> *** Quoting Janis Kracht from a message to Mike Roberts ***

>> Does or has anyone had experience with their pets and seizures?

>> Actually, yes, two of mine have had them.. One was a cocker spaniel,
>> the other was a black lab purebred (pricilla's sister).

> Thanks for the response, Janis.. One of our boys ( a Pug ) has had them. To
> date it has only been 3 in almost 5 years. First time he was about 2+. I
> never had had an animal with seizures, so it was new to me. He just looked a
> bit like he was tripping. Then he started squirming around. The other little
> nut ( his brother ) actually noticed it before I did, he was on him like
> white on rice. I pulled him off, and I panicked, didn't know if it was a
> stroke or heart attack or what.

And certainly not caused from being in a cage, right?  Just eliminating
things..


>Took him to 24hr emergency vet and they
> checked him out and sent him home. He appeared to be fine. They did not say
> much and said "it happens". Last November a day or so after his annual
> checkup, the next day he had another one. Took him to his own Dr. and they
> said he was fine, and since he had not had any in over a year, there was not
> much that should be done at this time. Last night, we put him in his crate.

Yeah, unless your Vet or the Emergency place is experianced with this kind of
thing, the docs wouldn't figure it for petit mal or grand mal, or epilepsy, or
whatever.  I was lucky at the time.. This doc in Warwick NY was from
Manhatten, a very successful marine and exotic animal vet, who happened to
open an office a few days a week in Warwick ny.. He just felt he "should", if
you know what I mean.  What a brilliant guy he was.  Sadly, he died after
about 10-15 years. But by then I knew all I needed to know about this stuff..

> Normally, even though they are bed hogs, they sleep on the bed, but we let
> him sleep in his crate as my back was off a bit and I wanted freer movement.
> He yapped and cried and whined for about 15 minutes. Then I heard a thrashing
> in the crate, Jumped up, turned the light on and the poor thing was flopping
> around in the cage like he was possessed. The only thing both dr.s said, was
> that You just got to let it happen. ( I dunno, it is just scary to watch, but
> there does not seem like much You can do ) I finally got him out of his crate
> as I feared the uncontrollable flopping was going to cause him to get stuck
> as he had no control. About 10 minutes later, he hopped up in bed and went
> to sleep, like nothing happened. As scary as it was, he seemed fine.

Well, you know what the vet is seeing there.. the dog wants out of the cage..
so the vet can't imgine it's from anything else but the dog not getting his
way.. and it could be that.... but when this happened with our dogs, it was
nothing like a situation like being caged and being "spoiled" ..

Chester (cocker spaniel) would lose it when my kids came home from school, and
bust open the door.. or Ron would come downstairs wearing a red robe :)..
Chester didn't see "anyone", just confusing images that drove him crazy.

>> The cocker spaniel wouldn't reconize anyone in the family, would

I should say "couldn't", not "wouldn't".

>> freak out at everything around him, and attack anyone or anything
>> that tried to get close.. TheVet said he must have suffered from a

> Aww the poor thing... Simon does not get violent, but his body sure does.
> thrashing and contorting in all different ways.

You're talking about when the cage was never a part of the picture?

>> 'touch of disentery', very common in those puppy mills where this boy
>> was from most likely  (he was "marked down" at the pet store on the

> See.. My doctors that I had taken him to, had no answers for why this
> happens. The above is interesting. Other than the seizures he is healthy as a
> horse. That is one of the reasons I posted. I still don't really understand
> them, what causes them and how they progress, do they get worse, more
> frequent and now I hear from You that there are regular meds he may have to
> take.

Well with Midnight, it was something the breeders SHOULD have tested her (or
maybe her mother/father) for, but didn't.. Epilepsy is one of those things
that can be common in Labs..  I forget the name of the test they do for it,
but I used to know it .  Anyway, here we had two different kinds of
problems in terms of disease:

Chester: probably from a touch of disentery in the Puppy Mill Midnight:
Probably inherited epiliptic sezures  from one of her parents

>> in a strange trance, certain colors set him off big time (who would
>> have thought THAT would matter).

> Hmmm, I see.. I wondered to myself if it was caused last night by the stress
> of wanting to sleep in the bed rather than the crate. He is fine in the
> crate, they love their own little space and do fine during other times in the
> crate, but I just thought maybe the stress from the fact he did not have
> blankets set him off  I kid, but am serious too.

Could be.  If he's like Chester and Midnight, I guess stress would set the two
of them off as well.

>> the attacks was Pricilla's sister, Midnight.  She would be sitting or
>> sleeping on the bed orthe couch and just fall off it, and seizures
>> would follow that involved jumpy legs, more physical than the cocker

> That sounds closer to what Simon is going through. At least the first two
> times. He was actually sleeping next to me on the couch while I was watching
> TV, and Bam!

Yeah, sounds like epilepsy, or petit mal at least.. gets a kind of lost look
on his face?

> I also notice for days afterward, he sits and looks up in the air like he is
> watching birds fly over his head, like he actually sees something in the air,
> but nothing happens. Thankfully.

whew. try another vet..

>> She also was on dilantin for a while.. but she's the one who was so
>> overly nervous... she escaped the fenced in yard and was hit by a
>> truck in Louisville.. poorbaby.
[...]
> Thanks, for the reply again. I think when I go next month for their annuals
> that I will discuss this in more detail. I have been feeling like I was in
> the dark on this, it hasn't happened that often, but I am a little concerned
> as they seem to be a bit more violent each time.

I don't remember it getting worse per se.. but then I wasn't willing to not
get the meds I thought they needed..


Call around.. or ask your vet if he's ever treated a dog with epilepsy.. or
petit mal episodes..  Be sure to tell him about the times when it just
happened out of the blue when their was no cage involved..

take care,
Janis

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