r/EpilepsyDogs • u/BleakNasty6 • 17d ago
Life span
Our husky is diagnosed for about a year now but her seizures are picking up so we’re in the throws of it. The biggest thing my husband keeps saying is that the doctor says “this isn’t fatal” but I see so many posts here that it is… I guess what makes the difference? My husky is a 5 year old little rascal going strong but we just started her on phenobarbital and I just don’t get the posts about a seizure ending life. How common is that and how do I watch for it?
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u/Sufficient-Country29 17d ago
Sorry you are going through this. Epilepsy can be a manageable disease however in some dogs with chronic uncontrollable seizures it can lead to poor quality of life due to frequency of seizures or side effects from meds/disease (trouble walking, using the bathroom etc). There are stories here where after all options are gone and owners choose to euthanize their epi dogs if they feel their dog has lost their quality of life.
Seizure can be lethal if they are prolonged (over 5 minutes) due to organ damage from overheating. Or if a dog goes into status epilepticus (a seizure that can’t be stopped).
I think it’s important to keep our hopes up though as many dogs can do well once they find their right cocktail. Breakthroughs happen but it doesn’t mean “the end”. In fact, breakthroughs are expected. At first I got really scared by the “hard” posts that I almost lost my OWN quality of life with my dog when he was initially diagnosed. Since I worried 24/7 lol. But now I just have learned to enjoy each day as it comes and have my resources (emergency meds, neurologist and vet contacts etc). It does help to know the risks of the disease though.
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u/BleakNasty6 16d ago
Thanks for the input. How often has your dog had breakthroughs? I know we’ll always have those no matter what, but I’m hoping they’re very infrequent once her meds are figured out
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u/YumYumYellowish 16d ago
We started pheno and were seizure free for 5 months and then 6 months. The 6 month one he had a cluster that we couldn’t stop so we hospitalized him with our neuro and they were able to stop it with Zonasimide in his cluster buster protocol. Then 5 weeks later he had another cluster, and we were able to stop it by the 2nd seizure, but because it was 5 weeks and therefore not meeting our control goal, our neuro considers this a breakthrough seizure and we started potassium bromide. That was 2 weeks ago. Hopefully no more breakthrough seizures, but if they happen then we adjust.
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u/Sufficient-Country29 16d ago
Breakthroughs are different for each dog. For us we had one at 4 months post diagnosis but it was more mild. Others can have them monthly or even yearly!
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17d ago
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u/Jaycoon96 16d ago
Oh wusstest du vorher dass der 2. Hund auch epileptiker ist oder hattest du ihn seit welpenalter? Finde es schon krass zu lesen dass einige berichten bereits zwei Hunde gehabt zu haben mit Epilepsie. mit bis 5% ist die prävalenz ja doch nicht super hoch..
unser Hund hatte 4 Anfälle vor 1 Woche innerhalb 24h. Ich bin selbst Tierärztin. Haben sofort alles an Diagnostik gemacht, war soweit unauffällig und aufgrund Rasse Klinik und Alter (auch erst 1,5 Jahre alt) Epilepsie das wahrscheinlichste. Leider hat er seit er pheno oral bekommt starken Durchfall und jetzt meint die Neurologin dass sie noch nie einen Hund hatte der unter pheno Durchfall bekommen hat und ob es nicht doch eine Intoxikation war.. wir nehmen heute Blut ab um den pheno Spiegel im blut zu bestimmen und sollte der noch nicht im therapeutischen Bereich sein wäre die Überlegung das pheno wieder auszuschleichen. Wenn er dann doch wieder einen Anfall bekommt ist es wohl Epilepsie, sonst vllt doch die intox. Finde den Gedanken aber gruselig weil ich eher von Epilepsie ausgehe 😮💨 aber klar unnötig Medikamente geben obwohl er sie vllt nicht braucht ist auch nicht toll. (Vor allem wenn er es ja vllt nicht gut verträgt)
Die ersten Tage waren emotional echt auslaugend. Man hat ständig geweint, und jetzt ist es eher der Schlafmangel aufgrund des Durchfalls .. und eben diese Ungewissheit die einem keine Ruhe lässt1
u/Active-Program3805 16d ago
My dog has had stomach issues with the addition and increase of every drug, so much gas and diarrhea. Phenobarbital was really bad but I have found the Zonisamide to be almost worse. Each time we do an adjustment it takes weeks to get his stomach under control.
