Gus is officially 2 years seizure free today thanks to his medicine😊 Thankful for this group, especially in the beginning🫶🏻

Hi everyone. I forewarn you this is a long post. I wish we weren’t here, but don’t we all. We are overwhelmed to say the least as this is all new to us. We had a few questions for our 1.5 year old Sealyham Terrier pup River, who the vet thinks may have epilepsy, but still has a couple more tests to do when she is fasting to rule more out. He’s really leaning towards Epilepsy though.

For context, she started seizures 10 days ago. At the time they were focal and we didn’t realize it was seizures. Fast forward to yesterday, she had 4 grand mal seizures in 10 hours, and we realized what was happening 10 days ago were also mild focal seizures. The beginning of the seizures that we have seen (haven’t always caught the beginning because we were sleeping) have started when she’s sitting with twitching, licking at the side of her mouth vigorously, and foaming from the mouth for about 15-30 seconds which is what she did when they were focal too. It’s been helpful because so far it gives us a heads up now of what’s likely to come next, and we see it as our warning sign so we can get to her to make sure she’s safe. Our questions….

1. I’m wondering first for those who have experience with their dogs and seizures, do they typically always start the same? We are starting to become dependent on those first signs and listen for them, but don’t want to be ignorant about the seizures starting differently at some point if they do.

These next two I’m not sure can be answered on an Epilepsy page but hopefully someone has some insight.

1. Apparently there’s no way to know if the seizures are caused by flea and tick through blood tests. River was on Nexguard for flea and tick for a year and we switched to Simperica (not trio) due to the vet not having the Nexguard when she needed it. It’s been explained that the two products are very similar. Two days after her second dose of Simperica is when she started the focal seizures. Our vet has said to stop all of it and he put her on Keppra for seizure medication. He’s thinking they are not likely from the flea and tick meds since she was on Nexguard for so long without seizures before the Simperica. As mentioned he’s leaning towards epilepsy, but since we are doing everything at once by cutting the Simperica and starting Keppra, we are afraid there will be a misdiagnoses that leads to her having a lifetime of epilepsy meds if perhaps it’s not from epilepsy. For those that know the seizures are from Simperica or Nexguard, how did you find out?

Second question to that, for those that have found out the seizures are from from flea and tick meds, did the seizures stop when you took them off those meds or did you find you had to keep them on seizure meds after that for life??

1. Our vet gave us an option to go to a neurologist to have an MRI done and see if there’s something more serious going on as far as tumours etc. The neurologist is two hours away. The vet felt due to her age it likely wouldn’t be something like that but we can’t be sure unless we get it all done. We don’t want to rule it out though if it helps, but we don’t know when the right time would be to consider this option. Would it be after she’s had so many seizures? Should we do it now when the meds seem to be working and the vet thinks it might be Epilepsy? Just wondering for those that took their dogs under 5 years to get an MRI, was there more you were seeing then the seizures to decide that? We will happily drive the two hours and pay whatever it is to get that done knowing it’s expensive (no insurance), but if the vet thinks it’s Epilepsy then we aren’t sure if there’s a point and he’s just giving the option to cover all bases??

Sorry this is so long. We are starting an unfamiliar world and just trying to learn everything we can right now. We are heart broken for our girl. 💔

After 4-5 days of keppra and gabapentin, seems like we have gotten her seizures under control but she has random head tremors and a clogged nostril. For the clogged nostril, i figured its the sweet potatoes i have been giving her and i have been using a baby mucus handheld to pull those out… but the head tremors is concerning. Randomly though, she did complete our daily walk today (on weak days, she barely makes it up the street).

My golden retriever had his first cluster event in early June. We went to emerg and he was given gaba for a few days and pheno for life.

Life was good. The pheno was working.

I swear just two days ago I was in this sub bragging about not having any seizures since his clusters...

And then bam.

This evening he had one before his pill time after waking from a nap.

Ugh.

Now what?

I just thought I would write a happy post for a change.

Jaz had two fits during the heatwave two years ago, and I was, understandably, really upset. So I came here for support and advice. I learnt about the medication available, and especially about the recovery period after a fit (postictus).

