Epilepsy In Dogs – Dogs Sickness will guide through this illness in dogs.

In March this year, my two year old Border Collie Marley was diagnosed with Primary Epilepsy.

When I first started encountering Marley’s fits. I headed straight for the internet to try. And I find out as much information as possible about seizures in dogs.

I hit with lots of varying information and was unsure of what to believe as opinions differed so greatly.

I am writing this review to share my experience of epilepsy and seizures in dogs. In the hope that it will help other people in the same position.

Marley’s 1st seizure

On March 15th, 2006, at 8 pm, my boyfriend and I had been back from walking 6 dogs.

I have 2 border collies, my Mum and Dad have three and my brother has one.

The rest of my family were away on holiday so my boyfriend. And I had the job of looking after all the dogs at my parent’s house.

The dogs, my boyfriend Jamie and I were all sat in the living room, with the fire on, watching a film.

Marley suddenly went tense all over and made a sort of whimpering noise. As he was very close to the fire.

We thought maybe he had burnt himself on the fire. As we leaned down to check him. He suddenly went even more rigid and he was sort of on his side, with two of his legs bolt upright in the air!

He had a glazed expression in his eyes and him lips were pulled back. And it looked like he was snapping at thin air. He was also foaming quite a lot at the mouth.

As you can imagine, we both leaped, and tried to fuss him, call his name.

Anything basically to get a reaction from him or for him to acknowledge us but he was completely unaware of his surroundings.

After about 90 seconds (although believe me, it seems like an eternity) he staggered to his feet and lunged at a bowl of Doritos that we were eating at the time.

While he fit, I called our local vets. Their answering service gave me an emergency vet on call’ number which by the time I had taken note of the number, Marley had (as we now know) stopped fitting.

Marley’s behavior when he lunged at the Doritos was very odd and out of character as he is the most chilled border collie you will ever meet.

We were frantic with worry and confusion as to what had just happened.

Marley still be had strange as he went out to the kitchen and launched himself at the kitchen worktop trying to get to more food.

We followed him around and he asked to go into the garden. He went outside to the toilet and began pacing the garden, all the while being very unstable and disorientated.

My boyfriend sat with Marley while I ran to a neighbor who also keeps dogs, and asked her to come over and look at him.

By the time I came back with the neighbor, Marley was starting to recover and act his normal self although he still had wobbly legs.

We decided not to call the emergency vet and to keep a close eye on Marley with a view to take him to the vets if he didn’t show improvement.

Marley was so hungry; he was literally hunting for food, like some sort of wild animal.

He pulled the bin over, chewed at food cupboard doors, and kept trying to jump up on the worktop.

We fed him another meal (dry biscuits) and he ate it as he’d never been fed before!

After this, he eventually settled on the bed and we sat with him until he fell asleep.

We decided to keep him in the room with us until the morning when we could get him to the vets.

The Next Day

He showed no more signs that day, or the morning after that anything was wrong.

It was almost like it had all a bad dream. I took Marley to the vets the next morning and explained the events of the night before.

My vet informed me that he may have had a fit and many dogs can fit. Just once, for no reason at all and would never fit again in their lives.

He told me to take Marley home and keep a close eye on him and to come back if it happened again.

The vet also told me that if he were to fit again. I needed to note the color of his gums and time the seizure.

If the seizure lasted longer than five minutes. Then we told them to call the vet out. As he would require medication to bring him out of the seizure.

Marley’s 2nd seizure

For nearly a month, Marley was perfectly fine. We were beginning to think. That maybe he had just had a one off fit like our vet had explained.

Then, on 7th April, 3 weeks and 1 day after his 1st seizure, Marley had another seizure.

The seizure itself was very similar to the 1st one, rigid body, shaking legs, glazed expression and foaming mouth.

The seizure itself lasted 60-90 seconds. For about 40 minutes after his seizure, he was very disorientated.

Again, he was ravenous so we fed him a usual amount of dry biscuits which he ate readily.

Vets Appointments

We booked Marley into the vets the next day. My vet said at this point. We needed to do something drastic as it was obvious there was some sort of underlying problem.

My vet explained that he would be testing Marley’s thyroid gland and his blood sugar levels.