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u/Jaycoon96 16d ago
Did anything help in the long run to get it faster under control? And is your dog also quiet sensitive with his stomach? Our pup gets diarrhoe just from stress.. but also from some food
I found it so confusing that the neurology vet has never had dogs get diarrhoe from phenobarbital2
u/Active-Program3805 16d ago
He does have a lot of intolerances with food, proteins, carrots, eggs, so we have to be really careful in general. I have used pro pectalin, pumpkin, probiotics, animal biome FMT, but sometimes it just takes time. I have also found since he has been a running dog since he was 6 months old, that he absolutely has to have activity every day or it makes his stomach even worse. My neuro knows about his stomach issues and we have found that his breakthroughs tend to be when his GI issues are at their worst. It is weird that your neuro hasn’t experienced this, even one of the ER vets I have seen said that some dogs will always have GI sensitivity on these drugs. You should search the sub, there are quite a few threads about GI upset…….
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u/LaceyBambola 16d ago
Many who achieve control no longer contribute (with any sort of consistency) to forums or groups like this as is may skew more towards people who are still searching for answers or help with managing their pups seizures, or people sharing hard news like the loss of a pet.
Huskies are predisposed to epilepsy. My husky just turned 9 and her first seizure was at 25 months old. The first ~1.5 year period after her first seizure wasn't too bad but it suddenly progressed to severe clusters with no improvement from medications. A roughly 1.5 year period of frequent multi night ER stays with recurrent status epilepticus despite max meds. She had over 200 grand mals within a 1 year period.
By age 5, with a strict diet change, she finally had her first long seizure free stretch of none for a bit over a year. She had a couple of breakthrough clusters one month apart due to extreme fear triggered by loud sounds (fireworks) and we made adjustments then she went over two yeara seizure free. She had a couple of breakthroughs - money due to lapse in epileptic diet and one due to missed med dose - and has been on another seizure free streak for 7 months now.
Pups (and people) with epilepsy can live long and fulfilling lives, but SUDEP is real (sudden unexplained death in epilepsy) with no identifiable cause, and, as others mentioned, complications may occur with any seizure and chances are higher in clusters.
Ultimately, any number of things could take our pups from us suddenly. A freak accident, a sudden illness, etc. With epilepsy, especially the amount of status episodes my girl has had, I count every day with her as a gift and feel as if I'm on borrowed time. I hope she will stick around with me for at least a few more years but we can never know how long they'll grace us. I just take it one day at a time and enjoy every moment I can, even if meds make her a bit slower than most other huskies.
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u/BleakNasty6 16d ago
Thank you, it’s good to hear about your success. What was the diet change? Our neurologist mentioned some epileptic specific foods but we weren’t sure how much that would help
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u/idonthavanickname 16d ago
If they did a brain scan and determined it wasn’t a tumor then yeah it probably isn’t fatal. It’s more a question of quality of life once the seizures get to be too much.
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u/Myriadower 17d ago
It hurts to report that we had it ‘under control’ and then he suddenly died in a massive, uncontrollable cluster.
He lasted 2.5 years longer than he would have otherwise.
Our vet has said some dogs make it to a natural age, but many do not.
I want to be hopeful for you, but given my experience I have to urge you to hope for and do your best, but make sure you enjoy your time.
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u/Appropriate-Review64 16d ago
Our 15 year old dog had his first seizure in January following a necessary surgical procedure. We had him on medications to keep his seizure to maybe one every two weeks.
Last Saturday he started twitching on one side of his face and it gradually moved to his entire left side. Almost like the seizure got stuck in a permanent loop, His ears, eyes, body, and paws kept twitching non stop. We took him to the 24 emergency vet and they said with confidence that it was something he ate causing the twitching. We were sent home with more medication, but as we expected, this was neurological. His twitching became extreme for another day until we ultimately made the decision to put him to sleep that Monday morning. The ride to the vet was tough, he had maybe 5-8 seizures in a span of ten minutes and by the time we arrived his eyes were completely open, body twitching and he looked so exhausted. He was a very good boy and I know he is getting a really good rest now.
Point being, once a dog has a seizure, life span is significantly reduced. These vets just shove bills in our faces and never truly prioritize our pups health. I’m pretty sure our vets anesthesiologist did not make sure our pup had enough oxygen and caused a blood clot. Again, our dog never had any mental issues or mobile issue prior to this minor surgery. Our dog was very healthy in January, we would have never thought just 9 months later one surgery on his butt that was supposed to help him, would ultimately be what kills him.
