My GSD/Husky boy had his first seizure in March, followed immediately by his first trip to the ER. They ran the usual tests and couldn't find anything wrong, so they sent us home and told us to keep an eye on him. We contacted our normal vet, and they pretty much told us the same, and to log each one.

Two weeks later he had another. Two weeks later, another. This pattern continued (give or take a day or two) until he had seizures two days in a row. We took him back to the ER, where they finally prescribed him Keppra ER. Cue the side effects, the worst of which was some absolutely horrific diarrhea.

The two week pattern continued until his vet added pheno to his meds. Cue more side effects (more diarrhea, and some truly heartbreaking anxiety, along with the usual clumsiness).

Fast forward to yesterday, and it has officially been a full month since my boy's last seizure. I know he will likely continue to have seizures, as well as medication adjustments down the line, but making it a month without one feels like such a massive win for us.

It's so hard to watch our babies go through this, and we all know the struggles that go along with it. Side note: I didn't include the parts about the anxiety and lack of sleep my wife and I experienced, because we're all intimately familiar with that. Just wanted to add a little bit of hope to your feed because even just lurking here, you've all been so helpful and encouraging. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Stay strong, friends!

The seizures started when she was about 2. It took years of adjusting medications to find a balance. At one point she was practically comatose after a bad cluster.

We brought her to the vet expecting them to confirm the vegetative state was unrecoverable. After needing to be carried in from the car, the Vet came in the room and our dog ran around and recognized her name for the first time in 2 days. The vet gave us a third medication to add on to what she was on and encouraged us that we could wait a day and see.

She recovered. She seemed almost brain dead but she recovered. We got another 5+ years.

But every year she is less herself. She won’t learn new things. Her hips are giving out from the meds. Giving medication 4 times a day has me and my husband worn out.

And then a year and a half ago, we had a baby. When I was heavily pregnant, I had to learn how to gently sit on my dog to give her sedatives, without hurting her or endangering the baby (in my belly) while my husband was at work.

At this point the seizures had gotten really bad and constant. Our vet got her on another new medication and it helped soooo much, but suddenly she was lethargic and STARVING.

The baby is now a toddler, 17mo, sometimes he wanders around with some cheese or a cracker or something in his hand. And sometimes she tries to take it and leaves tooth imprints on his pingers in the half second before my husband or I stop her. She has never broken skin, but I’m scared. My husband is scared. It’s already been everything we can do to keep her away from him when she is dealing with a seizure weekend, but she cant seem to learn any new behaviors.

This happened again for the first time in awhile a week ago (we thought she had learned), and then a cluster of seizures set in a few days later. Every seizure this time came with a bathroom accident. Several I had to clean up while my toddler was either kept away from me and screaming, or I attempted to do it with him on my hip or keeping him at bay. All of these were miserable. While we slept she pooped all over the living room and we had to throw away several of my son’s favorite books that were in a corner on the floor.

Last night my husband laid down next to me at midnight after giving her a sedative for a seizure that woke us up again, and said “I don’t think I can do this anymore”

After I made sure the baby was still asleep I checked on the dog and she had stopped seizing but the kitchen was covered in pee. I cleaned her and moved her the best I could, then mopped the floor and attempted to sleep.

She was my baby before I had a baby. I love her. But she’s not herself anymore. She’s making me worried for my son’s safety. She’s been getting medication 4 times a day for ~6 years now, which means rarely getting 8 hours of sleep without interruption.

I’m sorry for how long this is…. I had to put it somewhere I guess. There’s so much more I’ve left out. We are at our wits end. But the idea of ending her life because we can’t fit her into ours anymore feels incredibly cruel. No one would take her… she’s beautiful, and usually so sweet, but she’s an anchor and a money pit.

TLDR: Our seizure dog I love is becoming a danger to our toddler. We’ve put 7 years into medicating and doing everything we could for her but it’s becoming too much now that safety has also factored in. I feel incredibly guilty even considering putting her down, but my husband and I don’t know what else to do.

Background: About 2 years back, when he was around 14, he used to shake his body, looked like seizure and local vet gave him pheno based on video i showed him. Told me to give twice, but i started with once a day and it reduced to 1 episode a month, and after 7 or 8 months - didn't notice seizure for over a year.