Our vet also explained that it could be epilepsy causing him to fit.

A test for epilepsy in dogs does not exist. So the vets had to basically test for anything else that could be causing his seizures.

If these tests came back all clear, then they would be looking at either a brain tumor or epilepsy as the cause of his seizures.

The vet took some blood samples from Marley and asked us to call in a week’s time for the results.

We called the vets a week later and informed them that Marley results had all come back clear.

The vet explained that he would like to take more blood samples from Marley and test him for Cushing’s disease.

We booked an appointment for that week and the vet took further blood samples.

Further Seizures

Two weeks, and two days after Marley’s 2nd seizure, he had yet another one.

At 12.40pm on 3rd May he had a fit that lasted about 30 seconds.

He came out of the fit quite quickly and wasn’t as disorientated as he was before, but he still had wobbly legs.

However, Marley’s eye’s still looked glazed and he was being very boisterous with the other dogs and almost a bit over the top with his behavior.

Which is not at all like him. We kept a close eye on his behavior as we felt that something wasn’t quite right.

At 14.15, Marley fitted again. We phoned the vets and they told us to take him down there straight away.

Marley didn’t seem to come out of the seizure very well. He was very restless and was whimpering.

He had lots of foam coming from his mouth. We put a towel on the back seat of the car and walked him to it.

Although he was very wobbly. We thought it would be better to try and get him to walk rather than attempting to carry him when he may have another seizure.

The journey to the vets seemed to take a lifetime. The whole journey, Marley kept trying to get up and walk around in the car and he was still whimpering.

We eventually got him to the vets and they decided they will go to admit him to the vets and sedate him.

They told us to call whenever we wanted an update on him.

We called nearly every hour and they said at 6 pm that he stabilized. And we should be ok to go home but we would need to keep a close eye on him.

We collected him and took him home and although not back to his usual self he seemed ok.

He was just a bit tired which we kind of expected after having two fits and being sedated at the vets.

At 7.15 pm Marley had another fit. It was much the same as the one before.

He didn’t seem to come out from the seizure. And will display the same behavior, restless or whimpering etc.

We called the on call vet and she told us to take him to the vets and informed us.

That they will see sedate him overnight and see how he was in the morning.

The next morning, we called the vets to see how he was doing.

They informed us that he had been sedated all night and they were lessening the doses of sedation to see how his body would react.

And to see if he would fit again once he came out of sedation. So far, he went the whole night without another seizure.

The vets said that we could collect him at 9 that morning and take him home.

We arrived at the vets and found out that the appointments were running late as they had an emergency.

A car hit a dog and they were busy to deal with that. As we were sitting in the waiting room. We heard a dog howling and whining downstairs.

We looked at each other and said ‘Oh we hope that’s not Marley’. About 10 minutes later, a vet called us into our appointment.

She explained that we wouldn’t be able to take Marley home as he had just had another fit.

She said that they would need to sedate him all day as they now believed he probably had epilepsy and they needed to control his seizures.

We now know that Marley will have something called Cluster Fits. Where he does not come out of the fitfully and then continues to fit minutes/hours later (I will write more about this later).

The vet explained that they were going to keep him in for at least the rest of the day and we were to call at 5 pm to see if he would be ok to go home.

We asked if we would be able to go and see Marley and at first, the vet wasn’t too keen and said that its very distressing seeing him how he was.

We explained that we already saw him like that and reiterated the fact that we really wanted to see him.

She let us downstairs to the medical area where they keep their animals.

Marley was in a crate and attached to a drip, with a big bandage over his foot to keep the drip in.

Where he so disorientated that he kept trying to walk around but he couldn’t because his legs were too wobbly.

He kept getting caught up in the drip and falling over. He was also whimpering and howling very loudly.

This was so horrible to see, his howling was the most haunting sound I’ve ever heard.

You just wanted to sit down and comfort him but he wasn’t really aware of anything going on.

The vet said that Marley probably couldn’t see very well either but he should still be able to hear so we could try talking to him.

I sat down in the crate and tried to calm him down or at least make him sit down as he kept getting caught up in the drip.

After about 5 minutes he began to stop pacing so much and sort of half settled on the floor of the crate.