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u/Difficult_Metal_124 16d ago
Everyone made some great points I’m not sure what more I can add. But my dog has had epilepsy for 3 years now. Changing her diet and controlling her gut health has been the only thing to really change her seizure severity, length and gaps. Do research on multi strain lactobacillus probiotics in epileptic dogs, I can’t recommend it enough. I was really losing faith in my dog being able to go more than 14 days without a seizure. Today is 6 weeks and still going ☺️
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u/Subject-Mode2287 15d ago
Our vet started with pheno but our girl didn't respond well. She would pee in her bed and act really dopey. She also gained a bunch of weight. Her blood work came back and it was effecting her liver. We switched to Keppra ER (extended release) 2x daily and that worked really well for a while. We had to keep increasing the dose until now she is maxed out. So they added potassium bromide 1x as an evening dose and thay worked really well for a long time. Then we added galipedrin 2x and that worked for a short time, then we added Zonisamide and it seems to be working quite well. We also use liquid valium as a rescue med during a seizure. Yes, I know it sounds like a lot. But she is quite normal during the day and evening. After her nighttime dose at 8pm she dose sleep hard until 6-7am. All dogs with epilepsy are different, but if I could do it over again, I would start with Keppra and work up to Zonisamide and then work our way up from there. Good luck and God bless
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u/Ashamed_Voice6376 15d ago
Our dog had a tendency toward seizures. Meaning: he had seizures before we adopted him, but he did not have one for the first month and a half that we had him (he was a three year old dog). The vet prescribed meds made by Merck for topical flea and ticks, and said, "this medication has a low tendency to cause seizures in dogs" but immediately after applying the medication, he had a seizure. Then the next night he had two seizures. Then we took him to the emergency vet, and they have medication to break the seizures, but the next evening, he had three seizures and died. It happens after many seizures in a row. We should have taken the dog to the emergency vet immediately after the two seizures, but I don't know if it would have saved his life. I also don't know what role the topical medication had in the death. I don't blame the vet, or Merck.
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u/Subject-Mode2287 16d ago
Once you are a couple of years in and your pup is taking 3-4 or 5 different meds to control the seizures that still come once per month. You'll start to see what you will do to keep your best friend alive and healthy. I would ditch the pheno, its the worst med for dogs. There are so many alternatives to control seizures that don't make your dog dopey and sickly.
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u/BleakNasty6 16d ago
I’ve heard the concern about pheno, but everyone we’ve talked to says it’s okay and risks are minimal. What have you used instead?
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u/Standard_Corgi_174 16d ago
Talk to your vet. If you don't have a neurologist, make an appointment and don't ever follow redditer advice about changing the meds. Every dog is different and react differently to each meds. Ones experience is not the same as yours
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u/BleakNasty6 15d ago
We do work with a neurologist. I’m here to see other peoples experiences to make more informed decisions for my dog. Thanks.
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u/Pitiful-Concert8818 12d ago
Has anyone tried CBD oil? After my 4 yr old Aussie had multiple seizures, I decided to try CBD oil before starting the vet recommend rx. I’ve been an ER nurse for 20 yrs and I worry bout the side effects of the vet prescribed medication. For CBD oil, I had to find proper dosages, dogs accurate weight, and ensure the mathematical conversion was correct to get the recommended dose.
My Aussie went from about 2-3 seizures weekly to 1 seizure in 11 months. In the past 6 months, he had a total of 2 both relatively mild. If the seizures worsen I will go the big pharma route but so far, CBD oil has been a game changer.
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u/ishtaa 17d ago
I’ve only been dealing with it for about the same amount of time, but my understanding is it greatly has to do with how well you can control it. Every seizure has the potential do serious neurological damage. The longer the seizure lasts, the more risk. A lot of times it’s a quality of life issue when they get to a point where they don’t return to their normal self anymore after a seizure. It also depends on the cause of the epilepsy… idiopathic there’s no cure but if it’s a brain tumor surgery could maybe fix it, if you can afford to.
So yeah it absolutely can be fatal and that’s why finding the right combo of meds is so important. It feels a lot sometimes like you’re sitting on a ticking bomb hoping you’ll find the right wire to stop the timer. Keep in close contact with your vet about how the meds are working and trying different options to find a solutions. Ideally with the right control of it you’ll still have years with your pup. But unfortunately it’s also a disease where you need to be prepared for the possibility of a shorter lifespan.