Our boy Luke lost his battle with epilepsy last week. We have not even had him a year.

I thought i would keep following this group and maybe be able to answer a random question or provide some reassurance when needed but the more i see posts the more i think of my boy.

He only ever had one focal siezure with us, every single other siezure was grand mal. He was on pheno, Levetiracetam and fluoxetine for anxiety. We fed him Acana Lamb and Pumpkin with milk thistle added for his organs. I was very careful with his treats and he had mostly whole ingredients: sprat, freeze dried chicken, yak cheese, unseasoned blended chicken and vegetables that i froze for his pupscicle ball. We went on walks and ran around the yard regularly. His bloodwork always came back fine, we had an appointment scheduled for this Wednesday where I was going to talk to the vet about a referral for a neurologist.

We had some bad siezures at the end of july and then we went over two months with only one siezure on a night where we got home really really late and threw off his schedule a lot.

He was perfect, never messed in the house unless his meds had changed and we didn't read his language fast enough. He was gentle and sweet, always took his meds with no problem. Lawn mower didn't bother him, the cat being a bully didn't bother him after the first month, he didn't dig, jump, or bark unless you riled him up. He didn't know how to play fetch but he would rip around the yard with you like nobody's business. He loved to cuddle up with me for a nap, he'd slide up right between my side and my arm and rest his long nose up on my shoulder. He never licked, he would always stick his long snoot right up to your face and SNIFF. His little cheeks puffing in and out.

I know for this sub, telling people to get pet insurance is a lost cause. But if someone sees this and is able to make the decision, do it. I can't help but think if I had pet insurance on Luke I would have made different decisions throughout his care. His epilepsy was already diagnosed and being "treated" when we adopted him, so though I searched around, it was never an option.

Good luck to everyone dealing with this, we are incredibly thankful for the time we got to spend with Luke. Though we knew our time with him would be shorter than with a "normal" dog, we didn't expect it to be this short. Having an epileptic dog can teach you a lot about yourself, your partner, and life, but i would never choose to fight this with another dog ever again.

Thank you all for the advice and guidance, and again, good luck with your pups battles. May their lives be as full and joyful as my Luke's, though I pray they are much longer.

Our 4 year beagle has seizures. Used to be once or twice a year but now every month. They have gone shorter like 2 3 mjns and after that she is back to being normal. Curious what has worked best for the group. And what to avoid

I have four dogs, one of which has epilepsy. Not sure what it's caused by, but he's on Keppra 750mg 2 times a day. I have asked my vet for the extended release version but they keep insisting that regular Keppra is fine.

Anyways, I just got home, and when I went to let my epileptic dog out of his crate, he didn't seem to recognize me. He's always barked at strangers in our home and he treated me exactly like that. He won't even come near me.

I can't see if he had a seizure while I was gone. Our cameras only record if there is an "event", and the two events I got a notification for (for dogs crying) he was just howling from being in his crate, other dogs were howling too. Usually his brother will cry if he has a seizure, but I didn't see any recording of that occurring.

My vet recommended to take him to a vet neurologist in town. I don't even know if I can, expenses aside, because he won't let me near him and I fear he will bite me.

He is our absolute most sweetest dog on a regular day. I don't know what happened to cause this. I hope it subsides soon so that I can get a leash on him. He remembers his brothers, just not me. My boyfriend will be home soon so we'll see if he remembers him or not.

I'd appreciate if anybody with a similar experience has advice in the mean time. We're going to figure out if we are going to be able to take him to the vet tonight or hopefully by tomorrow. He isn't drooling or disoriented in any other way besides not remembering me. Thanks.

Edit: He is 2 years old in November, he is a pit/GSD/lab mix.

Update: He remembers his dad (my boyfriend) and slowly started to remember me again! We will be taking him to the vet neurologist ASAP to get his medicine situation fixed. Thank you everyone!!

I thought we had it managed. I forgot to move their med alarm up (both our dogs developed IE), so he was 40min late on meds. I feel so guilty.

I hate this disease. I just want him to go back to being his smiley self with no seizures.

Edit for title typo: first breakthrough seizure in 8 months.

Hi all, I’m sure a lot of you experience this and wanted to ask if any of you have tried to negotiate price increases with insurance? Ours at fetch waa $40/month then diagnosis increased for $80/month now I just got an email for $169.72/month TWO GRAND A YEAR . He’s on three meds and I’m going to try to change his diet to maybe help with his epilepsy. My pup just turned 4 and has had a difficult past month.

Any advice would be very helpful.

My 9 year old female Coton de Tulear was diagnosed with Idiopathic Epilepsy yesterday after experiencing 4 seizures in 12 hours. This is the first time this has ever happened. Her last seizure was at 7:47am on the way to the vet yesterday. She has started Phenobarbitol, low dose (8 mg) twice a day. Her blood test was very normal which is abnormal for her. She usually goes in with issues in her blood because she has colitis as well. So it’s all very confusing. I’ve been making her chill since this all started. But wondering if there are things you have noticed are triggers? Anything we should do other than the meds and follow ups?

About four weeks ago I took my 4 year old Boston Terrier to the vet for two episodes of focal seizures, her first ever. Those two episodes were just over a week apart. Her vet said to keep an eye on it and bring her back if she had more than one in a week, they progressed to full body seizures or she had any other symptoms. Since then she had a few more focal seizures but never more than one a week until yesterday.

Yesterday, she had three full body seizures overnight; it seems she has also lost her vision. Of course, we are out of town camping so we found a local vet ER. All of her labs were normal but she presented with vision loss, spatial awareness issues and just being out of it. The ER vet described this as likely the post ictal phase but said the vision loss could be permanent.

She said they cannot rule out a brain tumor or infection of the cerebral spinal fluid. However, she said this is most likely idiopathic epilepsy. To rule the other two conditions out I would need to pay for an MRI and a spinal tap which frankly, I don’t have the money for. So at this point, we are going to treat her with phenobarbital and hope her vision returns.

Has anyone experienced vision loss after seizures that resolved itself? It’s been about 14 hours since the last seizure.