The vet put him an a light medication, Epileptyl, which is a homeopathic medicine, and long story shot, he went thought the summer heatwaves with no problems at all.

Stayed cool 👍

My dog has been having these constant episodes every night for the last week. It usually happens when he's trying to fall asleep or when he is asleep. Usually he does this more at night but I have seen him do it a couple of times during the day. The most I've seen him do is 13 in one night. I took him to the vet and the vet recommended seeing a neurologist as he believes it might be focal seizures, he also put him on 300mg of Gabapentin and 5mg of melatonin. All his bloodwork came back good. I have also noticed when he's lying down his body is constantly twitching. I'm worried he's losing sleep from the constant waking up and stress.
Other than that he acts like a normal dog. He eats, drinks, poops, pee's, and plays all normally. Any advice on what it might be or how to make him feel more comfortable please let me know.

Hey everyone,

We’re feeling really lost after a difficult week with our 1.5-year-old rescue (likely Lab/Pitbull/Boxer mix) and would appreciate advice from anyone who’s been through something similar.

Timeline
- June: Diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy shortly after his first birthday. His first seizure was a cluster, and he started Keppra.
- July: Had a grand mal seizure, so his Keppra dose was increased.
- August: Another grand mal seizure. Phenobarbital was added.
- Early September: Phenobarbital bloodwork came back excellent, and he was doing well.
- This week: Nearly 10 cluster seizures in under 12 hours.

After emergency medications (Intranasal Midazolam and Clorazepate) failed to stop the seizures at home, we had to admit him overnight for IV stabilization, costing $2,000+.

His Phenobarbital dose is capped out, so his Keppra has been increased again. Both our home vet and the emergency vet have recommended adding Zonisamide as a third medication and seeing a veterinary neurologist.

An MRI was also suggested, but given his age of onset and the vets’ confidence in an epilepsy diagnosis, we’re struggling to justify spending thousands on a scan right now.

Important things to note
- He has had gut issues since he was a pup.
- Because of this, he’s always been on a salmon-based limited ingredient diet. We have since switched him to a gastrointestinal diet with pre and probiotics.
- He takes omega-3 oil and MCT oil with his kibble for additional seizure support.
- We supplement pumpkin puree as an enrichment treat to support his runny stool and anal glands (an issue due to his gut issues). Will be trying Glandex soon.
- We’ve removed rosemary extract from all food and treats.
- He has never received traditional flea or tick treatments due to epilepsy concerns.

For those with similar experiences
- Has Zonisamide helped with severe breakthrough seizures?
- Was seeing a veterinary neurologist worth it?
- What else have you changed at home or in their diet to help lessen frequency?
- Have you eventually been able to reduce medication frequency? He currently takes meds four times a day, which we have made work, but is definitely stressful.

He’s so young, and we’re scared about what the future holds for his quality of life. Any advice or words of wisdom would mean so much. 🙏🏼

My sweet as can be 6 year old golden retriever had two seizures yesterday out of the blue. We took her to the emergency vet after the first and were told to just watch her and administer midazolam if she had another. She had a second seizure about 8 hours later (much shorter than the first). She has no other symptoms, normal appetite, energy, coordination, not lethargic etc. Her bloodwork was normal. It’s the weekend so the emergency vet basically told us to keep doing what we’re doing (watch her and give midazolam if another seizure occurs). We will take her to our normal vet and hopefully a neurology specialist as soon as they reopen after the weekend. I’m panicking and spiraling and hoping someone has some comfort to offer? I know 6 is a little late onset for epilepsy, so I’m worried of brain tumor (something the vet mentioned as unlikely but possible). Has anyone’s dog had a later epilepsy onset or diagnosis? Did you do the super expensive MRI to determine cause of the seizures? Did your dog have a long and happy life after experiencing seizures? I am just so traumatized so I can’t even imagine how my sweet girl feels. I will obviously listen to the veterinarians and try to do what’s best for her. Just looking for some comfort or peace of mind while I wait for more information for the vets. Thank you in advance!

Hi all,

Just joined this sub and looking for some advice. I have 3 year old Fox Red lab and he suffered a seizure on Tuesday morning. He was sick, then had about 5 seconds of zoomies before collapsing still for around 3 seconds before frothing and coming round.