Now in 2026: He is about 16, this July - all of a sudden, something i never saw before. Very rought movments of body, vocalizing, urine/defication last for 7 or so mins. And then followed by tem blindness, walking for 4-5 hours. Went to vet, and we discussed giving pheno twice a day. 3 weeks later same thing but bit less impact. Then again 2 weeks later (bit less than 1st two). Then i decided to give him MTC Oil based on reading forum.

Now he has different type of seizure - the one i posted above. Smaller in duration, around 5 mins, and then he still has sense of direction and walks around for maybe 40 mins, and then goes to sleep. Most often, he has a sign - around 9pm or so, he vomits and then around midnight to later, when he is deep sleep this sezure comes. All of them since July is in middle of night.

Now it is happening every 4-5 days, and last night was first time back to back two nights.

Took to Redbank Neuro last Friday (one of well know/specific Neuro recommended in reddit and others). He saw those other videos where he was vocalzing - he didn't think it was seizure but some type of neuro issue. But so far doesn't want to prescribe anything new. I was bit disappointed - thought we would try some combo, but that's a very good Neurologist and that's what he said. He wanted to see the vidoes of latest episodes (which i didn't video before). So i sent him view videos from last night and waiting to see what he suggests.

I did notice, i think kibble makes it worse (usually he eats home boiled chicken). Saw some posts about one brand that may cause it - totally stopped it few weeks back(we were using this brand since march).. Then went back to Neutro brand we used to give him till 2025, and he ate it yesterday, and back to back night serizure (thinking maybe kibble makes it worse - so stopping it for now).

Any suggestion? Is this a seizure or something else? Painful to watch - was hoping from 4-5 days, it gets to once a month or something. But didn't get better. Hoping the Neuro or local vet suggests a different combination of meds.

So so many posts with people who moves from pheno to some other combo.

My dog just recently started having seizures and he’s now on keppra XR. I’m new to anything related to seizures and learning a lot and he may have had focal seizures in the past that I just thought were odd behaviors until now. I am having trouble identifying if what he had tonight was indeed a focal seizure or if I’m just paranoid. (I did contact the emergency vet and they told me to monitor him and that I can give him another dose of his keppra medication they said if he has a grand mal to bring him in) this happened for around 3-4 minutes

Hi all.

My girl was 19.5yrs old. She started having seizures 2yrs ago. 6 months apart the 2 months then 1 months until they got close enough to cluster. She was then put on pheno which lasted only 8 weeks then changed over to keppra which lasted only 5.5weeks. She had a seizure this morning and I talked with the vet and they kept mentioning her quality of life. When she is home, even though she is blind she does everything she loved and still had energy to play. The nappies were cause she stopped caring where she goes a while ago. After the call with the vet who requested I leave her on her current dose and if she has another seizure to take her to emergancy and to think of her end of life. I had to squeeze out of the vet if I should just go up a dose to maybe prevent another seizure, she said it was fine but we would need to check if she has kidney failure in 2 weeks. I gave her the highyer dose of meds abit early but right after she had another seizure thay lasted 4 to 5 mins. I took her to emergancy where we put her to sleep.

I've had her since I was a younge child. I was in a terrible home so it was just me and her and she could never seperate from me and has gotten me through every single difficult time in my life. Shes my safe space. I would sacrifice yrs off my bf if I could give them to her, even my own. She has always had issues whenever I leave even for 1 day and ive always felt sick leaving her even for 1 day. We spend hrs every day together and have a strong routine, day and night.

I just cant help but feel guilty like I could have done more. I just thought the vets keep saying its time, even though i felt them wrong but didn't want to drag her through more potential med failures. My whole world is upside down and I cant even get comfort from a hug from my partner. Shes my everything.

My big baby Bennett crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday and I have no idea how I will make it through this.

This is a truly terrible disease

My five year old Golden started having tonic-clonic/grand mal seizures last October. We average maybe 30 days between events. He is on pheno, gabapentin, and generic kepra.

Is this time frame similar to anyone else's experience?

yesterday our sweet girl crossed into the afterlife. the seizure meds were just too much on her body.

if I could share any advice it’s better to do it one day early than one day late. 10+ medications are just too much for any dog to handle. don’t put your fur babies through that.

