Our 9 y/o Boston terrier suffered a Gran Maul seizure last night. We rushed him to the emergency vet clinic which thank god is only a mile from our home. They kept him all night and i picked him up this morning and took him to our regular vet for additional tests and monitoring for the day. So far all the blood work from last night showed nothing but more testing is being done today. It scared the living daylights out of both the wife and i. We are very thankful we were there last night to get him to the vet. The seizure was a short lived one and he didn't have any further ones during the night and when i picked him up he was his old self. Were hoping and praying for the best to see what our regular vet finds. He did say that Seizures aren't that uncommon in older dogs.

There must be something in the dog's environment that is causing these seizures. This is the third one I've heard about this week, a 3 year old standard poodle, a 5 year old german pointer and now your dog. Hope this is his first and last one and he lives to a grand old age and the root cause is discovered.

I would want to rule out any environmental factors. Anyone using lawn chemicals, paint overspray, poison, tainted water, etc.? Any dietary changes?Genetic predisposition may be the cause. Seizures, (especially Grand Mal) are terrifying to witness. Hopefully, it will be a one-time occurrence and medication will control it.

Go Dogs wrote:I would want to rule out any environmental factors. Anyone using lawn chemicals, paint overspray, poison, tainted water, etc.? Any dietary changes?Genetic predisposition may be the cause. Seizures, (especially Grand Mal) are terrifying to witness. Hopefully, it will be a one-time occurrence and medication will control it.I actually never thought about that however wouldn't the blood tests that were run show any kind of poison or such?

I would also add to the list: have you used a new flea/tick preventative? Do an inventory about these things, and ask your vet. Many times in humans, they never can pin point the cause of seizures.

dspencer wrote:Go Dogs wrote:I would want to rule out any environmental factors. Anyone using lawn chemicals, paint overspray, poison, tainted water, etc.? Any dietary changes?Genetic predisposition may be the cause. Seizures, (especially Grand Mal) are terrifying to witness. Hopefully, it will be a one-time occurrence and medication will control it.I actually never thought about that however wouldn't the blood tests that were run show any kind of poison or such?Hi, I just noticed your post, and have been through this, so I know how hard it is. Seizures are a very complicated and frustrating condition to deal with, which can be brought on by many factors...that don't always show up in the test results. One of our very loved labrador retriever's is only 4 1/2, and she had a Grand Mal seizure 2 years ago, and she's had one smaller one since then, and they are terrifying to watch. I read up on "triggers" to seizures, and there are A LOT. I had no previous experience with seizures, so I wanted to rule out every possibility, and although I have always fed a top of the line dog food, I read that rosemary can be a trigger, and the treats we fed did have rosemary extract, so I stopped with those. I also bought some supplements from a Holistic Vet, and I'm not sure how much those help or not, but I know they don't hurt. I also NEVER EVER feed anything that comes from China....I only buy locally sourced food and treats, or food from Canada. I do know that Phenobarbital is what many vets prescribe dogs for seizures, but I would never give this to my dog unless there was no other choice. I'm very Thankful that our vet said he would never prescribe medication for the seizures unless they happened frequently, and Thankfully they haven't been frequent. I also switched to bottled water for all our pets, as the tap water here is full of who knows what. This is just what I did, so I hope your Chubby is seizure free,from now on, and maybe it was just a one time episode. I know how much we love our babies, and it is heartbreaking to watch them go through that.

Please put our Chubby on your prayer list. UPDATE

15 Replies

punomatic
Explorer
May 16, 2013
I had a little dog years ago that had grand mal seizures. It took two weeks in the vet's office and blood work sent to a human hospital lab before the vet discovered it was Addison's disease, a malfunction of the adrenal cortex. With the proper medication she lived another 6 years. (When I think that the vet bill came to $160, I can't believe it. It costs that much to go in for an annual check up for our little ones now!!)

Here's hoping the vet can find the cause quickly and take corrective action.
TugCE
Explorer
May 16, 2013
Prayers said. Hopefully, you do not have to go through this again. I am not sure what I would do if one of my girls went through this.
dspencer
Explorer
May 16, 2013
We got Chubby home and all the blood work was re-run by our vet as well as liver and Thyroid workup and everything is normal. However he has a fatty tumor on his side that we have known about for about 6 months, this was aspirated 6 months ago and was okay. The vet said as long as its not bothering him or anything we would leave it alone. Well as a safety measure yesterday he rechecked that and the fluid within is changing rapidly so were having to watch that closer. He talked about removing it but said with this seizure he doesn't want to do surgery as long as its benign which it still is at this point. As he put it he is marginaly concerned but more concerned about the seizure and not wanting to do surgery since the seizure. Were not out of the woods yet but at least a little relieved they didn't find anything wrong with the blood. I have to tell you it made a grown man cry watching it all unfold Tuesday night, personally never witnessing that kind of thing before in my 58 years of life. As my vet told us last night its actually harder on us seeing it happen as it is on the actual dog. For some reason that didn't help us, :? Our vet is also a good friend so that helps things somewhat.
nabi
Explorer
May 16, 2013
keeping Chubby in my prayers...hopefully this was a one time event for him.
Code2High
Explorer
May 15, 2013
Causes can be tough to pin down in seizures. Here's hoping this was an isolated incident.
magnusfide
Explorer II
May 15, 2013
Prayers for Chubby. Keep us posted.
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
May 15, 2013
So scary!! Hope you can figure out what triggered it, if that's even possible? Keeping Chubby in our good thoughts!
Chuck_Gail
Explorer
May 15, 2013
Many prayers headed Chubby's way from our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you can find the cause.
AZPops
Explorer
May 15, 2013
crimmps49 wrote:
Sorry Chubby is having problems. Will keep you in thoughts and prayers that all goes well.

+1 ... That would scare the heck out of me as well! Keeping the positive thoughts coming your way!

Pops
crimmps49
Explorer
May 15, 2013
Sorry Chubby is having problems. Will keep you in thoughts and prayers that all goes well.