<p>Our 12 yr old golden retriever had a seizure this AM. I am taking him to the vet in an hour but would love to have some feedback from my trusted source.
He has never had one before. My D woke me this morning and the seizure had already started so I didn’t see him before it happened. He was on his side and rigid and seizuring. Not sure how long it lasted but felt like at minimum five minutes. For 40 minutes after he walked in large circles and didn’t seem to respond to our voices. He is now resting.
The vet office talked about doing a blood panel. I don’t know what else they will propose.</p>
<p>Any advice or shared experiences. Of course H is out of town.
thank you</p>
<p>Two of my dogs “friends” were recently diagnosed with epilepsy, so I have been hearing a lot about it. The first dog is only 3, and congenital epilepsy usually hits young dogs between 1 and 3 years old. He has had 2 seizures in which he became rigid then fell and thrashed his feet, lost bladder control and foamed at the mouth for about 2 minutes. Then he seemed out of it for the rest of day. Prior to the seizure he was very clingy, sitting on his owner’s lap acting depressed. The neurologist prescribed bromide on a daily basis to reduce the incidence and valium to administer at the beginning of a seizure. </p>
<p>The second dog is 4 years old, and has a history of losing muscle tone in front or back legs. She was also taken to a neurologist and was given an MRI to rule out a brain tumor. The diagnosis was mild epilepsy and that dog was also prescribed bromide.</p>
<p>Both dog owners were told that some dogs have a seizure and never have another one, so you may be told to just watch and wait to see what happens. </p>
<p>We have a golden that overcame serious health problems as a puppy, and I know how one’s world goes upside down when they are ill. All the best to you, and please let us know how things turn out.</p>
<p>Our dog had an episode like this, and we put him to sleep that morning-- it sounds like your dog’s situation is not as bad as ours was. He had one seizure in the middle of the night and then had several others five or six hours later. He also did the walking in circles thing… he didn’t seem to be able to walk straight and would even bump into things in his effort to keep walking in the circle. I think I remember the vet saying he thought he had a stroke, but I don’t remember if that was what made him think so, it was a trying day and my memory is fuzzy. He convulsed so violently he was rolling off his bed and hitting the wall, and he was vomiting. It wasn’t good at all. </p>
<p>Our dog was old and diabetic to begin with so for him this was the last straw, even if he was okay his quality of life was rapidly diminishing to nothing. Sorry about your puppy, I hope the vet has good news. I think seizures can be managed in dogs that are otherwise healthy. If he hasn’t had another yet I think that is a good sign. Your vet will tell you what to do.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with what illnesses are common among Goldens, but as you can probably tell from the responses, the frequency and severity of seizures can vary considerably. And the cause can be either genetic or environmental. Wishing you the best of luck.</p>
<p>Our lab before the current sabadog had intermittent seizures but from a relatively young age that sound very similar to what your dog experienced They were sporadic enough that no medication was indicated; we had some blood panels run on him but there was nothing conclusive. He died relatively young (9 yrs old) of lymphoma. I hope your vet can pinpoint a problem quickly; please let us know how your golden is doing.</p>
<p>We do not have experience with this particular issue but have (and had) old dogs and cats. My one suggestion is if the vets recommend any extensive or intrusive tests before agreeing ask what the possible actions are after receiving the results. In our experience vets sometimes order a full range of tests while forgetting the age of the dog and the limits on what next steps might be prudent for an old pet. For example, we now have a 14 year old dog and recently got into a discussion about a test that would highlight the possible need for major surgery … no way our pup is undergoing major surgery at this point so the test was unnecessary. Good luck!</p>
<p>We are home from the vet. They took blood and examined him. They will get some of the blood panel results late this afternoon. The thyroid panel will take a bit longer. Nothing obvious stood out except his eye is recessed. He already has eye issues due to age. One possible cause could be a tumor behind the eye. No way to tell without further tests that would be expensive and not really be of help aside from letting us know that might be a problem and what we might expect down the line. The vet felt that at 12 and his being a golden it might be cancer but again it is not something they would treat at his age.