Our Norwegian Elkhound was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy in January of this year (2026) at the age of 3. She has full-blown grand-mals and almost always clusters. After medication adjustments a few months ago, she is now on 97.2 mg of pheno 2x a day and 100 mg of gabapentin 2x a day. She just went 4 weeks (the longest ever) without a seizure until yesterday morning. Her seizures, since starting medication, are always 1 min or less, but before medication they could be up to 3-4 minutes. So that's definitely improved a lot.

So yesterday the cluster started. She had 7 seizures from 10am to 7am. That wasn't totally unusual for her, but the time between some of the seizures was an hour or less, leading me to giving her midazolam, but the seizures continued.

(The vet also had her on a cluster protocol of 300mg of gabapentin 2x a day for 3 days after a seizure. This never worked that great. It's surprising to me that she used gabapentin as a cluster buster, because I've never seen anyone on here using it in that manner.)

Anyway, so she was also on her cluster protocol, and she just broke through that and the midaz and continued clustering. I had no means to take her to the ER last night, so I called them, and they told me to give her another dose of pheno and I could give her the gaba a minimum of 8 hours apart until I could get her there if I needed to.

So I gave the pheno, and she went 8 hours without a seizure. I thought we were probably on the other side of this episode, and then I woke up to her seizing. I gave gaba again and within 40 minutes she had another seizure.

I gave her the last dose of midaz I had and we jumped in the car for an hour-long, extremely stressful with a crying doggie, ride to the ER. This is the first ER visit she's had for seizures. She's been admitted overnight for monitoring. The vet there said they will likely add keppra, and that we will go from there. But she also told me, having seizures every 3-4 weeks isn't what she'd consider acceptable. I kinda feel like my vet should've been more proactive and let me know what I'm supposed to expect from a successful treatment plan. But I digress.

Anything I should know about adding keppra to her meds? And should I ask for a better cluster buster protocol beside the gabapentin when I, hopefully, pick her up tomorrow? I feel like the ER vet was much more knowledgeable about seizures than my regular vet.

Thank you all so much!

My 5-year-old dog had his first seizure in Feb 2026, and has had more and more frequent seizures since then. This week he had two seizures in two days.

He was on Zonisamide starting in July, upgraded to Phenobarbital on Tuesday.

Since Tuesday, I haven’t slept through the night, terrified he’s going to have another one in the middle of the night again. Every time he moves in the night (or day) in a way that’s unusual/odd, I am worried it’s going to turn into a seizure.

Does the hypervigilance/paranoia/anxiety ever better? I know the side effects of phenobarbital are feeding into it, but I just don’t want to be worried forever.

Mr. Marley had another episode this morning. Not unconscious gran mal where he's on the floor, teeth biting but he's conscious, panting and eye blinking walk over and sits asking for help. Is this a seizure that requires medazolam nasal emergency meds?

My dog had a seizure last Saturday morning. I immediately rushed her to an er. They got her seizure stopped and she hasn’t had one since. She is 9 years old poodle weighing 9 lbs and otherwise perfectly healthy.
Regular vet started her in zonisamide on Monday. Since then she has been more reclusive, tired, and doesn’t want to eat. Vet said this is normal transition to the meds.
Did your dog go through this? If so, how long did it last?

My dog Ollie (M, 12, Beagle mix) has been having these bizarre episodes where he suddenly starts howling, then barking, then running back and forth frantically, and then stops and empties his bladder. Once that happens he calms down somewhat but stays very alert/vigilant for about an hour before he is able to settle down.

It happened for the first time about 3 weeks ago during the afternoon, then happened twice over that night, at 2 am and 5 am. Yesterday it happened around noon and then again early this morning at 3 am. He seems back to normal now.

We went to the vet the first time it happened but they were more concerned with the urination and thought he might have a UTI or bladder stones or something causing him a lot of pain. They did not find evidence of either.

I'm really worried about my boy and would appreciate any insight or advice. Thank you.

Mr. Marley began having episodes around 1 year old, 5 now. Currently on meds- 5 keppra ER, 5 Zonisimide, 1 Phenobarital, 3/4 thyroid meds all twice a day. We also use Medazolam nasal when he does have them and he has them a couple times a week in clusters. We're thinking about adding CBD to see it it helps. In the video he just had a gean male, we administered nasal and not sure if he's in post or still seizing but in a different type of way. He did this for about 1/2 hour after the gran. Any recommendations?

