Seizures

[mwatkins]

I have a 4 year old Pit bull mix (some Sharpei).  He's 57 lbs and gets vet check ups regularly.  Several months ago he was eating grass and started throwing up (he would eat grass occassionally and usually throws up after).  However, instead of just throwing up and stopping he seemed to keep throwing up and I thought he was chocking because his back end slowly dropped to the floor and he rolled to his side and all muscles froze up and he looked like he started going into a seizure (tongue was out, jaw locked and he was urinating).  I could feel his heartbeat but could not open his mouth because all muscles were locked.  Then his legs was jerking and he finally came out of it and was breathing hard and couldn't balance good.  He couldn't seem to get his balance back for about 15-20 minutes.  Not severe with the imbalance but noticeable.  He's since had about 4 episodes (about once a month) and it's always happened when throwing up.  Vet has taken blood tests, xrays, numerous exams etc. and found nothing.  Can anyone HELP?

[nik640]

i have a three year old pit bull he had 3 seizes last year around this time and no more all year and than in the last 3 months he had 2 vet said everything was normal

[Jaybay]

Most of the time when dogs develop epilepsy, it's idiopathic, meaning there is no known underlying cause.  The seizures themselves are not as harmful as they look.  Your observation that it takes some time to recover is a normal reaction.  Seizures take a whole lot of energy out of the body.

The good news is that this is a readily treatable condition.  You will need to take your dog back to the vet since he is having frequent episodes.  Phenobarbitol is usually the first line of defence in preventing seizures.  You may need to play around with the dose a bit to find one that either stops the seizures altogether or keeps them to a minimum.

I know how frightening it is to witness a seizure - either in a human or a dog, but all you can do is wait it out and make sure he doesn't hurt himself by thrashing into other objects until it's over.  Get him going on the phenobarb and take it from there.  He has every prospect of living a perfectly normal life on medication.  Yes, he may have the odd seizure here or there, but epilepsy is not a death sentence.  You are lucky in one way and that is knowing what triggers a fit: nausea, eating grass, and vomiting.  My vet had a dog once who had seizures every time the doorbell rang.  Solution: disconnect the doorbell.  Get the meds going and see how he does, but don't put him in the grave.  He's not ready for that by a loooooong shot!  :-)