westiemum Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 (edited) Hi Everyone, It seems my foster boy westie, aged about 4, has had a mild seizure or partial seizure this afternoon. I hung out the last of the washing this afternoon, turned around, he was where he usually is, standing right behind me, with his head tremoring mildly from side to side while standing still, rest of his body still, dilated pupils and a vacant gaze - he really wasn't 'with us'. This went on for about four or five minutes, with the only tremoring in his head and not anywhere in his body. Scooped him up and raced to the vet - but of course the shaking/tremoring had stopped before we got there - he turned around in the car and licked my face and seemed 'back with us'. He didn't collapse, vomit nor was he incontinent. The vet quickly ruled out other possibilities (Normal temp, not hypoglyceamic - sp? etc) and believes it was a mild seizure. (She said 'White Dog Shaking Syndrome, was a possibility but unlikely). He's a little quiet but fine (which may be post-ictal but maybe not... not different enough from usual to be sure) and has eaten dinner normally. Although to cap it all off I've just trodden on his paw!! So I'm now to keep a diary of any further 'episodes' and we'll go from there - and if there is any increase in length or severity of a future episode I'm to try and video it and go straight back to the vet. Its possible it might not happen again and yet it might. Part of the diffculty is that being a dog farm survivor, I don't know his history before 25 January this year - this might be a new problem or a long-term one or indeed a once off - so at the moment its a 'wait and see' game. So my question to all you knowledgeable DOLers, is does anyone have any experience with the outcome of possibly long-term mild epilepsy episodes like this? I know its unpredictable but would appreciate any wise advice at this point - its been a worrying afternoon. Thanks for any help or advice. Westiemum Edited April 4, 2009 by westiemum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tru Borders Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Westiemum, I dont have any advice im sorry, but im happy to here you lil Westie came through it ok. Hope you get some good advice from DOL'ers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hastings Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Hi Westiemum, just one question first, how long ago was he immunised and with what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becks Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 avoid food with rosemary as a preservative as it can set off a fit. Keep a diary of feeding times, exercise etc and see if you can find something that is a trigger. A friend has a dog that must be fed 3 times a day at particular times, going later can cause a seizure, with him it is a drop in blood sugar that seems to set them off, so when he comes round he is fed some vanilla icecream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cockerlover Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 A difficult situation <being you dont know his past history <but DO keep a diary of (hopefully not)future events <triggers <time <lenth of episode ect> Did the vet take bloods for testing ? I haveinfo on file about epilecy <if you want it please feel free to pm me . heres trusting it was a one of episode ,or maybe he was bitten by something ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westiemum Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 Thanks everyone for your replies - really appreciated - it was a shock yesterday afternoon so I'm grateful for your kind words and support - will come back to your questions in detail this afternoon after our Adelaide meet (have to dig out some paper work). Cheers Westiemum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Years back I had a girl who had mild seizures a few times a year, starting at three to four years of age. No association with vaccinations, and we could never pin it down to any sort of poison. My very practical vet said don't bother with all the tests because you're unlikely to get good answers and could spend a fortune. So long as it is less than once a month, it's not worth treating and pretty harmless. If it gets worse / more frequent, try epilepsy meds. She stopped seizing at around eight years. It's unnerving for the owner, but doesn't seem to be much of a wory for the dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hastings Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 pretty much agree with you Sandgrubber, just that I have had one of mine go down after immunization, very mild seizures, less than 60 secs, but he had 2 the first time and i did not connect the seizure with the immunization, the next year it happened again and i clicked, 3 days after injection. No more immunization for him. he is 8 yrs though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kempe Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 I had a collie X that developed epilepsy at 2 years old till he died at 14. No idea what could trigger one but keeping him calm and avoiding loud unexpected noises that spooked him helped. We couldn't take him anywhere because when we took him outside he took a fit, but he was more than happy playing in the back garden and lived a healthy happy lfe, albeit different from normal. You just have to be careful when he is in one that there are no stairs or things he could injure himself on and when he is in one, leave him alone (but watch him) till he comes out of it, then make sure he has plenty of water readily avaliable. Medication can help greatly. Remember they are not in pain, they know nothing of what is happeneing but it is distressing for the owner and epilepsy will not kill him. Your dog seems mild, when mine took an attack it was full blown, went down, thrashed about, foamed at mouth etc. The actual "fit" only last seconds, the rest of the time is recovery from it and then it is like nothing happened. I agree with you that at this stage it is wait and see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westiemum Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 Hi Everyone, Just home from a fantastic meet - I'm sure the photos will go up very soon - it was a bit of a westie takeover! Five in all including three fosters!! Two other beautiful girls and my gorgeous boy. Thanks so much for all your advice - you have no idea what a relief all that is. In answer to your questions: He was last vaccinated on 29 January with Nobivac C5. This was 4 days after he came out of the dog farm. He also had an x-ray that day to look at his hips because he seemed to have an odd gait (x-rays clear and gait appears fine now - probably something to do with his previous caged environment and that he now has rom to move and run). He was also desexed, had some urgent dental work, was chipped had a GA of course and intraoperative fluids and his pre-anaesthetic profile was normal. He has also had one metacam injection. Hope that helps. Cheers, Westiemum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 My daughter Chihuahua had a similar episode in the garden at about 18 months old. In the car to rush to vet & checked & he was fine, thought it was a spider bite. He had fits about twice a year after that. The vet did not advise medication for this frequency. He died when he was 16. Had a slight heart murmer too. Never a problem. Dont worry too much if they are not frequent. C5 is a strong injection for a small dog so may be reaction, or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellz Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 FWIW I have had three dogs with epilepsy....littermates. One had what we would probably call "Grand Mal" seizures. Not often but when they happened they were scary. He lived to the ripe old age of 15. Another had fairly regular mild seizures but we worked out that stress and extreme excitement was the trigger so we tried to keep his life pretty low key. He lived to 12 when he was euthanased for another reason, unrelated to the epilepsy. The third had very very mild "episodes". These manifested as extreme fear, not actually seizures in the true sense of the word. She was euthanased as a result of mammary cancer at the age of 8. She was the only one to have produced progeny and none had it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edslaine Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Hi Westiemum A family dog, back when I was a teenager had epilepsy. She was a westie called Jodie. A show dog til the fits started when she was about 4. She lived a fairly normal life til she was about 14. My dad was amazing with her. He seemed to be able to tell when a fit was coming on and he would take her to her bed and sit on the floor with her til it was over. The vet said that she would be more calm and not so disorientated at the end of the fit if she was in surroundings where she felt safe. She was on medication - phenobarbitol (sp?) I think it was. I hope your baby is okay. E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim'sMum Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 One thing to realise with Epilepsy is that mostly it is 'ideopathic'.........which means there is no known cause. With a dog who has an unknown history, it may be related to past trauma to the head? Once the Vet has cleared any known causes of seizure such as diabetes, kidney problems etc, and seizures continue, then it is ideopathic and all you can do is try to control it with medication. Many dogs (and people) are well controlled on medication. It must be given (usually twice a day) at the same time to be most effective. My neighbours Cav has full generalised seizures every few weeks and is 100% fine the rest of the time. I reallly think it is worse for those watching. A partial or 'absence' type of seizure, as you described, can be scary for you but will not be too traumatic for the dog....it will just leave them a bit tired and disorientated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westiemum Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Thanks everyone for your replies - very kind. My baby boy seems fine so we'll see how we go - and I'll keep a diary in the meantime. Cheers, Westiemum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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