Bud just had anothe seizure

colliehauler wrote:
So far Bud's seizure has been a little over 5 weeks apart, that I know of. If he would have one when I'm not at the house I might not know. I will look into the grain free food (couldn't hurt). Thanks for the ice cream suggestions Rita I will pick some up. I cooked Bud a couple of eggs witch he ate. I will also pick up some Bachs rescue remedy.

Thanks everyone for the support. My Collies are very important to me as I'm sure your dogs are to you.

In all my years of owning dogs this is the first to have seizures.

IMHO I fully agree with your vet to hold off with the phenabarb. So many are so quick to just drug them with out fully looking into the cause. Since they are so far apart my bet is on environmental. After you rule out any underlying cause.

I would not start changing/adding different food right now. It will add to the difficulty of figuring out just what is causing them.

1. READ the label on the Bachs Rescue Remedy BEFORE you use it most brands have Xylitol in it which drops sugar and causes liver failure. And actually can add to the seizure issue. Actually it does not help anyway and IMHO I would not give it.
scroll down to the bottom for info on rescue remedy
http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2008/november/dolittlers-back-xylitol-attack-rescue-remedy-and-tic-tac-edition-6637


2. Start charting the seizures RIGHT NOW. What were you doing, what was he doing, what was going around him, where did it happen, anyone cleaning anything in the area, bug sprays, flea sprays, did you have the lawn guy out, bug guy, seizure happen after you gave heartworm meds, or flea meds,etc.
See if there is a common denominator when the seizures happen.

3. Ask your vet for Valium pills. Crush to a powder and add water and put in very small syringe. Keep one loaded on hand at all times. When the seizure starts administer. I then follow up with a gel glucose. Rectal administration is better but I got by with a pill crushed orally.

The Valium stops the seizure. When they seize their glucose drops and then they can possibly go into another one. So administering a little honey or glucose can prevent that and help them recover faster.

My poor little guy, I would just hold him while he seized until I traveled to Florida and the Florida vet asked why I was not giving him Valium. :S What a diff for both owner and dog.

My dog started having seizures and I and my vet did NOT jump right to pheno barb like so many tend to do.

I DID find out many things environmentally that 'caused' the seizures. Spray paint, Spic and Span, bounce, highly perfumed laundry detergent to name a few that when I looked over my charts it was a glaring that he seized shortly there after using them. Believe it or not washing the floor with the Spic and Span was THE one that caused the seizure both times I used it before I saw the correlation on my charting.

Red dye in dog food can cause it also. I found a dog food that had no dye, no corn, no wheat food.

I don't have the exact statistics right now at hand but the majority of seizures are environmentally/food.chemically caused. But they are usually just given Phenobarbital without instructing the owner.

I joined a seizure dog group on yahoo where I got the best info from those that had been there done that. THEY were the ones that said how 'important' charting the seizures is.

My guy is turning 16 in January and right now is seizure free. After many years of seizures before we realized what was causing them.

I did not go to phenobarb out the gate. I 'charted' the seizures and found what was causing them, used valuim when they started and by process of elimination of the causes they eventually stopped. Dr Doug has even mentioned that dogs that get seizures early on that can not be attributed to a medical issue sometimes just stop having them.

Not to say that some dogs will go on to have multiple seizures and phenobarb is necessary. Going on phenobarb should not be taken lightly because of the damage it causes to organs.

There was one point while RV'ing that he started have more and more seizures.

A real long story short it ended up being a kidney infection and to top it off all the new different designer antibiotics they were throwing at him had warnings about giving to a dog prone to seizures.
Almost lost him to the seizures when they added the sulfa drug to the arsenal. Sulfa drugs in some people and dogs can cause a life threatening increase of insulin causing seizure and convulsions which what was happening with him.
I stopped all the meds and had a culture sent out. Low and behold the old standby common antibiotic Amoxy was what was indicated.

Sorry for being SO long winded but there are 'multiple' reasons a dog has seizures and with a little time and effort on our part we can find out why and hopefully stop them. I thank each and every dog owner on the yahoo seizure dog list for showing me how.

I hope some of the info helps you and your dog. :C