If the blood work is all normal we will just watch him. As some of you have said it might not happen again. If it becomes a regular occurance we will discuss med possiblities. She did say if it does happen regularly we could have valium on hand to use when the seizure occurs. If the seizure goes on over 10 minutes we should wrap him in a blanket and bring him to the emergency vet.
The weird thing is that while he has age related issues he is a pretty healthy dog and fairly active. If anything he has been more active the last week.
Thank you all for your concern and support. My D was in tears at the vet describing what had happened. She picked him out as a young puppy when she was 13 as a bat mitzvah present. She has been out of the country and just home a few weeks.
We gave him a bath to clean him up a bit. Now he just needs to take it easy for the rest of the day. That means keeping the other two dogs out of his way.
Will keep you posted</p>
<p>Our dog had a similar event when he was around 13. I thought he was having a stroke or seizure. I rushed him to the vet, and he diagnosed it as Canine Vestibular Disease. He didn’t have another attack for several years, and we had him until he was almost 18. I just wanted to add that to the list of possibilities since it sounded so similar, and our vet said that it’s often undiagnosed in dogs. I hope your dog is feeling better.</p>
<p>A few years ago a friend’s dog had seizures and almost died. They discovered he had eaten birdseed! The vet said it is a common problem. He was able to save the dog, but there were three or four days of severe illness bordering on death.</p>
<p>I had a boxer who had a seizure/pass out a few times with a long time between them (over a year). I never knew what the cause was and he always recovered after a few minutes as if nothing happened. It was really weird.</p>
<p>I hope the vet can determine what’s causing it in your dog and it’s not something serious (and doesn’t cost too much in diagnosis).</p>
<p>He seems fine this afternoon. He has spent most of the day inside on his bed.GladGradDad- I am hoping it is isolated or at least a long time till he has another. He doesn’t seem sick at all. No vomiting. It was definitely a full grand mal seizure.
Baseballmom- the vet called about an hour after I got home and said she had forgot to ask me about possiblity of ingestion of poison. There has been a problem in our rural area of some cats and dogs being poisoned by eating something that an unknown person might be putting out to kill the coyotes. I doubt our dog would have eaten something since we live on 2 acres and he has not been off our property for 5 days. Also while he is a golden he is a picky eater and would be hesitant to eat anything he doesn’t know.Plus we have two other dogs who eat anything and they are not sick.</p>
<p>I have some experience with dogs and seizures. I have a 6-year-old schnoodle - schnauzer/poodle mix. He started having seizures at age 2. They would take place every few weeks - usually when he was sleeping/napping. Took him to the vet twice - without running loads of expensive tests - they left the diagnosis as “ideopathic epilepsy” - which means no known cause. The vet urged me to put him on medication. At first I resisted, having read about medicated dogs becoming very lethargic. But as the seizures increased in frequency, I realized we had no choice, and we started him on phenobarbital(PB). The lethargy was not bad at all - nothing like what I feared. His personality was the same - just a tad more mellow.</p>
<p>The PB worked well for a few months, and then the seizures returned, so the vet upped the dosage. We repeated this cycle 5-6 times. Then - a friend suggested a newer drug - Zonisimide. Our dog has now been on Zonisamide since April - miracle drug - seizures have almost completely stopped. When he does have a seizure now - it is much milder - he just shakes for a minute or two - rather than becoming completely rigid and unable to move.</p>
<p>I’m sure different dogs will have varying reactions to drugs - but those are the ones we have used.</p>
<p>Bloodwork is all normal. They could do further tests but I think we will take a watch and see approach. He ate his dinner and roamed the yard a bit. We have him inside and are hoping for a calm night.</p>
<p>Our very old English Setter started having seizures years ago. The vet couldnt pinpoint the cause, and started him on phenobarbitol. He made out fine for many years with the meds, they kept the seizures under control and he lived 16 1/2 years. The seizures did not cause his eventual death.</p>