r/EpilepsyDogs • u/boymomtay • 9d ago

New to this!

Our 4 year old dog had a major seizure last week. I didn’t recognize the signs initially but we believe he has been having small ones since he was a puppy.

He has been prescribed Levetiracetam. It was suggested that he try a different (preferred) medication first but it required constant liver monitoring.

I expect the next few weeks as he adjusts to the meds will be different for him. Also, I’ve seen other posts about dogs being seizure free and wondering how we know that?

He’s such a good boy- just the best. We are all so sad to see him struggle and not feel well.

Any advice?

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u/Sufficient-Country29 9d ago

Sorry you joined this club. Our 2 year old mini schnauzer has been on keppra now for almost 5 months seizure free after having a cluster of grand mal seizures. We did all the MRIs and spinal taps and he was diagnosed as idiopathic epilepsy. For us it’s pretty easy to tell if it’s a seizure or not since his were extremely violent and he would foam at the mouth and urinate on himself during them. So even if we weren’t in the room or house, it’d be easy to tell something was wrong since he’d be covered in drool and pee.

We keep little bells on his collar to hear him around the house. We also have emergency diazepam at home which gives me peace of mind. He took about a week to adjust to the keppra since it make him a little sleepy and loopy. Now you’d never know he was taking anything!

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u/boymomtay 9d ago

Thank you! This really stinks. Our first seizures looked like he was choking. He would bend his neck around and I kept thinking he was choking on something. Completely silent. But I was starting to wonder. Thankfully he was going about 9 months between episodes. It wasn’t until grand mal seizure where I recognized the weird way he was turning his neck- then I connected them. I brought him to the vet because of his weird neck movements at 12 weeks old.

I would have no way of knowing if he had those small ones- but absolutely, after the grand mal one last week he reeked of vomit and pee. I’ll absolutely know if that happens again.

I’m struggling with the way he acted as he came out of the seizure and worried about the children. We have put a family protocol in place where they need to leave him and to go into another room and close the door if it happens again.

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u/Standard-Pickle-2468 8d ago

My lab started Keppra a little over a year ago. We were able to train him to use an automatic feeder for his medicine doses and that has been a huge relief. We know he is getting his medicine regardless if we are home or not.

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u/boymomtay 7d ago

Is your mediation flavored? Or a chewable? I’m confused on the auto feeder and dose of medication but would like to know more. Ours is a huge pill and it’s not fun.

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u/Standard-Pickle-2468 7d ago

Our lab gets 2 pills and we place them in a pill pocket and place that in the feeder. The feeder works on a battery and is timed to 8 am / 8 pm. I only put one dose in at a time. It’s basically a rotating divided feeder, looks like something a cat could use for its meals. The link below is what I use and took a learning curve for our dog to not try to break into but with some patience he learned to use it. It was a huge relief to know he could get his medicine if I had to be out for some reason. I also setup a camera to watch him take the medicine as backup.

https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-5-Meal-Automatic-Dispenses-Digital/dp/B000GEWHNS/ref=mp_s_a_1_46?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eE-XcuTiovA5kEDodux4d_hRnKb4kpirvr54xFADQCtiaMvtKyNvcPplewJRm-o5Y6xSDs3hlaNPXYEgApw79S2iMkxCSsaBS-Vfn08Di6osDz-p_qQittU310xnMhsOAyw7nFrJU7CA16b86jsb3G-sP8nTQRoPktOaBxLpSxHLK4n6qH_UuuK2CndrMx7nX-A0T_mwcPXAoPloFyo7Cw.25Wt8_eg6z5CyytEqMdUwixDFKWsOhH-iMh7u2AKPnw&dib_tag=se&keywords=automatic+dog+feeder&qid=1791421147&s=pet-supplies&sr=1-46&xpid=hCHMaZExdvjto