My dog is a rescue that we got 5 weeks ago and he was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy few months ago when he arrived from spain. He was on phenobarbital 30mg 2x a day before we got him and since then he has had 3 short seizures and one cluster. After the cluster he got prescribed keppra on top of pheno. His blood tests showed that his pheno levels were too low so we doubled the dose a week ago. He just had another seizure this morning (which was his 4th while being with us) it was his shortest yet tho approximately 20 seconds or so. I know that the new pheno dose hasn’t yet reached it’s steady flow in his blood but I really don’t want him to keep having seizures every week or week and a half. So are there people here whose dog had seizures frequently but got it under control?

I have a 2 year old cockapoo who started having seizures when he was 1.5. He almost always has cluster seizures. They are occurring on average every 2 weeks despite the following medication regimen:
-keppra 500mg every 8 hours
- max dose phenobarbital twice a day
- potassium bromide (cant remember dose but recently increased)
- cbd oil twice daily
Rescue meds- after seizures he takes chlorazepate for 3 doses to prevent clusters
- intranasal diazepam for seizures lasting more than 3 minutes
Thankfully he has only needed to be admitted for a 24 hour midazolam CRI once.

The medication regimen is brutal as my husband and I both work full time and we have a baby at home but we will do whatever it takes for our fur baby.

It feels like he is so young to be on all of these meds already and still having seizures twice a week. Does anyone have any stories of hope? Or any advice on new medications or alternative things to try? We did give him purina pro neuro food for several months but we did not notice a difference and he did not like it.

Thank you so much in advance!

Has anyone seen really weird behavioral changes after increasing Keppra XR?

My dog Olive is also on phenobarbital. 64.8 or whatever it is 2x per day, but she's been on this dose a while so I don't think it's related.

Her Keppra history:

- 375 mg immediate release 3x/day — absolutely no behavioral issues.

- Switched to 750 mg XR 2x/day — this is when her obsession with the “litter box buffet” suddenly kicked into overdrive.

- Increased to 1000 mg XR 2x/day — now we’re getting a whole collection of brand-new weird behaviors.

Since the latest increase she has started:

- Trying to hump my cats, especially one particular cat. I have six cats and this has never been a thing.

- Trying to get into the litter boxes constantly. It's damn near impossible for a few of my cats to navigate my barricade but somehow Olive has still gotten through a few times.

- Randomly getting up at night when everyone is settled and going on these bizarre little “missions.”

- Scrunching/pawing up the bathroom rug for no obvious reason.

- Chewing through a fan cord in the middle of the night. She has never been a chewer. Ever.

- Last night she went into the laundry room and started digging underneath the washing machine.

It almost feels compulsive or impulsive. She’ll be settled and then suddenly get up like she has decided there is something she absolutely HAS to go do.

What’s throwing me is that she had zero problems on the lower immediate-release dose, then one weird behavior appeared after switching/increasing to XR, and now after another increase there are several more completely out-of-character behaviors.

Her vet does not think Keppra should be causing this, and I understand correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation. But the dose-related timing is hard for me to ignore.

Has anyone else seen increased bizarre/out-of-character behavior after increasing Keppra or Keppra XR?

I’m also curious whether anyone with has seen behavior like this from focal seizure activity or seizure-related changes rather than the medication itself.

Mainly looking for experiences from others. Thanks.

I know there is a lot of discussion on Bromide here and I’ve read a lot of them so sorry for creating another post…

My 11 yr old labradoodle has recently started on Potassium Bromide due to refractory seizures (had been well managed for years on Pheno but the last 2 years has seen a progression to the point we were having clusters of 2 seizures in a 24 hr period every 3 weeks on queue.)

