Miss Inga had a grand mal seizure (UPDATE 5/16/18)

How's Inga doing, have any more seizures?

colliehauler wrote:
How's Inga doing, have any more seizures?

Not yet, thank goodness. :)

In my brief and recent research into grand mal seizures, I found that she may never have another one, or she may have them on a regular basis, requiring meds. There's just no telling yet.

One thing's for sure, I'm not getting a lot of sleep at night. I am a light sleeper anyway, and every sound I hear from her I think might be the start of another seizure. :p

Lily had several seizures in her life, but always seemed to recover. Dash had a couple, then had the stroke that time on the way to Branson. He never had another one, and recovered fully, but I remember how scary it was. All I wanted to do was get him to his regular vet and home. As a rule,dogs do recover more easily than humans, but keep an eye on her, keep her away from stairs and, if she should have another one, keep a diary of the progression of the seizure for the vet. We all hope for the best for Miss Inga.

How has Miss Inga been doing?

Ginger used to have seizures. Her first one occurred one day when we arrived for her grooming. She loved the grooming and got so excited. For almost 2 years, the only seizures she had occurred every time she went to grooming. The moment we entered the door and she knew she was there, that was when the seizure occurred. The last time we had taken her, she had a seizure, but then had 3-4 more at home that evening. We took her to the vet each time, but until the last time, she wasn't on medication as there was no pattern. At that time, he put her on medicine. She lived a very short time after the multiple seizures and they became very frequent, even with the medicine.

Dashonthedash wrote:
How has Miss Inga been doing?

Would like to know as well. Hope Inga's doing well, Walter.


Pops

So sorry about Inga. I had a seizure dog. When they started, he would cluster with as many as 13 gran mal seizures in a 24-hour period. He was put on phenobarbitol and potassium bromide (I think). Hopefully Inga won't develop anymore and you can avoid meds. They destroyed Neal's liver. I discovered through research that the clusters occur many times because the original seizure will deplete the blood sugar causing cluster seizures. So after the first one, I would wait until Neal tried to sit up. I would give him a oral syringe filled with honey. For his size of 27 pounds, he got 3 syringes of honey. He loved it. After that dosing, I would take him outside where he would poop and pee. (They always do after a seizure). Within 2 hours he would be "normal." This after 24 hour seizure marathons and a week to return to normal.

Another tip. . . the dog feels nothing during the seizure and does not know what happened. So "calming the dog" is of no consequence. Be careful not to handle them. I thought the same thing the first time it happened and tried to reposition Neal. He threw he head back and in a flash bit completely through my hand, for which I required medical treatment. He didn't try to do it. . . he was gnashing his teeth and my hand got in the way. My vet said if I had to move him away from something for safety, slip a bath towel under him and drag him, which is what we did after that. Great advice.

I got a lot of useful information from here:

Canine Epilepsy

They mention ice pack treatment as well, which I used successfully for Neal, but the honey after the initial seizure was the best.

We learned the hard way what caused Neal's and I will probably never forgive myself for doing this to him. We had one of those red laser light pens. He loved chasing that little light and we thought that was so cute. His seizures started within 5 hours of playing with that light and continued until he died. They did lessen after about 6 years and he went off his meds, but his liver was toast.

Dale

Miss Inga has not had another seizure since the first one. :) We are hoping that it was a "one and done" event.

Thanks for everyone's concern. :):)

I so hope that is the case as well.

That's good news. Did the vet recommend periodic blood work?