@JHS, that is a very sad story. At least your dog got a few more years of life after the first seizures.
There is a significant difference in a dog’s quality of life after a seizure.
As far as I know, my dog has not had another seizure. His peeing was deemed to be related to his dose of prednisone (given previously for a back issue), so that was lowered and it resolved. He has, strangely, started getting into the trash frequently, something he hasn’t done since he was very young. It has been incredibly frustrating, so I decided I probably need to buy one of those things you put on your cabinet to keep toddlers out.
About 10 days to 2 weeks after the seizure, my dog got a bad cough. In the past five or six weeks I have taken him to the vet numerous times for this cough. He coughs and coughs, then finally gags and swallows whatever he is hacking up. He has been on 3 different antibiotics, all to no avail. A chest x-ray didn’t show anything abnormal. He didn’t get worse, but got no better. The vet kept him on a low dose of the prednisone to help with this upper airway inflammation.
Yesterday morning I noticed his cough seemed to be worse. After a few hours, however, he finally settled down in his crate for a nap. I closed it, then went for a long bike ride. When I got home, I opened his crate. Usually the minute I do that, he jumps up and runs to the back door to go outside to pee. This time he didn’t even stir. I had to shake him to get him to wake up. He finally got up and weakly came out of the crate, then began a 5 minute nonstop coughing episode. This time he kept coughing up copious amounts of clear slime. I stood there and observed him. After he finally quit coughing, I noticed he was panting furiously and just didn’t seem right. I put him in the car, called the vet to say I was coming, and rushed him over. As soon as we came in the staff took him straight back and asked me to remain in the lobby. The vet said his chest x-ray shows a definite change. She thinks he probably aspirated during his seizure and has had a fulminating pneumonia the entire time, probably kept at bay with the various antibiotics, but never eliminated. They kept him overnight on IV antibiotics and fluids and called this morning to say his fever is down and he seems to be doing quite a bit better. They are sending home on two new antibiotics that are targeted at anaerobic microorganisms.
This has me feeling really down. The past five weeks, this little fella has been living in low grade misery. I told the vet that I don’t want to foreclose early on him, but I can’t stand to watch this suffering. She stated that she understands but doesn’t think we are to the point of doing anything that drastic. She feels he still has a chance to beat this and have some good quality.
It’s an inevitable part of pet ownership, but it sure tugs on the heartstrings as they get old.
Our 19 year old cat had a seizure this morning. I am at D’s house, puppy-sitting while she & her H are out of town. My H called this morning, in tears. He took her to the vet this afternoon & she said could be a tumor but no need to do tests. She said there is medicine if it happens again. I am glad to hear stories of pets with seizures who lived… we were sure it was the beginning of the end. We just went through that with her sister in November & we aren’t ready to lose her yet. It sure is rough when our pets get old.
After some shaky times (first seizure in Jan., followed by months of getting him through a long bout of pneumonia), our dog really rallied in early April and has seemed as healthy and lively as he has been in a couple of years.
But then he had another seizure on Sunday night, first one that I know of since my OP. It was shorter, less intense. He seemed to recover more quickly as well. D2 was here and teared up. DH also witnessed, unlike the first one where I was alone.
I wonder: that night, we had tornado sirens blaring, a severe thunderstorm raging, etc. I was home alone, and after hearing the news say to retreat to the safe room, I managed to gather all 3 cats (you should actually be impressed by that) and the dog (not so impressive as he follows me everywhere) into our safe room, which is actually a reinforced closet under the stairs. The dog was terrified (he hates thunder), even more than usual, probably due to the added stress of being in the closet with the cats, one of which was freaking out and hissing and growling at him. He was shaking like a leaf. Even though I did go to the safe room, I wasn’t really all that convinced that a tornado was going to hit the house; I just kind of took the precautions I felt I probably should take in the event I was mistaken. As I suspected, we came out of the thing unscathed. So I don’t think I really conveyed any stress or fear. The other cats were not cavalier, but they didn’t freak out like the one did.
Dog had the seizure 2 or 3 hours later. I can’t help but wonder if his stress and terror somehow contributed. I didn’t bother to take him to the vet the next day because he was fine and I didn’t really want to get into the whole “let’s do more tests” kind of thing for a 14 year old dog of a species that has a life expectancy that tops out at 15 years.
If he has another one, I guess I’ll take him in to see if there is a medication that might help. Gah…elderly pets…our 18 year old cat has kidney disease and is another whole post unto herself.
I am very impressed that you managed to gather all 3 cats and get them to the safe spot. Sorry to hear your dog had another seizure.