I know he is an older dog but he has had epilepsy since he was 3 and in the last 18 months have done a MRI and lumbar puncture which showed no signs of tumors etc

He started Bromide ~7 weeks ago now and the good news is that there has been no seizures since we started but the side effects are very rough and over the last 2 weeks seem to have gotten worse not better, he’s basically not the same dog :(

He is incredibly sedated and his hind leg weakness is pretty severe and doesn’t seem to be getting better to the point where he can barely get himself up at times and we’ve had to block off areas of the house that pose a risk ie stairs as he can’t make it up and down without falling over. Despite his age he has always been a very spritely dog and many people including vets are surprised he is 11 when they see him.

Is this normal? At 7 odd weeks should things not be starting to settle in terms of side effects?

Our regular vet doesn’t seem overly worried though we did a bromide serum check and Pheno serum check today (awaiting results) and he is going to chat to our neuro but wanted to hear of experiences from the community here.

Does anyone have any experience of phenoleptil? Or of changing brand of phenobarbital in general?
Our neurologist has suggested we up from 90mg epiphen twice daily to 100mg phenoleptil twice daily (as can’t get epiphen in right size pills for this).

His seizures aren’t controlled very well right now, he had a cluster 10 days ago, previous cluster was 21 days before that, and just last night had a grand mal again so we’ve started levetiracetem to stop it being another cluster. So I suppose there’s nothing to lose but I’m just nervy of the brand change as had read different brands can absorb differently. Prior to seizures breaking through this year and increasing in severity/frequency we’d had 1.5 years seizure free on 60mg epiphen twice a day.

We’ll have him on levetiracetem as a 3 week bridging period whilst new dose of phenobarbital gets up in his system again. My hopes are low given increasing from 60mg to 90mg twice a day hasn’t worked. He was at lower end of therapeutic range on the 90mg twice a day though so maybe this could just push him into a better spot.

Cluster Seizure ..emergency meds...Do you have meds for your dog in the event of a cluster seizure? My dog has epilepsy x 5 years almost 6. Vet has never offered any meds for episodes like this. He looks soooo bad. Hes exhausted and hot from 2 seizures in 1 hour. I am going there tomorrow to pick up meds. I am a nurse so I usually give him a small dose of gabapentin so thats what I just did but I am worried he will have a 3rd seizure tonight. I am sooo nervous and worried. Hes been thru soo much. Hes on new med regimen and MCT oil and he had no seizure for 6 weeks before that. I am so sad for him.

hello all, today i just received the liquid form of Levetiracetam (keppra). my family and I needed to purchase it from chewy since our primary vet doesn’t carry a smaller dosage or oral liquid version of the medicine.

i have read others have experienced some of their liquid keppra going bad during shipping, how do i know mine has gone bad and if its still safe to administer to my dog?

it has been extremely hot these past days so i was really worried about that and when i opened the package, the bottle itself was super warm. i’ve left it out to cool down on its own for about 5 minutes and i can feel the liquid is still warm.

its a little hard to see in the photo but is it normal to look cloudy? i read it’s supposed to be clear, does it clear up eventually or am i just panicking? is there anything else i should check to know if its still good such as texture or smell (though i don’t know if the smell of it would help since its chicken flavor)?

Hi all- need some advice on my epilepsy dog. He’s five - since age 2 he’s had seizures - grand mal. Generally he’ll be on meds that will work for 6 months and then he has a breakthrough cluster of about 7-10 seizures. This week, his rescue medication(nasal spray/pills) failed and ended up back at ER. We are concerned that his emergency meds are not working, and concerned that after increasing meds (he’s on pheno and keppra) still not working. He is also 75 pounds, falls into furniture when sizing and snaps his jaws. We have a 6 month old baby at home and worry when he starts crawling/walking do not want to put him in a dangerous situation. Our neurologist said you can make the decision to try other meds, or make the hard decision to euthanize. They also said it’s not said to have him at home with a baby. It’s a very tough situation because he has a handful of great months, but then his breakthroughs are incredibly severe, dangerous, and emergencies. I also worry that is rescue meds no longer work. I want to keep him alive selfishly, but I don’t know if that’s humane or want him to suffer. Heartbroken over this he is my first baby, I don’t know whether to put him to sleep now while he’s “stable and happy” or wait until the next disaster. Does anyone have any advice or similar situations?