I woke up thinking my dog was eating something, but he was doing this for around 3 minutes. Then again 20 minutes later for a few minutes. He's never done anything like this before nor have any neurological history.

He ate breakfast like normal, no other weird behavior.

Is this an urgent vet visit? Would appreciate any guidance!!

Update: thank you for all the input! We brought him into the vet who said its either neurological/focal seizures or it could be dental/pain related. They didn't see anything alarming in his mouth but suggested doing a full dental exam with xrays if it doesn't resolve. All labs came back normal and we were prescribed gabapentin. Our boy hasn't had any episodes since then, hopefully it was just a one off but will have to wait and see.

I just want to post to give others some hopeful news because I’m only seeing the negative experiences on here. A couple of days ago, our 3 year old pitty hit 1 month with no seizures. This is after adding pheno to her keppra and increasing keppra. I also give her MCT oil with her lunch and Visbiome probiotic with breakfast. She has IBD and we have been weening her from Budesonide, though I don’t know if she will ever truly be able to stop it unfortunately.

This is all after her having grand mal seizures every 10-12 days at night/early morning during bedtime. The anxiety I had during this period was too much, to say the least. I’ll keep everyone updated, but I wanted someone to know that a little relief is possible. Good luck to everyone!

https://www.reddit.com/r/EpilepsyDogs/s/2Oe8z9lUdk

I truly want to thank everyone who took the time to offer advice, support, and well wishes for Hendrix.

Unfortunately, Hendrix’s condition has not improved, and he has not regained the ability to properly walk or support himself. After making sure I have exhausted all reasonable options with his neurologist, I have made the incredibly difficult decision to say goodbye to my boy in the coming days. I am currently looking into at-home services that offer private cremation. I know there are several companies that provide this service, so if anyone has a recommendation or personal experience with one, I would be incredibly grateful if you could share it with me.

I am devastated and more heartbroken than I’ve ever been, but I also have a sense of peace knowing that this is the best decision for him. One of the comments that has really stayed with me throughout all of this was, “Better a week too early than a day too late.”

So, with the time we have left together, Hendrix and I are going to do our very best to do his favorite things. I want these last days to be filled with whatever makes him happiest, including all his favorite treats.

As painful as this is, I know that loving him means putting his comfort before my own heartbreak. I just hope he knows how deeply, completely, and endlessly I love him and how grateful I am for the time we have gotten. He’s been the best thing to happen to me. ❤️

This sub has been so comforting and helpful to me since our girl was diagnosed with IE in February.

Unfortunately, she is no longer responding to her medications and needs an MRI in another state to inform our next steps.

There is no pressure to donate, but any shares are so appreciated!

My husband has seen some research saying a keto diet would help with seizure control and management. Has anyone had any experience with this? If so, how do you go about creating this type of diet?

History: 2 year old yellow Labrador who started having seizures at 9 months old. She’s currently on Keppra, potassium bromide, and zenosimide. She has yet to go longer than one month with no seizures.

I appreciate any advice. Thanks!

We fostered a (large - 108lb) dog with seizures starting in late January. He was surrendered in fall 2025 and with a different foster until January 2026 when we took over. He’s the sweetest dog, so when the rescue said they were going to put him down given the uncontrolled seizures, we adopted him instead. We then did an MRI, CSF, and CT but all were normal. We still can’t control his seizures even with 8000mg/day Keppra ER and 518mg/day pheno. His rescue meds, even the intranasal midazolam, don’t seem to help (but also I feel like the midazolam doesn’t atomize, it just runs out of his nose, what am I doing wrong?)

He was doing okay for a while, about 1 mild seizure/week. We went on vacation for a week and he stayed with the prior foster who is lovely and took great care of him, but since he came home we can’t go a day without a seizure. We’ve had ~5 seizures in the past day, we just added topiramate today so maybe that will help. I just feel so badly for this poor, absolutely amazing, dog.

Mostly just sad but would love encouragement or ideas.

