Did your dog have active dreams days,years before he had seizures?

[zoe114]

I am wondering if anyone else saw their dog having active dreams prior to them starting seizures. I don't mean they had the dreams then went into a seizure- but this could start it.
I realize that my dog had very active dreams  for years prior to starting to have seizures. The brain activity might be mis signaling it and I know that some nutirients help clam the mind down.
So I am also wondering if there are studies looking at the correlation of such.  I know for myself that calcium along with magnesium relaxes the mind.  
I am now realizing that I need to keep my puppy away from my older dog because it is too active of an enviroment for the dog with seizures.
One other thing I noticed was my dog's head is always hot to the touch the day prior to him having a seizure.

[zoe114]

I have spent sometime looking at what others have done. Some have used Magnesium, some have used coconut oil, and I fould research on gelatin ( plain). One person stated when they switched to a different dog food, more natual type they fould help. I will try what I can.... tired of all the dog issues right now.  

[ginger899]

I don't know about the magnesium....But I know that dogs have different nutritional needs to humans (that would include vitamin/mineral supplements too)
I would only be inclined to give my dog any supplement under guidance from the vet.
I would think, that unless there is malabsorption, or any other cause for deficiencies, supplements might not be a good idea for dogs...? So long as they are getting first-class food of course, which meets their nutritional needs.

As for calm....I have heard that putting a few drops of lavender oil in a diffuser or scented oil burner and letting the scent drift into the room, can have a natural calming effect. It wouldn't harm a dog, but so long as the scent wasn't too strong or overpowering.
Music helps too. My dog responds SO differently if I played a Rock cd than if I played a Mozart cd! Calming  music might do the trick (you know, like those "healing" or "Angel" cd's you can buy at alternative bookstores)

[zoe114]

I am learning too much about dog health than I ever wanted to. It's too bad that there is not a set standard in pet nutrition. I just know for myself if I have some magnesium before I go to bed, my mind is very calm, I do wonder if this would help a dog with these seizures or even just the active dreams.  

[ginger899]

Well, I don't know...but I suppose it could make sense that such dreams could be triggered by a certain kind of neurological activity.
But all I can say from personal experience is this: my dog now has had a few scrapes, quite dangerous ones, with sudden emergencies in her life -three of them. But her general health and condition is splendid (not just me thinks that. The vet said that 2 weeks ago) So I can't see that such vivid active dreams are health-related in her case. However, I have noticed that she is more likely to have particularly active ones if she has missed a little of her daily exercise. (she usually needs two long walks a day plus little extras like playing etc) If I've been very busy and have only had chance to give her two short walks or similar or she's had to spend more time traveling in the car, then she will have far more dreams of obviously some kind of strong activity during her sleep.
She has always been like that all her life.

But to contradict the experiences I've had with my dog now, there is another strange thing. My other dog Toby (who died in 1999) never had many very active dreams, but had a few days of very strong ones just before he died. So exactly what caused that to happen in his case, I don't know. It could have been some brain neurons firing in an unusual way at the end like that for him.
Or it could have been something else....

[zoe114]

Thanks, yes mine has always had these, It would be interesting for some grad student/ class to survey or document if there is a connection years later to decline in health.

[ginger899]

My dog has never had seizures. But she has had quite active dreams all of the time I've known her! She woofs, whinges, paddles, twitches, eats, runs.....all that in her dreams!
I can only comment from an 'average dog' point of view here.
It may be that your dog's dream cycles are somehow connected to her seizure activity. But all I can say is my dog has these dreams anyway.