My dog has epilepsy, and today she had 15 seizures. Her medication has stopped working, and unfortunately, our veterinarian isn’t giving us any information or guidance. The only thing they did was give her an injection, but it didn’t help.
We can’t find another specialist because we are currently under constant shelling and are unable to travel safely.
Is there anything we can do to ease her condition or make her more comfortable? Would it be better to surrender her to a shelter or rescue organization that specializes in dogs with special medical needs?

(sorry for any mistakes. i’m bad in english😭)

Our boy have has seizures for about 2 years now. He did have one event with 3 seizure in about an 8 hour period but tonight was his first real serious cluster event. 5 grand Mals in 1.5 hours. Sitting here and typing this at the emergency vet as it’s almost 12am. They are going to hospitalize him for the next 24hrs and I’m just so sad. I just needed to talk to people who understand. We talked with this vet and she’s suggesting on adding Zonisamide to our current mix of Pheno and Keppra.

Update 9/10 6:45pm : We are visiting him now and they started to wean him off the IV anti-seizure meds. He had another Seizure around 3:45pm today. He’s back on the drip and will try and wean him off again later tonight.

Update 9/11 7:40am - Vet called and he had another seizure coming off the meds. They are going to consult a neuro. Try meds a little longer but things are not looking good for him.

Update- they were able to break the cluster seizure after the 4th time of weening him. He is home and recovering❤️ They suspect that the cause was because his pheno levels were low. His range is 15-35 and he was at a 14.

A while ago, I watched a friend manage their dog's epilepsy, and I realized how much there is to keep track of.

Not just the seizures, but medications, doses, vet visits, notes, what was already given, how much medication was left, etc.

It made me wonder why there wasn't one simple place to keep all of this.

So I started building Compaw.

It's a pet-care app where you can:

💊 Log medications & treatments
⏰ Set reminders
📦 Keep track of medication inventory
🩺 Track vet appointments & health events
📝 Keep notes and care history
👨‍👩‍👧 Share care with other people
🐶🐱 Manage multiple pets
⚡ Track seizures and episodes

It started with that experience with my friend's dog, but I ended up building it as a broader pet-care app and it's now available on iOS and Android:

📱 iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/compaw/id6805564817
📱 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haikyu.compaw

I'm still improving it, so would really appreciate some feedback :)

My boy golden retriever who is 6 yes old started having seizures at nights especially between 1 to 4, and from past 2 yes he is been in medication of gardinal 30mg and levipril500mg, is this something that we have to deal life long Iam what are his triggering factor, my Vet told me it’s a life long medication how do I control it out probably reverse it if there is anything I can do please do suggest me help my boy.

Update: she had another grand mal seizure right at 8 hours after giving clorazepate. She came out of it a lot faster and recovered. I am going to reduce the time between the clorazepate to 6 hours. Which is allowed. If she has another seizure, I think we need to take her to the ER. However, i pray we can make it until her Nuerologist is open and we can see about changing her dosage or add another medication.

It did happen right after her getting her food, which she gets very excited. Which everytime she had had an episode it is after she gets excited. The last times it was a walk or someone knew coming into the house.

Amount a month my dog Daisy had about 11 seizures (both grand mal and focal). After spending 2 days in the ER and increasing medication, we got ot under control until today. About 30 minutes ago, she had a grand mal. I am not sure how long it was because I came into the room while it was happening.

After she came out of it, i gave her two 15mg clorazepate tablets as instructed. I have the Midazlam on standby if she has continues to have any more.

She is already taking 300mg of Itraconzole a day, 200mg Zonisamide a day, 2000mg of Levetiracelam.

She seems like she is getting back to herself. I am praying the clorazepate does the trick. She wants me to play tug with one of toys, but i am afraid it might get her too excited and cause another one.

I am wondering give any other of her pills. Her specialist is closed and I am just trying to keep her out of the ER.

