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Dog Has Fits Every So Often.


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Hi,

Our 2 yr old female pomeranian every now and then has seizures or fits where she gets all rigid and shakes a bit.

They last for only about 2-3min but are enough to scare both her owners of course.

After the seizure is over she's fine and starts to play or even eat. She also drewls abit while in the fits.

Have taken her to the vet but he has said that without a pattern there is no way of telling if its anything serious.

Was wondering if anyone here has had anything similar or knows what these could be. Just want to try make our girl better.

Thanks

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There is the high possibility that her fitting is due to her being vaccinated and even once vaccination seizes this still persists for a few months AFTER the next shot is due, that is 12 months down the track when you would be supposedly due for a booster and the dog is not given a booster the fits will still continue until they slowly but surely subside until no more fits. I have been through this so I am speaking from personal experience and going out with a vet for some time, and being the kind of vet that liked to do his research was quite an educational time for me.

Another reason that small dogs are prone to fitting is due to hypoglycemia, in other words 'low blood sugar' so hence feeding 3-4 small meals per day will ensure that the fitting will stop providing this is the cause.

Did you vaccinate her recently? in other words, has she had her 2nd booster? do a search on 'side effects of overvaccinating a dog' and you will see what the repercussions are to give a dog a booster for every year of a dog's life....MAJOR NO NO and the americans refuse to do this, pitty that vets here are either incredulous to the risks or simply do not know any better or worse still they don't want to lose their wallets getting fatter and fatter because not only do they make top money with vaccinating dogs every year but then dogs get sicker with auto immune problems just to name one and there's more money coming in, the vet just cannot lose.

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Yes, my parents Maltese who is now 12 years old has been having fits averaging one ever month or so since about the age of 1 and a half.

The Vets have done heaps of tests on her, blood work ect and have never been able to find anything :) .

Occasionally she has a 'bad day' and has a couple of these fits all together. She goes stiff as a board and for a little while and then starts to shake and pant and has a 'glazed look' then she if fine!.

It drives my parents and I crazy with worry and then she migt be free from them for a couple of months!.

They have never really incresed enough to experiment with medication and have not affected her quality of life so the vet has always thought that if it gets worse then they will investigate it a bit more, It has never gotten worse and all othe ways her health is great for a 12 year old.

My Unlces staffy had bad epilepsy and had to be put down at a young age :love: . She was such a wonderfull girl but she was have 2 or 3 fits everyday and her medication was not working.

Hopefully your little girls remain uncommen ;) .

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Hi,

Our 2 yr old female pomeranian every now and then has seizures or fits where she gets all rigid and shakes a bit.

They last for only about 2-3min but are enough to scare both her owners of course.

After the seizure is over she's fine and starts to play or even eat. She also drewls abit while in the fits.

Have taken her to the vet but he has said that without a pattern there is no way of telling if its anything serious.

Was wondering if anyone here has had anything similar or knows what these could be. Just want to try make our girl better.

Thanks

I had (my ex now has him) a chi x pom who started having seizures at the age of 4. To start with they were not regular at all, but the more time went by the more regular they became.

We had him to the vet more times that I could count but murphys law the seizures were always at night :) ... our vet so very kindly gave us his home number and said that when (not if) he has the next one no matter what time to call him & he would come to us (luckily he didnt live that far away).Well we finally managed to get the vet to come & see one for himself, he took blood samples and my boy back to his home & said he wanted to keep him for a couple of days til the results were in.

My boys seizures lasted a little longer than a couple of minutes tho. His were more like 10-15 and the really severe ones 20-25 mins. They were heartbreaking to watch because there was nothing I could do other than be there to comfort and hold him :love:

It was severe epilepsy. We started him on meds straight away & they kept the seizures under control for a alot of years. He still had the occasional fit but no where near the length or severity they originally were. From what I hear from my ex my boy is having regular fits again now (but he has stopped medication due to he cant afford it but there is no way that he would let me take him ;) )

Good Luck & I hope you get some answers & can help stop the fits. :clap:

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Firstly, to clear up an obvious misconception that runs through this thread..... a good proportion of seizures that are experienced by both humans, cats and dogs have no 'known' cause.

They may or may not be linked to disease, to vaccinations or to any forms of medication. Seizures can aso be brought on by dehydration, food allergies, and excitement. It is even thought that there may be a genetic link i.e they are born with the propensity to have siezures.