@BunsenBurner, at first I wasn’t even going to try to pull that off. D2’s cats are sweet, but often run off when you come towards them with purpose (they think they are going into their crates back to D2’s college town). Then I thought “if there is a tornado and D2’s cats are blown to Oklahoma, she’s going to ask me if I even tried to save them.” Gulp. So I went for it. Surprisingly, all three of them were incredibly docile and compliant when I approached and gathered them up (some 6th sense that there was danger about and needed to trust the human?).
I love cats. 
I am so sorry you have to go through this. What a night! And we love our animals so much, it’s terrible to see them suffer or be fearful.
One of our labs had seizures similar to what you’ve described- not frequent enough to require medication but scary when they happened. I think the stress of the storm and the safe room could definitely have triggered it. Our vet told us that any seizure longer than a few minutes really required veterinary intervention. Easier said than done when your dog is seizing, but our vet would come to our home if needed. I’m sorry this is still happening.
Hope all is well with your dog today! I have had two dogs with seizures of unknown origin. One was a beagle/basinji mix–quite a funny little guy. He probably had about 3 or so in his life (sadly only 7 years). Out of no where and the vet said it just happens sometimes and unless it started happening frequently like more than once a year or something or accompanied by other things which I can now not recall its okay. Now I have an old beagle and he just had one last week. We think he is 9 or so years old. He is a rescue. He has had about 4 since we got him 5 years ago. It is scary! We just stay with him and talk to him, rub him and tell him he will be okay. He is drunk walking for about 10 mins after but just like his old self after that. No need to medicate him for events that occur so sporadically. He already takes meds for allergies, chronic lung disease, HBP…don’t get me started…lol : )
I know stress can bring on seizures in humans so I wouldn’t doubt it for dogs.
We’ve had good luck using Bach’s rescue remedy’ for our pup. Our vet recommended it when he was getting super anxious about car rides but I’ve heard it works during storms. Talk to your vet first but it might be worth a try along with a thunder coat.
Hopefully he’ll be seizure free for another long stretch or better yet, forever!
My beagle-terrier mutt has had seizures for most of his 13 years. He gets a couple a month. They are short in duration (5 minutes or so) but hard to watch, as he convulses and his eyes glaze over. If I am home when it happens, I hold him and soothe him until its over. He is always fine once over. The vet long ago told me he could run expensive tests to find the reason but that it was unlikely he could treat it, so we live with it. Since they are short and don’t seem to permanently affect him, the only thing I worry about is that he will be near the pool when one occurs. A neighbor’s dog went out that way.
Someone on a dog FB group posted recently about her dog unexpectedly getting a seizure, she later updated that he had eaten a toad (she found its half eaten remains in the yard).
Brw I have heard of studies about keto diets for epileptic dogs to prevent seizures; apparently it works if implemented correctly. (Also a long standing protocol for epilepsy in humans).
@scholarme, that’s interesting re: the keto diet.
When my dog had his first seizure, I asked about epilepsy, and the vet responded that epilepsy is generally only considered when the dog presents with seizures at a young age. In an elderly dog, the culprit is often a brain tumor.
It seems to me, however, that if this is the result of a brain tumor, he should have been having more and more by now, not six months apart. Of course, it’s very possible he has had others that have just not been witnessed.
In any case, if he has a brain tumor, we aren’t going to treat it as he probably wouldn’t survive a probably futile intervention.
He’s hanging out with me as I type, snoring away.
I have also read good reports about thunder coats.
I didn’t get by the store today to look for a thunder coat. I just received an alert on my phone from our local news station that we are expecting severe weather with high potential for hail and possibly tornadoes in the next several hours. I’ll be watching him to see how stressed he gets and if this results in another seizure.
@Nrdsb4 How was your dog during the severe weather?
In your OP you said you wanted to hear the good and the bad. My dog started having seizures when she was 6month old and they became quite frequent, she was eventually started on meds by our vet which needed frequent drug levels to be drawn. She did great for many years until one thanksgiving day. when I came home from work she was having a huge seizure, she was frothing at the mouth and her gums were blue. This seizure lasted at least an hour. As it was a holiday no nearby vet was open and our nearest emergency vet was 1 1/2 hour away and I knew I couldn’t pick her up to get her there. She did come out of it but was never the same again. (I’m sure she had some hypoxic brain damage during this episode).
After this her anxiety was through the roof, she ate my walls and door frames, became OCD, she bit me twice and pulled her own claws out by biting her own feet during simple rain. She had been taking Phenobarbital for seizures, then Prozac for OCD behavior and then Valium for storms. Ultimately we had to put her to sleep, she was miserable and fearful, hurt herself and hurt us. She’s been gone 1 1/2 years now I still miss her and your post made me tear up.
Good luck with your fur baby.
What a sad, sad story.
@MoonKnight , he did okay.