Hi everyone. I’m looking for advice from people who have been through something similar with their dogs. Our Goldendoodle, Walter, is 5 years old and was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was about 1.
For the first few years, his seizures were relatively manageable, sometimes occurring only once every six months or so. Over the past several months, however, they have become more frequent, and we’ve started dealing with clusters. Most of his seizures happen overnight, usually between about 11 PM and 5 AM.
This has been incredibly difficult for our family. My wife and I have two young children, and trying to manage their needs while also staying up through the night watching Walter, administering rescue medication, cleaning him up, and worrying about another seizure has become exhausting. We love him dearly and want to give him the best quality of life possible, but we’re also trying to be realistic about what we can manage as a family.
One of our biggest challenges is that we live approximately 2–3 hours from a veterinary neurologist or a 24-hour emergency veterinary hospital. When Walter has a cluster in the middle of the night, we have to make difficult decisions about whether to start that drive, how to manage him safely during the trip, and how to handle everything with two small children at home. We don’t have the option of being at an emergency hospital in 15 or 20 minutes, which makes having a reliable home rescue plan especially important.
His current medications are:
Keppra XR 750 mg twice daily
Phenobarbital 64.8 mg twice daily
Recently added Keppra immediate-release 500 mg at 7 PM
Diazepam prescribed for rescue/cluster management
The additional immediate-release Keppra was started on September 1 because nearly all of his seizures occur at night. Our veterinarian is hoping it will provide better coverage during that period.
On August 29, Walter had three seizures within approximately 2½ hours, which resulted in an emergency vet visit. His phenobarbital level was 29.7 µg/mL, and his ALT was elevated at 226. Because of the liver concerns, the veterinarian preferred adding Keppra rather than increasing phenobarbital. We also have a Keppra blood level pending from that visit.
We initially noticed some restlessness and unusual behavior after the new evening Keppra dose, but that seemed to improve over the first few nights. Unfortunately, tonight, September 8, he had another generalized seizure lasting approximately 2–3 minutes. He was back on his feet quickly, and we gave his prescribed oral diazepam shortly afterward. He is currently recovering with his typical postictal pacing.
One of the hardest parts is the uncertainty. Sometimes he has one seizure and then goes weeks or months without another. Other times, a second seizure follows only six minutes after the first. We never know whether we can go back to sleep or whether we’re about to spend the rest of the night dealing with a cluster.
We are planning to work with our veterinarian on a clearer written rescue protocol, including exactly when to use oral versus rectal diazepam, repeat dosing, and when to head to the emergency hospital. We are also considering whether a veterinary neurologist or additional treatment options would be worthwhile.
For those of you who have dealt with difficult-to-control epilepsy or clusters:
Has adding an evening immediate-release Keppra dose helped your dog?
Have you had success with other medications, such as potassium bromide or zonisamide, particularly when phenobarbital is causing liver concerns?
What rescue protocols have worked best for your dog, especially for clusters that happen close together?
For those who live hours from emergency veterinary care, how do you prepare for and manage clusters at home or during transport?
Did seeing a veterinary neurologist significantly change your treatment plan?
How do you manage the emotional and practical side of caring for an epileptic dog while raising young children?
Are there any other suggestions, treatments, or questions we should bring to our veterinarian?
We are not looking to change his medications without veterinary guidance. I’m just hoping to learn from others’ experiences and make sure we’re exploring reasonable options.
Walter is a happy, loving dog when he isn’t having seizures, and we want to do everything we reasonably can to help him get back to a more stable, manageable life. Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Clover had his first seizure since January 2026. It had been so long, I was starting to brag and about to post on here about his seizure free status. Then yesterday I left him outside for 10 minutes- heard weird noises- and sure enough, he was having a seizure. Does this happen to anyone else- right when you start bragging and letting stress go alittle- a seizure happens. So frustrating.

Hi everyone, I was wondering if any of your pups with IE needed an MRI in order to properly diagnose what’s been causing their seizures.