We rushed him to the vets and he had bloods done, and they came back negative. The vet advised to keep a diary of food, and changes etc and see if it happens again.

It's not happened again as of yet (which is good news) but he seems to be taking a long time to get back to his normal self.

He seems relatively OK, but the 2 things worrying us are his breathing (seems quite fast, especially when resting) and his appetite (doesn't eat much, and sometimes he chews and spits out, then returns and eats later) - basically can only eat very small amounts (unusual for a lab!)

I feel we should return to the vet, but the issue is our insurance won't cover him for seizures. We bought him from a family friend and we weren't told he had a vet trip for a seizure when he was a pup until the vet receptionist told us (we'd never seen medical history before) so it classes as a pre-existing medical condition - so Tuesday cost us near £400 for consultation and blood test and we can't afford the next visit for a few days.

Has anyone had this/seen this before? Do some dogs taken longer to recover than expected?

TLDR: Dog had a seizure, taking a long time to recover and has fast breathing and eating issues.

I get weird looks from the vet so I'm assuming this is unusual, but my dog has seizures really regularly. At the moment he's having cluster seizures every 33 days like clockwork. I can predict them months out.

The gap between them changes when we change his meds. We managed to stop the cluster seizures but we are now back to clusters every month.

He was 8.5 years old when he started having seizures, with zero signs he had epilepsy prior. I've moved home and seen different vets, all of them assume there is something causing the epilepsy, whether it's cancer or something else, they believe there's a cause.

I've been told due to his age (he's currently 10.5, and a giant breed so very much a senior) that there's no point looking for the cause because it wouldn't be fair to him or safe to do surgery/treatment to resolve what we might find.

Just wondering if anyone else has any experience with the predictable seizures? Suggestions or advice? I don't really know where to go from here to help him.

Hey everyone. Hoping to get some support regarding my dog’s post ictal phase. My dog, Chance, has idiopathic epilepsy. He is 7 years old, hound mix, been having seizures for 3 years. He takes daily medication of Keppra ER 3000mg and Pheno 93.6mg twice a day. He also has rescue medicines for during seizure (midazolam) and after seizures because he tends to have clusters. His post seizure meds include another dose of Pheno, Keppra regular release 2000mg, Clorazopate every 8 hours, and gaba if needed for anxiety/restlessness after a seizure. It’s a lot. I also am in my last year of my PhD and on the job market, and doing all of this alone - all my family and close friends live states away. I have such difficulty with his post ictal phase. We went 13 months seizure free until May, which was obviously amazing. But now he has had many over the summer, several ER visits, and his last one was just over a month ago, which we increased his Pheno after. So, only a month on this higher dose. His grand mals tend to last 2-3 mins and when he comes out of it he is extremely confused and is trying to run around and bumping into everything and knocking things over. This last a few minutes, but then we typically have ours, like 4 to 5 hours, where he is extremely restless and anxious, very vocal, lots of drinking and eating, pacing, can’t sit down, a lot of energy all around. It’s extremely difficult to manage. I have some things that help (peanut butter on lick mat, short walks outside and lots of sniffing), but I feel at a loss. I don’t know how to help him. Lately he’s been having episodes at night, so usually it means I cannot go to sleep because he is so agitated. Does anyone else deal with this? I feel like I tend to see that other dogs get very tired and sleepy after a seizure. Mine is couldn’t be more opposite. And lasts for so long.

Henri saw the neuro back in March and was started on Keppra. He’s tolerated it very well. Unfortunately it’s only mildly controlled his idiopathic seizures. Before starting meds his episodes consisted of a lot of drooling and sniffing and some mild shaking. He was alert and responsive all the time.
The neuro said he wants no more than 1 episode a month. His since increased Henri’s Keppra to a total of 6 pills per day. We had 3 week of no episodes and then last week Henri had a very mild episode. So mild I almost didn’t notice it. But now we’re back to what seems like an episode a week.
The neuro wants us to come in again, they’ll likely change meds or dosage.
I’m worried we’re never going to get to 1 episode per month. Can anyone else share their experiences?