Dogs being given recreational drugs that humans use can also cause epilepsy (ice, rock and marijuana in particular).

Seizures are a complex thing and to try to wrap them up in one explanation is impossible.

cobyandchris, if there isn't a pattern (which coincidently most don't follow a pattern) and the cause is not obvious then it is termed idiopathic epilepsy.

The most common age for epilepsy to occur in dogs is 18 mths - 3 years.

Your vet can perform tests, including checking for thyroid problems, which is a cause of epilepsy. Your vet can also refer you to a neurologist who will perform tests. Scans can also be done of the brain to rule out tumours and other diseases that affect this organ.

If the seizures happen often then your vet will most likely begin your dog on a course of medication that he will remain on for life to control the seizures. If they happen only rarely then you are usually advised of what to do during seizure and your dog may be given valium when he has a seizure only.

With summer here it is important that you keep your dog cool while he is experiencing his seizure. Your dog's body temp will rise rapidly during the seizure and it is important you keep him cool. I immediately turn the air con on as high as possible and keep ice packs at the ready for my dog who is also an epileptic.

Good luck.

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Great post Puggles!!!!! I hope that people will read and learn from your post, great work there.

I do realise that in quite a few cases seizures are considered "idiopathic" as there are no real explanations why the dog has epilepsy, and that quite a few other disorders can bring on seizures...I didn't bother going into detail as all the other disorders are usually acknowledged by the medical field but unfortunately, especially here in australia, most vets are not even aware that in some cases dogs have fits because of the yearly booster and those that may be aware are still loathe to discourage pet owners from having their dogs vaccinated yearly!

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Great post Puggles!!!!! I hope that people will read and learn from your post, great work there.

I do realise that in quite a few cases seizures are considered "idiopathic" as there are no real explanations why the dog has epilepsy, and that quite a few other disorders can bring on seizures...

Snake venom can bring it on - which is the likeliest case for my little bloke, according to the vets (and not the vets who immunise him) and some herpers I know.

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firstly let me apologise for my personal experience with a dog that had seizures contributing to 'an obvious misconception that runs through this thread'. I told of my 'similar' experience and I did not in any way suggest that this could be what cobeyandchris's pet is suffering from. The course of action taken by me was what my (very qualified) vet had suggested I do.

I did not try to wrap it up in one explanation, but shared my experience as was asked in cobeyandchris's original post... "Was wondering if anyone here has had anything similar.... "

secondly any person that gives their dogs any sort of drug other than those prescribed by a qualified veterinarian is not worthy of being a dog owner (or any other animal for that matter). I cant see anywhere in the responses that would warrant this to be included in the reply unless there is an assumption that the dogs that have seizures are being / have been given human recreational drugs.

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I cant see anywhere in the responses that would warrant this to be included in the reply unless there is an assumption that the dogs that have seizures are being / have been given human recreational drugs.

What's the problem? Puggles has indepth knowledge of seizures in dogs. I cant see any assumption in her post - it's an example. No worse than the example I gave of snake venom having the potential to lead to seizures.

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Diamonds, I think that Puggles was referring to my post specifically as I attributed seizures to overvaccinating, I should have specified that not all seizures are caused by overvaccinating and that there are other disorders causing a dog to fit...but I wanted to mention the one thing that most people are unaware of and that is that overvaccinating can cause seizures as I have learnt with my own chihuahua once upon a time.

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diamonds2009...... I am at a total loss as to why you should take offence at anything I have said.

Your response is puzzling.

I was merely explaining a few possible and varied causes of seizures.

I didn't want the OP to hastily decide that vaccinating the dog may have been the cause for the seizures. It is something that needs to be explored with her Vet.

As for recreational drugs causing seizures, regardless of what you think, there are dogs that suffer from epilepsy due to humans getting them stoned and I in no way inferred that anyone here gave their dogs drugs.

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Firstly, to clear up an obvious misconception that runs through this thread.....

it is this comment that i was referring to Puggles

there were 5 responses up to where you posted this, so my point is that I was included to contribute to this misconception about seizures.

it just puzzles me why drugs would be used as an example thats all and not snake bites as was your example raz. i couldnt think of decent human that would do that to a dog... but then again i just answered my own confusion... 'decent human' if everyone were a decent human there wouldnt be the number of dogs being dumped... anyway thats another topic

:thumbsup:

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