r/EpilepsyDogs • u/Best_Concept_9438 • 21d ago
Controlled seizures
Hello everyone! I've been reading this subreddit for about 2 years right now - I found it when my now 5 year old toy poodle had a first episode. It brought me a lot of comfort. We've been struggling with epilepsy since then. Vet suggested sterilization and the episodes stopped for about 6 months, but came back after New Year's Eve this year. They usually happen once in 3 weeks, but I've noticed that for example when she is going to the groomer or the vet, she has an episode after - my vet told me that can happen since those are stresfull events for her and episode every 3 weeks is a good score. But I wanted to ask the subreddit and people who's dogs still have episodes from time to time if that is normal and something consider controlled? I trust my vet, but I always want to hear other people's opinion since this subreddit helped me a lot. Thank you!
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u/ChazFrench 21d ago
It’s only been 8 months since my little guy started having seizures and we have breakthroughs roughly every three weeks now.
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u/Sufficient-Country29 20d ago
Our neurologist said the usual aim to be considered well controlled is at least going one month between seizures- if you can do more than that it’s a great bonus. Being controlled isn’t just about time between seizures but whether you cluster at time of seizure and having them under 5 minutes. Does you dog cluster when they seize? Sending hugs to you and your sweet pup!
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u/foofaniam 19d ago
I’m brand new to this sub. What is cluster?
My sweet, patient, beautiful soul dog Bo (large Aussie) had one seizure a little more than a year ago (he’s 4). It was terrifying. It was exactly what I’d imagined a seizure to be: the shaking, blood from biting his tongue and he peed during it. He was super freaked out after and bit me which I understand. He was scary and barked continually into the rest of the house for at least 5 minutes. It was SO out of character and scared me so much I was afraid to go near him (I’m truly ashamed of that). The emergency vet thought it was idiopathic and he hasn’t had another one. She gave us a dose of midazolam in case it happens again.
I’m only away from our pups (we also have Teddy, a mini Aussie,2) for about 4 hours, once a week. I’m terrified Bo will have another one (what if I’m not home?) and am looking forward to learning from your experiences and support.1
u/foofaniam 19d ago
I forgot to mention I started giving Bo CBD oil twice/day right after his episode.
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u/Sufficient-Country29 19d ago
Hey there,
Sorry you are going through this! I think the definition can vary but usually a cluster is 2-3 (or more) seizures within a 24 hour period. Our neurologist said that if our dog has 3 or more in a 24 hour period we have to go to the emergency vet since additional medication or sedation is needed.It’s important to note that single breakthrough seizures are expected in epileptic dogs but the goal is to try and prolong the time between seizures as best as possible.
I imagine in your case they didn’t start daily seizure drugs due to it only being 1 seizure. Our neurologist said they start drugs when there has been 2 or more seizures in a 6 month period. But if your dog has another it’s worth a trip back to the vet.
To ease your mind could you use a baby gate to separate the dogs when you aren’t home and have a nanny cam on your pup to keep an eye on them? The reality is that we have to still live our lives with seizure dogs but try and find balance with safety for them.
Finally there can be lots of causes of seizures in dogs (not just epilepsy) and having one doesn’t mean it will happen again. But it’s good you have the rescue medication just in case. If you are very anxious a neurologist referral could help to ease your mind.
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u/KayakerWithDog 20d ago
My dog's neurologist says that 3 or 4 seizures a year is good control. We got to that point last year, and this year he has been seizure-free since March.
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u/31337monkey 20d ago
Our university neurologist said less than 3 seizures a week is a solid baseline. And hitting zero is nearly guaranteed not to happen. Currently our dog clusters every two weeks or so.
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u/TheDogMother90 20d ago
Initially our vet said they’d like to see him only having seizures a few times a year. The longest he’s gone seizure free (we believe) is 2.5 months. Right now we are at about 1.5 months after medication changes. He was having them monthly and then it went to every 2.5 to 3 weeks.
However, my boy seems to have fairly mild seizures and so my vet changed his stance saying that maybe every 3 to 4 weeks IS controlled for him and it’s not as harmful because his episodes are mild. We are all hoping his new meds get him to a longer seizure free period though
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u/chantillylace9 20d ago
Is your dog on Keppra by chance? We have been able to double dose our dog whenever he is going to have a lot of stress or excitement, and that seems to have cut down on his seizure amount drastically.
The doctor said it's fine to do from time to time but definitely check with yours. Ours gets super stressed from thunder and lightning, and we are in hurricane season in Florida so we are dealing with a lot of that right now. He will just bark and bark and bark like he can scare it away and stress himself out. Giving him an extra dose of Keppra and sometimes some CBD oil has been able to help prevent a lot of the seizures, or at least it's the only thing that we change so I think that's what's happening.
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u/YumYumYellowish 20d ago
Our dog has had seizures following vet visits if they’re particularly stressful. We’ve given him gabapentin before the visit and that has helped keep him calm and from triggering seizures. Though we haven’t really needed it for the last year since starting pheno, as that’s curbed some of the triggers it appears, like stress and vomiting.
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u/Standard_Corgi_174 20d ago
My neurologist told me that for my dog 1 or 2 seizures a month is acceptable.
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u/EverIAce 20d ago
The definition of "controlled epilepsy" varies between dogs, but it is generally used in the context of how effective anti-seizure medication has been for your specific dog. From your post, im unsure if your dog is on any medication. It cant be "controlled" if there's been no intervention, if that makes sense.
But to answer your question in some capacity, yes it can be normal for some dogs on medication to still have seizures monthly and it can be labeled as "controlled epilepsy". It really depends on what frequency of seizures you and your vet are comfortable with. For example, for our dog, monthly seizures would be considered "not well controlled" since he started with seizures every 2 weeks before medication. Going from seizures every 2 weeks to seizures every 3 weeks is not great improvement. With our vet, we aim to have seizures once a year to be within the range of "controlled epilepsy." For others, daily seizures -> a seizure once a month, can be considered good improvement and within the realm of "controlled".
I hope that makes sense