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Panic Attack or seizure?

I have a 3 year old blind dachshund we rescued.  She has had 3 episodes during the middle of the night over the last two weeks. When I wake up, she is on her feet, shaking and drooling profusely. I have scooped her close to me, petted and talked to her when these happen. She then stops shaking and drooling. She has never done this before. Due to work shift changes, she has been at home by herself during the day, when normally someone has always been home with her. She is extremely skittish now when we do get home from work. I am wondering if she is having a panic attack or some type of seizure. Any insight is appreciated.
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Avatar universal
Hi,
It has been a very long and sad year. We have tried everything we could think of to help our little Sassy. What seemed like panic attacks turned into full blown seizures. She was having seizures at least once a day. I began making her food with Chicken, wheat rice, vegetables, and a vitamin from the vets office. This helped but she was still having them at least once a week. A friend of mine suggested I try adding liquid silver to her diet. Her sister in law was using it to cleanse her system and wondered if it would help Sassy. I spoke with the vet and he was very skeptical, but I started using it anyway. I started her out with a capful a day and then took her down to ever other day. Silver can build up in the body and do more harm than good, so I was trying to be very careful with it. She went 3 months without a seizure. I spoke with the vet again and he was very interested but agreed that I should very careful on how much I was giving her. I stopped the silver since she was not having any recurrences.  She went for two more weeks without an attack and then all hell broke loose. It was like a switch was flipped. She had six seizures during an eight hour period during the day. Then that evening she seized two more times. Then right before we were to go to bed she seized again. This time she didn't come out of it fully. She was shaking, drooling, and had no control of her bodily functions. I held her, petted and talked to her trying to get her to come out of it to no avail. We took her to the vet while she was still seizing and based on his recommendations and the fact that we couldn't bare to continue to see her like that (we have no idea if she is in any pain during one of these) we did give permission for him to put her down. As I sit here crying and typing, my heart still hurts for her. I know this post probably does not help you much, but that is our story. Good luck to you.  
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462827 tn?1333168952
Please, try to film one of these episodes to show your Vet.....
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612551 tn?1450022175
I doubt "Danna" will respond.  Sadly he/she did not get any replies to the post, until just now, yours is the first.  While his public profile doesn't show how often or when he/she logs on to read, it does show he has not made a post or reply since the dated of the post of this thread.

Perhaps, others like me, will read you reply and offer some thoughts.  

While the only seizure-like experience in dogs I have lived through was in a 10 year old Golden Retriever (Pic in my profile) and he was diagnosed to have suffered a stroke - my son a human MD suggested a spinal stroke.  The recovery was long and not complete, but he did live through it and get back on his feet.

Surely the vet will be able to advice is there is any medication or life-style (diet) changes that will minimize the problem.

Good luck,
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Avatar universal
Hi Dana...
I have a 4 year old dappled daschund.
I am trying to figure out the same thing myself.  At first, my dog was having seizures and he saw a vet about it.  At the time, they were infrequent (once a month) and lasted 1-2 hours of shaking, foaming, seizing up, whining, panting, can't walk, large pupils, and bodily functions let go.

Now he suddenly doesn't do that anymore - instead twice a week he has what seems like a "panic attack" which is <10 mins of seizing up, panting, drooling, heavy breathing.  They're over much quicker and not nearly as bad but much, much more often.  He had 3 this week and 2 were in the same day.

Everything I am reading online right now indicates that they are not panic attacks - they are seizures.  Panic attacks in dogs usually do not involve seizing up.  From what I'm reading the most common signs are whining, pacing, licking/chewing themselves, barking, tearing up things.  If this is the case then what my dog has is seizures just that they have changed form and frequency.

In any case, I'm taking him back to the vet to see what can be done.
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