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If You Dog Has Epilepsy How Often Does He/she Have Seizures?

by admin

I know I may have spelled it wrong-

My dog has one every 2 weeks and they last from 1 -5 minutes each. Is this normal?
He was the runt, and is now a 2 year old 120 lb. Rhodesian Ridgeback :)
Yes he is on Phenobarbital as well as something else. Our vet has tested him and worked with him, but is telling us we may need to see a specialist. We do not have the money for the specialist and the testing.

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Keep My Soldier Safe♡ March 10, 2009 at 9:18 pm

Unfortunately, the only way to combat most seizures and get them under control in dogs is with medication-Phenobarbital to be exact.
To answer your question how many are normal? Well 0 seizures is normal-but for cases where epileptic seizures occur-not more than 1-2 a month.
2 seizures a week is a lot! (1-5mins is normally how long seizures last) Not to mention it can be scary having a 120pound dog seizing in your house.
You need to set up an appointment with your vet who hopefully is familiar with your case/history of seizures. If not try to take a video with your phone so you can show your vet exactly what he was doing and keep a log/diary of how many seizures he is having, how long, etc.
Bloodwork will be done so you have a base level chemistry to refer to, as being on Pheno you need to do testing and tweaking of the drug from time to time.

Edit: Since you say you have seen a vet and are on meds already, I'm assuming that you have tweaked the dose up to see if that has helped at all..
My next thought would be you need to consider the fact that this may be a brain tumor. Most brain tumors occur in dogs 5+ and are typical rare in young dogs (personally I've never seen one with a dog younger than 6). Other signs that you may have overlooked are does have have exercise intolerance? Does he seem unstable(staggering/falling, etc) to you? Does he have random bursts of aggression or even submission behavior? Accidents? Trouble sleeping?
Unfortunately, again I would too say the pet needs to be seen by a specialist or a neuro specialist. Try your state's main veterinary college-they usually are the cheapest.
Plus I hate to even say this, but I believe that if money is a constraint and medication isn't working(considering it has been some time for the meds) I would consider humanly euthanizing. Quality of life is truly down... having seizures 1-2x a week is unpleasant- for the dog as well, and if your vet agrees of course that this is an option and you have tried everything, I would consider it. It's a tough decision, but at times I believe that we as owners and pet lovers need to consider every aspect of it and decide what is best for the animal.

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