Bull Mastiff Siezure

[Crodas]

My boyfriend and I adopted a Bullmastiff mix from the SPCA on feburary 20th, 2013. The day we adopted her she had gone through her spay procedure, we brought her home and that night around 1030pm she had a seizure, she is about a year and a half roughly.. We brought her to the spca and the clinic she got spayed at the next day and they gave us some tips on what to do should this ever happen again, and said it most likely was from the anesthetic she got from her surgery, they also said during the three weeks they had her she showed no tremors or signs of epilepsy and had no seizures. Last night March 17/2013 she had a nother siezure at around 11:20 pm, both seizures did not last more then a 40 seconds. We do not know much about her, she was a stray and shes about 90 pounds, and the spca believes shes about a year and half old and is a borbeol/mastiff/rhodesian risgeback breed. Im not sure what happened but this is 2 siezures in less then a month and she had no seizures during the three week period at the shelter after her intake.. Could this be something we are doing wrong or feeding her wrong? Shes a lovable dog and my boyfriend fell in love with her the minute he saw her, im concerned as to why this is happening.. does anyone have any ideas ?

[Ellen038]

It's hard to say if you should/shouldn't go back to crate training. The advantage of going back to it is its probably still familiar to her and she may feel a sense of security being in there. Crate training should be a positive experience for your dog. Whatever you decide stick to a routine and I hope she doesn't have anymore seizures.

[Crodas]

Thanks you both for your help! I'm so grateful! We had some blood work done with our vet to rule out any liver disease and issues. Her blood work came back normal which makes our vet believe that she has epilepsy. With that we have her on a food schedule and are in the process of changing her food to grain free food, as others have advised us this could help. I am going to put these new tools you have provided us with to help her stay stress free. Another thing was when we adopted her the spca was very strong about us crate training her and not having her on furniture and her sleeping in her cage, lately because both were suckers for her and everything that's been happening we have been a more lenitent when it comes to these rules, after speaking with the spca about her, they were not too happy we were not using the cage as much as they suggested. That this would stress her out more, I'm not sure whether its best for her to go back to her cage schedule or if the back track well be even worse. Thanks for your kind thoughts and advice.

[Ellen038]

I also wanted to add that loud noises like fireworks and guns being shot or the change in temp from a really hot day to a cool day will trigger a seizure. Acupuncture has said to help but I knew taking my dog would cause increased stress. You see he had seizures every day and needed to be put on meds for 9 years and lived to be over 14. they wouldnt stop unless he was medicated daily. He did well on them. I always worried about leaving him home in case he had a seizure and fell off the bed or sofa onto the hardwood floors. If I can offer any other advise please message me. I hope things settle down for you to enjoy your new dog.

[Ghilly]

Epilepsy is probably THE most common genetically-passed-on problem in the dog world.  Normally, the first seizure will occur between the ages of 18 and 24 months.  As Ellen has already said, stress is a HUGE trigger, and being put under anesthesia and undergoing a spay is considered a major stress, so it's not surprising that she had a seizure when she did.  

It would be best to keep her off anti-seizure meds as long as possible, so while she did have two seizures in a month, unless it gets to the point where the seizures are happening twice a month EVERY month, I would try to control them using other methods before resorting to medicine.

In humans, there have been connections made between dyes used in food and seizure activity.  There is no reason to think it would be any different in dogs.  I would try to refrain from feeding her any foods or treats that contain a lot of dyes, i.e., brightly colored foods or treats (kibbles dyed to resemble veggies like peas and carrots, cookies that contain dyes to turn them pink, green or any other color that is unnatural for a baked good), and also keep her away from human foods that contain dyes.  While dogs drink primarily water, don't let her get into any drinks that people drink, like Kool Aid or anything else containing food dye.  In humans, dark colored and fruit sodas have been implicated in seizure activity, while clear sodas (7-Up, Sprite) are said to be safe.

Keep her life as stress-free as possible.  Keep her on a strict schedule and make sure you adhere to it.  If 5:00 PM is her dinner time, then make sure you put her dish down in front of her each day at 5:00 pm.  Dinner time is a big deal to a dog and making them wait for it stresses them.  Their stomachs form acids that make them feel even hungrier than they really are, they get impatient, that adds to the stress, and before you know it they're nervous because dinner is late.  Same thing with going out for walks.  Their bodies adjust amazingly quickly to a schedule and if you take them out each day at 6:00 am, 12:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 12:00 am, if you make them wait until 7:00 or 1:00 to go out, that extra hour will have them wondering where you are.  If they can't hold it and go in the house, MAJOR stressor.  If they are uncomfortable because they're holding it in, again, major stressor.  So whatever schedule you put her on, stick to it religiously and this will help to remove loads of stress from her life.

If, after trying as hard as you can to prevent the seizures without using meds she is still having them, then you will need to talk to your vet about putting her on a medication regimen, but I would try these other things first to see if you can control them yourself.

Please keep us up to date on her progress.

Ghilly

[Ellen038]

Seizures are usually triggered by a stress the dog is experiencing. It could be that the stress of being in spayed and then in two homes (SPCA and yours) are triggering stress right now. I'm not saying your environment is stressful but just the fact that so many new things are happening in the dogs life could be the cause. There are meds like phenobarbital that can keep epilepsy under control if it becomes a problem. Epilepsy is more common in high strung and smaller dogs but its not unheard of in large breeds. I hope that your dog doesn't have anymore but if it does you may want to take it to your vet to have it checked out.