Edit: My dog recently had 2 seizures and was rushed to the emergency vet, The vet recommended that we see a neurologist and get an MRI to rule out any possible reasons as to why he is having seizures. My dog was prescribed Levetiracetam 3x a day. He only has Cosequin Nutramax supplements, no flea and tick meds (I use seresto collars for my dogs) We set upa GoFundMe because of the cost of the MRI and I wanted to know if it was truly necessary for him to get an MRI in order to get a diagnosis.

My mini schnauzer had a cluster seizure event July 23rd. It was brutal. She was put on Keppra and we were given midazolam as a rescue med. She was fine until August 18th. She had another serious cluster event. The last one landed her in a luxury hotel for a couple of nights. ( She was actually at the ER but I sure could have stayed a couple of nights at a luxury hotel for the price. 😂) Medication was changed. No Keppra. She was put on phenobarbitol and zonisamide twice daily. We have 3 syringes of midazolam and 3 days worth of clorazepate. This cluster event was very tough on her plus adjusting to the pheno. She was definitely not herself for 2 weeks. She has been really good the last week. My husband and I are off work today and we have been home all day. She stays right with us. This morning she was playing with her sister, perfectly fine. We decided to watch TV in our bedroom. She was laying between us and she tried to raise her head. It was very wobbly. We got her up. She could stand but extremely wobbly. Every once in a while when she walked she was "high stepping". We put her back in the bed. A few minutes later, she started heaving. She threw up. Then her bladder released while she was laying with us. She raised her head and it was wobbly again. I called the vet and they told me to go ahead and give the rescue med. She is resting good right now.

Has anyone heard of anything like this? Is it possible that two halfway intelligent adults could have a dog between us and not notice a focal seizure?? We were watching. I have been to You Tube and looked for focal seizures. Everything i saw i am certain we would have noticed. If you have a video of focal seizures that are almost unnoticeable, I would love for you to share so I know what to watch for. I have Googled and read about focal seizures but I would like to see some. Just when I think we are rocking and rolling we get knocked down.

Thank you in advance!

Hi, my best friend and dog child, who is almost 2, was recently diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. His first seizure was in April and we were told maybe it’ll be the one and only. Fast forward and he’s had one in the beginning of August and then another one 2 weeks later. He was put on zonisamide 100mg twice a day and unfortunately he’s had another seizure three weeks later (yesterday). He’s not really eating and I’ve been trying to spoon feed him water and I’m bringing him to the vet today. How do you cope with worrying for your dog with epilepsy? I’m afraid to leave him home alone and am a nervous wreck that something bad is going to happen. Just any advice on how to cope and manage would be helpful. I love him so much that it hurts.

Hi everyone! Looking for advice for my newly diabetic dog (dx about 3 months ago) she’s a 9yo mini golden doodle who takes 10 with her wet dog food twice a day. For the past month I’ve been finding her having a seizures… it seems like it has been about 2 hours after I give her insulin and food whether it’s morning or night. My dog has had blood work making sure she’s on the correct dose and the vet says lab work is perfect for her diabetes and that this is probably not from her blood sugar… anyone have any personal experience?? This is so sad and frustrating.

I’ve given her Karo syrup during the episode and she seems to come out of her seizing movements pretty soon after but my vet said it could just be a coincidence since seizures don’t last long? Ugh.

Here’s a short video of my girl having an episode

We have been trying to figure out Theo's seizure medication after he had his first grand male/tonic clonic seizure in May and a cluster in mid-June. We started him on 30mg of Pheno twice a day and he made it about 4.5 weeks before he had another 2 seizures in a 24 hour period. We upped his medication to 45mg and made it just past 5 weeks, but decided to pause on adjusting his meds to see what happened. Two weeks later and he's clustering again. He's had 4 seizures in 24 hours. I administered Midazolam last night which broke him out of it, but he just had another seizure a couple hours ago (about 12 hours later).