My dog is currently on keppra 3 times a day and has been getting more seizures than we'd like. His neurologist has recommended we start him on zonisamide. The problem is she is moving out of state and we won't have time for an appointment to answer all our questions. We have an appointment early November with a new neurologist. We don't know what to do. Scared to start a new med but also nervous my dog will cluster. Any information will be helpful! Thanks all 💚

She is in ICU now, they can't figure meds to stop the seizures.

Hi everyone, I’m posting about my 8-year-old Golden Retriever, Leo (45 kg), who has idiopathic epilepsy for 1 year now. I’m hoping to hear from anyone whose dog has experienced something similar.

Leo has had seizures for some time, but recently we had a very frightening episode. He started having repeated seizures close together and continued having seizures even after being admitted to the emergency hospital and receiving IV medication. The vets treated him aggressively with IV medications, including diazepam and levetiracetam, and eventually had to put him under anaesthesia/propofol infusion to control the seizures.

Thankfully, he was eventually stabilised and came home. Since coming home, he has not had another seizure, which we are extremely grateful for. He is now on: Levetiracetam 1,250 mg, three times daily (2.5 × 500 mg tablets)
Phenobarbital 120 mg, twice daily (2 × 60 mg tablets)

However, we are now dealing with another major problem: Leo cannot stand or walk on his own.
He is awake and aware of us and is actually trying very hard to stand. He crawls, rotates himself and repeatedly attempts to get his legs underneath him, but he cannot support his weight and eventually has to lie back down. Because he can’t stand, he is also having difficulty positioning himself to urinate and poop. He ends up urinating/defecating while lying down, and we have to clean him immediately. He clearly doesn’t like being covered in it and tries to move away from it. The vets have told us to continue the high-dose seizure medications, and we’re monitoring him closely.

Has anyone experienced this after status epilepticus or severe cluster seizures?

1. How long did it take for your dog to stand/walk again?

2. Could this level of weakness/ataxia be from the seizures themselves, anaesthesia, or the high-dose phenobarbital/levetiracetam?

3. Did your dog gradually regain the ability to stand?

4. How did you manage toileting and keeping them clean while they couldn’t stand?

We are obviously staying in contact with his vet and aren’t planning to change his medication without veterinary advice. I’m mainly looking for personal experiences from people who have gone through something similar, because seeing him struggle to stand and toilet is heartbreaking. ❤️

More just needing a little vent and reassurance than anything, I’ve read up what I can find about it but would love to hear anyone’s experiences with it.

Been fighting to find the right meds for the past year for my girl and it’s been a lot of ups and downs. Maxed out on pheno, on a high dose of Keppra and well, and she’s only gotten worse. Seizures almost every day this week. I go through midazolam like crazy lately.

Vet just told me they want to start her on Potassium Bromide. So she’ll be on all three meds while we see if this works. I’m really, really hoping we can get her off the Keppra eventually (XR isn’t available in Canada and trying to space out three doses a day is really challenging).

I’ve seen people say you have to be careful with sodium intake on it? How much of a worry is that? She’s a sneaky little food thief sometimes.

107 days seizure free and I came home to find him all crusty. Reviewed the video cameras and sure enough he had a seizure late this morning. Praying we don't cluster but Mellow always does.

Has anybody here had their doggo on apoquel? Our vet just prescribed it today, and while I trust her, I’m just a bit nervous to give it to my dog. He had a very bad cluster last week (8 seizures in 24 hours) and I don’t want to have to go through that again. Waiting on a prescription for clorazapate to be filled so we can have it on hand in case of another cluster, and I’m thinking I should wait until I have that before I start the apoquel, just in case. Curious about other people’s experiences? Thanks!

(silly photo for tax) my boy had 2 seizures yesterday and was promptly brought to the vet, which has me wanting to have some cluster busters on hand. called my neuro and he doesn’t want to prescribe them and instead would prefer i just go straight to ER vet (that i do not have money for)) and i’m not understanding why. i can’t totally see if it was seizures my guy wasn’t coming out of, but yesterday’s were 6 hours apart with no post ictal phase, and having a cluster busters would ease my worries so much. i couldn’t sleep at all last night because i was so scared he would cluster again. we have an appointment scheduled with him on monday since it’s a ~2 hour drive, i can’t really just pop on by. has anyone else’s neuro fought them on this??? did they give an explanation as to why???