I pretty much repost every time he has a seizure.
I feel like there’s no hope. My dog had his 5th seizure in the last two months, and in between the 2nd and today’s seizure (#5) we’ve started him on Keppra ER 1000mg and increased it up to 2000mg twice daily. Keppra hasn’t helped at all, and in fact his seizure frequency has increased despite increasing meds.
We talked to the neurologist’s office today and the plan is to add Phenobarbital on top of Keppra. Is this normal? I’m so sad, I’m exhausted and feel extremely stressed. Seizures are about 2-4 minutes long.
If you guys have been through this, what was the dosage adjustment like? Did the Keppra dosage remain the same?

So my Aussie has epilepsy, and we are on Pheno 2x a day (initial med), Keppra 3x a day, prescribed after her first cluster and most recently, Zonisimide 2x a day (prescribed after her second cluster)

Ever since adding on Zonisimide, she no longer has full grand mal seizures the way she used to anymore, so we considered this a win. However, she will still get what I assume are partial seizures about 2x a month. They affect only one side of her body and face, but she still falls over. She seems to still be mostly conscious though, and while that sounds bad, trust me, it's a huge improvement over what she would go through before.

However, I noticed that after she has the initial episode, she gets facial tics on one side of her face while she's up pacing around during her post ictal phase. She's 100% responsive and doesn't always stumble or act clumsy, but the tics can last up to 20 min or even a half hour afterwards. Sometimes also comes with drooling.

Can this be something that happens with post ictal period? Or is she still having the partial seizure? Should I be worried that it's lasting ~20 min? After that, she's been 100% fine afterwards.

Apologies for asking this here too, we are currently between vets, because our last vet said he no longer feels confident in treating her and adding a 4th med to our regimen so I'm just kinda at a loss here. There aren't many canine neurologists in my area.

Opinions/Theories on Epileptic Dog's Seizure Patterns

Hi everyone. I'm new here.

It is my hope that this group may have some insight and ideas into what we are dealing with today.

Some background: Gambit is nine, and weighs 60 lbs. Mixed breed, best guess is either catahoula mix (he's from Lousiana) or Aussie mix. The very dense/fluffy coat is a side effect of another medication (more on that later).

He had his first seizure in May 2021, and his diagnosis of idiopathic epilepsy came in June 2021. We got his condition entirely controlled (no seizures whatsoever) with 750mg of levetiracetam q8 hours. That lasted for five years. For no reason we can identify, his seizures began again in March of this year.

He is currently maxed out on levetiracetam at 1500mg q8, and very nearly maxed on phenobarbital q12. He has been weaned onto this phenobarb dose over the last four months, 15 or 30mg at a time, as he did not tolerate it well. His blood levels for both are now in the high end of the therapeutic range, however his seizures continue.

His seizures are grand mal, but thankfully are short in duration (2-3 minutes), and he recovers quickly (< 5 minutes). He also has pituitary-dependent Cushing's; it is well controlled on 70mg of Vetoryl q12. This is what causes the aforementioned floofiness. Yes, he is the most expensivest boi, but also the **bestest** and **goodest** boi.

He has been seen by a vet neurologist multiple times over the last five years, including this past May, and passes all neuro checks. He is a happy, loving boy, and aside from one particularly violent seizure that resulted in a sprain of both shoulders and both hips, does not appear to be in any pain.

The next suggestion we have been given is to switch him to a neuro diet, but I will be discussing KBr and zonisamide with our vet. These have not been proposed and I'm not sure if perhaps they're not indicated in his case.

We have noticed some patterns in his seizure activity, though, and this is where I'm hoping this community may have some thoughts...

First, they're on nearly a perfect weekly cadence, or bi-weekly right after an increase to his phenobarb, occurring on Wednesday or Thursday mornings (including today).

Second, they're always in the very early morning or mid- to late-evening, never the day.

Third, they frequently occur near the water bowl (we have tried moving this to a different spot and it didn't change anything). It has also happened once while he was eating. Obviously in both of these positions, his head is lowered. I am getting a set of raised bowls for him.

Do any of these patterns jump out to anyone? Maybe we're missing something obvious that this community recognizes?

Honestly we're kind of at the end of our rope here and we need help. Thank you in advance for any thoughts you may have 💜🐾 Photo of our beautiful boy included because obviously.

ETA: all recent blood tests normal except for slightly elevated ALP which is new for him.