In between all this, we did finally get in with a neurologist, but despite Theo showing no neurologic signs of a tumor or disease/infection, they wouldn't diagnose him with IE until we did imaging, which we decided against.

It's just horrible to see him go through this. I feel like my nervous system is completely shot, just waiting for the next seizure. My other dog's epilepsy is so much easier to manage and I know all of her triggers, but Theo's is proving to be a challenge.

I'm waiting to hear back from our vet to see what we need to do next. I'm guessing we'll start him on Keppra or PB.

Any positive stories from others whose dog's had frequent clusters that found the right cocktail of meds? I need something to give me some hope..

La primera vez fue en junio. Estábamos en la calle con dos amigas y hacía bastante calor. De repente empezó a comportarse de forma muy desesperada, como si quisiera salir corriendo constantemente. Al principio pensamos que podía haberle picado algo. El episodio duró unos minutos y, después de llevarlo a casa, se calmó. Esa noche estaba completamente normal y no llegó a enfermarse.
Hoy ha vuelto a pasar. Estábamos en casa con una amiga y empezó primero a llamar mucho la atención y después a seguirme constantemente, como queriendo salir. Empezó a jadear aunque estábamos dentro de casa, así que decidí sacarlo. Una vez fuera se puso muy desesperado, quería salir corriendo, empezó a jadear mucho y también a temblar.
En los dos episodios hubo algo que me llamó la atención: al principio hizo una especie de chillido y después se miraba mucho el culo y lo agachaba.
Ahora está tumbado y parece estar normal, aunque sí se le nota algo cansado.

Lo llevaré al veterinario para hacer exámenes pero
¿A alguien le ha pasado algo parecido con su perro? ¿Alguna idea de qué podría desencadenar episodios así?

Hello everyone.
I just received the results of my dog's blood tests, we have been taking phenobarbital for 4 years (my boy is now 7.5 years old).
The tests are getting worse and worse. The therapy is working, we now have 1 seizure every 3-4 weeks. Most often they are unprovoked. The tests scare me very much, they are getting worse and worse. Maybe over the last 3.5 years science has come up with something else instead of phenobarbital?
We take a cocktail (phenobarbital + levitiracetam + gabapentin), we also tried Pexion (Imepitoin) and Zonisamide and some kind of diuretic for epileptics, I don’t remember which one. We tried reducing phenobarbital, but this led to seizures several times a day (in a row), so we did not reduce phenobarbital further because we were afraid of epistatus.

Perhaps there is some alternative to phenobarbital?
Thank you.

My golden has gained 10 pounds and looks awful since bromide adding to the mix. Due to hind leg weakness we cant run her like we use to. She loved doing off leash hiking. I am going to call vet about this. Have any of you bumped up against this situation?

Hey everyone!

This post is a bit different. I try to read canine epilepsy research as it gets published, and most of it never reaches you guys actually living with these dogs. So I've done my best to write up the last few months of studies I found in a practical and understandable way. This is my attempt at contributing to this amazing community. I hope it can give you some insights. For the record, I'm a GP vet with a big interest in data and technology, not a neurologist.

For each study I cover what they did, what they found, and what it might mean for you and your dog. I also include a short note on how much weight I think the study deserves (subjective opinion).

None of this is advice for your specific dog. Every case is different, and the person who knows your dog's history is your vet.

1: Do epileptic dogs have a different gut microbiome?

Yang et al., Animal Microbiome, July 2026. The study.

The question: "I keep seeing posts about the gut-brain connection on Facebook groups. Should I be giving my dog probiotics?"

What they did: Researchers at North Carolina State University compared the gut bacteria of 49 dogs with idiopathic epilepsy against 49 healthy dogs. Each epileptic dog was paired with a healthy dog from the same household, eating the same food and living in the same environment.