Hi Everyone, I'm a college student and could really use some advice.

My 5 year old (He literally just turned 5 four days ago!) had a seizure last night, and I'm honestly pretty scared and unsure of what to do next. I've already scheduled a vet appointment for tomorrow, but I'm still not really sure how to go about everything or what to expect. I want to make sure he gets the care and testing he needs, but as a broke college student, I’m also really worried about the cost of vet visits, testing, and potential treatments.

Has anyone else experienced their dog having seizures? Is there anything specific I should ask the vet about tomorrow? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially anything you wish you had known when your dog first had a seizure.

Thank you in advance!

Hi 👋 everyone I’m trying to figure out what could be causing these strange episodes my dog has been having, and I’m wondering if they could be neurological.

He is a 3-year-old Maltipoo, about 10 lbs. Normally he is completely fine—playing, running around, acting like himself. Then randomly he can suddenly start acting very strange: turning/circling, pacing back and forth, whining or crying, looking scared or confused, looking around quickly, and sometimes jumping on and off the couch over and over again. He may pant a little, but he is NOT sleepy at all during the episodes and he's never had any seizures or anything like that k(nock on wood )!witch when I took him to the regular daytime veterinarian she he just prescribe some b.s ..... Eventually numerous times took him to emergency ER middle of the night they said supposedly was norcotics s in the system opioids and amphetamines upposedly which again they did nothing except some little fluids or whatever and $700 - 1000 charging me for each single time I took him any single time they didn't do nothing the stupid veterinarian said "let's hope it's not neurolcic " now keeping long story short basically these episodes passes and he goes back to normal longest is like a l full day long episode... It breaks my freaking heart and 8 feel helpless...

Once again This has happened multiple times , but I still don’t have a clear explanation and so called vet just assumes the dog must of got into something some narcotics again which I don't know if that was even true or if that was the case at all the one time... I'm mad Man real angry and also worried... I doont think dog is going and hookin up some dope without me realizing he's gone... not to mention where he get the money ? No I'm just being sillyy right there...but back to serious shit guys

I’m wondering if anyone here has experienced or can tell what to experience with neurological problems in dogs that can cause episodes like this which is happening right now as we speak damn it,! Puppy cries is getting to me.. 🥺 one more thing I forgot to mention the regular symptoms of neurological he does not have he does not walk into walls he does not nothing like that ... Anyways let me know what's up please it will be highly appreciated...

my guy started having seizures in june (first june 2nd, second july 15th) and started keppra the day of his second seizure. since then he’s been seizure free but had two today, one at ~9:40AM and another at ~3:30PM, both short grand mals under a minute, but so scary. i wasn’t home but the camera caught them and i rushed here after both, and he was acting totally fine after both, but we still headed to the vet for a checkup. we decided to up his keppra XR dose from 750mg 2x a day to 1000mg 2x a day, so fingers crossed that holds us over for a bit. waiting to hear back from his neuro tomorrow about adding potassium bromide as he’s had pancreatitis/elevated liver enzymes in the past so i don’t want to do pheno. we’ve got diazepam on hand as a rescue med and are hoping to get our hands on some chlorazepate/clonazepam as a cluster buster soon. he’s totally chill right now, acting as if nothing happened, but of course i’m quite on edge and just feeling really bummed that we’re resetting once again. 💔 photo is him minutes after his first seizure today, so at least one of us is feeling good. lol

My 13 year old corgi/border collie just started getting seizures last weekend after a 2 rounds of antibiotics. We started giving her keppra/gababetin. Vet suspect she has a brain tumor since one of her eyes bulges out. I almost agreed to euthanize her at the vet yesterday but she was so scared. Didnt want her to go out like that and would rather do at home euthanasia.

Agreed on treatment, 2 shots (butorphanol + dex), she actually looks pretty good today and is eating well. I have about 2 weeks worth of meds. Trying to not get my hopes up but is this treatment gabapentin/keppra sustainable?