prednisone and Azathioprine for seizures and meningoencephalitis). The meds he was on caused severe internal bleeding and liver damage (and possibly in conjuntion with things he had eaten like toys-he has Pica as well) and had to have a blood transfusion at 8 months old, we almost lost him. They prepared us for the "end" and said his disease had probably run it's course. We started seeing a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) holistic vet who gave our sweet baby his life back. So he's on a combination of Chinese herbs and Homeopathics to control his seizures. If you have a holistic vet in your area, check reviews, google him/her and if they seem good, it's worth the money.

Here are a few links:

This is a wonderful webpage designed specifically with people like us in mind. There are many stories from people with Epileptic dogs who give advice on everything from medication to diet, specific items to avoid such as anything (food, treats, home scents) with certain items like Rosemary (in most holistic food and treats now), Lavender, certain chemicals, preservatives etc.:

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

This is a link to Dr. Jean Dodds foundation called Hemopet:

http://hemopet.org/

This is also a great website to help you understand what's going on, and possible causes:

http://www.canine-seizures.freeservers.com/index.htm

One thing that helped me (though it may sound morbid to some), is watching dog seizures on youtube. It helps to see that what's happening to your baby is "normal" in terms of what a seizure looks like. Nanook has grand mals, and his seizures last sometimes upwards of 10 minutes, which is extreme. The first time it happened, I did the same thing as you... I freaked out and thought he was dying, and by the time we got to the vet, he was almsot back to normal. I had no idea what seizures in a dog looked like (or should look like) and thought his were much worse to see than they should be, but in fact, look very much like many others. The link just below is one of his grand mals. We take videos for our vet, which you should do as well. It helps them to see the type/severity and can help with the treatment. I apologize in advance for the focus. This was in the middle of the night and hubby was trying to focus with the zoom ... being awaken by a seizure is frightening and adds to the confusion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBRV...A&feature=plcp

If you stick around, there is another girl here who joined around the same time I did. I'll send her an email and see if she can come on and give you some advice. She also has a baby that has grand mals and has been through several medications trying to find one that helps, but doesn't damage the liver/kidneys as much. The last time I had spoken to her, they were about 8 months without a seizure (her dog had seizures weekly, and sometimes more often than that). Her name is Serenamlambe. She's wonderful
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"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" - Ok... whoever said this has never had a sick or special needs baby. They ARE our whole life!

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Old January 7th, 2013, 01:10 PM
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Rgeurts Rgeurts is offline
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Ok, I just clicked the link I had posted for one of Nookies seizures, but it says the video doesn't exist. This is the right link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBRVl-Jy_0A
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"Obey my dog!" - Mugatu

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!" ~ Theophile Gautier


"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" - Ok... whoever said this has never had a sick or special needs baby. They ARE our whole life!

R.I.P. my sweet, handsome Thorin. You are missed dearly Dec. 25, 1999 - Mar. 4, 2012
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Old January 7th, 2013, 01:17 PM
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Rgeurts Rgeurts is offline
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Just a couple more things! When Nookie has a seizure, we give him valium rectally. What it does is help to stop clusters or status epilepticus. Being that you're boy had 3 in a very short time, he's a great candidate for rectal valium, and it will help give you some peace of mind. If your vet isn't willing to provide that for you, find another vet. Clusters can lead to status, and status can be fatal. Also, if your boy has been to the vet recently for an infection and was given Convenia, that could be an issue as well.
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"Obey my dog!" - Mugatu

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!" ~ Theophile Gautier


"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" - Ok... whoever said this has never had a sick or special needs baby. They ARE our whole life!

R.I.P. my sweet, handsome Thorin. You are missed dearly Dec. 25, 1999 - Mar. 4, 2012
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  #6  
Old January 7th, 2013, 09:40 PM
reksav reksav is offline
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Well we took him to the vet today and he was started on 1.25 grains of Phenobarbital every 12 hours. I'm not very comfortable with it after much research but for the time being I'm OK with it. We're actively looking for a holistic vet in our area and hopefully will have luck finding one. Also I'm sad to report he suffered another seizure this morning at around 10 am but has been seizure free since. I'm not sure exactly what blood work was done but we were told that his liver and kidneys are fine. I really hope that we find out more info as to what is causing all this.

Two things that we had changed in the last week or so was his food, we switched from Purina One Smart Blend to Nutro Natural Select also we were spraying the house with air freshener things that we made with some natural oils. So we've stopped using the air fresheners and switched him back to his old food, I'm really hoping that one of those was a trigger and now we'll be in the clear. Though I'm sure that's not going to stop this from happening again.

We're terrified and really do appreciate all of the info and support, such a great community here.

Thanks so much for everything!

Oh while I'm thinking of it, while his seizures are happening, we've been holding him and trying to sooth him. Is this a good idea or should we just make sure he can't hurt himself and stand back?

Again, thank you so much.
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