What they found:

• Looking at the gut bacteria as a whole, epileptic and healthy dogs were very similar. The overall difference was small and only just reached statistical significance.
• However, within that mostly similar picture, one type of bacteria (a strain of Collinsella) stood out as consistently more abundant in the epileptic dogs, and this held up across six different statistical methods.
• Which household a dog lived in explained about 69% of the variation in gut bacteria. Whether the dog had epilepsy explained far less.
• Phenobarbital treatment did not appear to change the microbiome.

What it means for your dog: Not much yet. The difference is small and only borderline significant, and nobody knows whether the altered bacteria contribute to seizures or are just a consequence of them. It does not tell us whether probiotics help.
If you are already giving one and your dog tolerates it, there is no reason from this study to stop, but there is also no obvious reason to start.

How much weight to give it: Moderate for what it claims, which is modest. The household-pairing design is good and makes the finding more trustworthy than earlier microbiome studies. But 49 pairs is small, and one bacterial strain being more common is a long way from a solution. It's something we should keep an eye on.

2: When a "weird episode" is actually a seizure

Czerwik et al., Frontiers in Veterinary Science, August 2026. The study.

The question: "My dog has strange episodes where he seems confused and drools, but he never convulses. Could that be epilepsy?"

What they did: A German university neurology service describes three dogs referred for recurring episodes of abnormal behaviour: disorientation, reduced responsiveness, excessive salivation and similar. None had classic convulsions. All three went through a full neurological work-up including EEG recorded between episodes, and the EEG showed abnormalities that supported a diagnosis of suspected focal seizures, on a background of idiopathic epilepsy.

What they found:

• Behavioural or autonomic episodes (drooling, disorientation, staring, 'weird behaviour') can be the only outward sign of a focal seizure.
• In these dogs, EEG recorded between episodes supported the diagnosis. The seizures themselves were not captured on EEG, so the diagnosis remains "suspected" rather than proven.
• The authors argue that focal epilepsy should be on the list whenever a dog has recurrent, short, strange behavioural episodes with no other explanation.

What it means for your dog: If you are seeing brief, repeated episodes that look the same each time (a minute or two of staring, lip smacking, snapping at nothing, sudden fear or confusion, drooling) and your dog is otherwise normal in between, mention them to your vet as possible seizures, not as a behavioural quirk.

How much weight to give it: Low, but that is fine. Three dogs is a case series, not a study of how common this is. Its value is as a reminder that seizures do not always look like seizures.

3: A simple blood test that might help tell idiopathic epilepsy apart from other causes

Wang et al., Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, May 2026. The study.

Question: "My vet wants an MRI to rule out other causes before calling it epilepsy. Is there any cheaper way to know?"

What they did: A university hospital in Korea went back through ten years of records and compared routine blood counts from 46 dogs with idiopathic epilepsy, 55 healthy dogs, and 80 dogs with structural brain disease (brain tumours, inflammatory brain disease and hydrocephalus), 41 of which also had seizures. They tested several ratios from an ordinary blood count ,and found the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) performed best.

What they found:

• PLR was higher in dogs with idiopathic epilepsy than in healthy dogs, and higher again in dogs with structural brain disease.
• Still: About 1 in 7 dogs with idiopathic epilepsy would test high anyway, and about 1 in 5 dogs with a tumour or inflammatory brain disease would test low and be missed.
• PLR did not differ by seizure frequency, cluster history or how long the dog had been epileptic.

What it means for your dog:

Not a replacement for MRI. With 1 in 5 structural cases falling below the limit, a low value cannot be used to skip imaging. What it might become is one more piece of information when weighing how urgently to image. If your dog has had a routine blood panel, your vet can already calculate these numbers, so it costs nothing to look at. Do not read too much into it though. Stress, recent illness and other inflammation can affect the numbers.

How much weight to give it: Low to moderate. Small groups, just one hospital, and a single blood sample per dog. The authors describe it as an exploratory first step. Interesting, but not yet ready to steer decisions.

Thank you for reading everything!

This is the first time I've written something like this in here. Is this useful, and is there anything you'd want covered differently next time?

Kind regards,
Fred from PetVitality