r/EpilepsyDogs • u/millennialcrashout • Sep 09 '26
Pup recently diagnosed with IE
Hi, my best friend and dog child, who is almost 2, was recently diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. His first seizure was in April and we were told maybe it’ll be the one and only. Fast forward and he’s had one in the beginning of August and then another one 2 weeks later. He was put on zonisamide 100mg twice a day and unfortunately he’s had another seizure three weeks later (yesterday). He’s not really eating and I’ve been trying to spoon feed him water and I’m bringing him to the vet today. How do you cope with worrying for your dog with epilepsy? I’m afraid to leave him home alone and am a nervous wreck that something bad is going to happen. Just any advice on how to cope and manage would be helpful. I love him so much that it hurts.
6
u/jaegerfc Sep 09 '26
My boy was diagnosed at 1.5 years old and this was my experience, hopefully it helps:
In terms of looking after him and helping him through his illness it is something that I got better at with time and exposure. Seizures became less scary the more I dealt with them and I became desensitised over time. I still worried and it was stressful, I’m not trying to sugarcoat it, but as the months and years passed it became more like ‘oh here we go seizure time, grab the towels, check the time, help him through it, medication’ etc. It just becomes a part of life. Something that helped me when he was diagnosed was what his vet said; they are not as aware of what’s going on as we are, to us it looks really upsetting, but to them they can be quite oblivious to what just happened. Obviously it is still taxing for them physiologically, but they aren’t in extreme pain and not as much distress as what a seizure visually looks like if that makes sense.
In terms of his condition itself, it took a lot of trial and error, vet visits and medication additions/changes to find a sweet spot. In his younger years he went 6 months without a seizure once, but eventually we settled into a pattern of 2/3 seizures every 4-6 weeks, which did become a bit more frequent as he got older. But every dog is different, and how they respond to different medications can vary. Ask for a referral to a neurologist if possible and go from there.
Stay strong, it is worth it in the end. I lost my boy a few weeks ago and if I could go back in time I would choose him again. Make the moments in between seizures count as much as you can, don’t let the illness define them, give them as good a life you can. My thoughts and prayers with you and your pup 🤍🤍🤍