The nurse explained that the drip had sedatives in it and it may be starting to take effect which of course would give his brain a rest after all the seizures.

We sat and talked to him for a bit and he started to seem more aware that we were there.

He even nuzzled my neck like he usually does. He eventually fell asleep and we left him as we didn’t want him waking up.

At this point, I was so worried about Marley. I asked the vet if she thought Marley was going to be ok and what the worse case scenario would be.

She said that he could continue to seizure and eventually have one so big that he could die.

Or he would come out from a seizure brain damaged and would have to be out to sleep.

The told me that this was the worst case scenario. But it was still something that I needed to consider.

We called the vets at various intervals throughout the day and told them that Marley still sedated heavily.

At 5pm, we called to see if we would be able to collect him. Or to go see him if he didn’t allow home.

The vets informed us that they were going to be keeping Marley in overnight again.

And that we would not be able to visit him and they wanted his brain activity kept to an absolute minimum.

They will go to keep him heavily sedated for the whole night and slowly bring him out of sedation the following day.

It was horrible staying in that evening with just my other dog Dax. The house felt so empty without Marley.

The next morning we called the vet to see how Marley was doing (I’m sure they got sick of us phoning all the time over these 3 days!).

They informed us that they were slowly bringing him out of sedation and were monitoring his progress.

They said that they would keep him in until that evening at least depending on how he was when we came out of sedation.

We called the vets throughout the day and they kept us up to date with his progress and said that he was coming out of sedation and so far he had not fitted.

Eventually, at 5 pm, the vets said they felt happy enough for us to take him home.

They asked me to collect him at 6 pm. Marley was holding his back right leg up as he had damaged it.

And I informed by the veterinary nurse that this was due to his muscles being so badly contracted during his seizures. That they were unable to release once his seizures stopped.

The nurse informed me that his leg should hopefully return to normal but there was no guarantee of this.

Informing My Insurance Company
At this point, I opened a claim with my pet insurance company and informed them of Marley’s condition.

I figured it was best to do this as early as possible which would then allow me to start claiming as soon as possible.

Diagnosing Marley’s Epilepsy
After all of Marley’s tests came back clear.

My vet informed me that Marley would now be referred to the Animal Health Trust in Cambridge to be tested for a brain tumor.

If this final test came back clear, then Marley had epilepsy.

On May 20th, my boyfriend and I drove to the Animal Health Trust (AHT). Before our appointment.

We were sent an information pack detailing what tests Marley would be having.

And also a map on how to get there which was very useful.

Also enclosed was an 8 page questionnaire which we had to fill out and send back.

This questionnaire would help give the AHT some sort of background file on Marley before his appointment.

When we arrived, we had a very thorough consultation with a specialist.

They gave Marley a full MOT and informed us of the various procedures he would be going through that day.

He would have brain scans and would have fluid drained from his brain so they were able to run various tests.

The process would take all day and we were told to collect Marley later that day at 5 pm.

We basically just went on the country walks around Cambridge until it was time to collect him.

When 5 pm came, we called them back into a room where we reunited them with Marley.

The poor soul had a big piece of missing hair on the top of his head. Where they had shaved him to drain the fluid from his brain.

He was also quite sedated due to the fact he had had an anesthetic.

The specialist informed us that all of Marley’s tests had come back clear.

And that he had now been diagnosed with primary epilepsy.

She informed me that there was no cure for epilepsy. And that Marley would now need to be on medication for the rest of his life.

Types Of Seizures

There are basically two types of seizures that are related to Epilepsy.

A one off seizure can occur where your dog will fit for anything between 30 seconds – 3 minutes.

Your dog will come out of this fit fairly easily and apart from being disorientated for a while afterward.

This will be the last you will see of the fit.
The other type of seizures is ‘cluster seizures’.

These are the dangerous ones. Basically, your dog will have a fit as above but instead of coming out of the fit completely.

They will continue to act strange and will fit again minutes or even hours after their 1st seizure.

These are dangerous because the fits will increase in severity and your dog could have one so sever.

That it does not come out from the seizure and as a result, becomes brain damaged and dies or has to be put to sleep.

The other danger is that having seizures is very stressful to the body and if they continue to seizure.

It puts to much strain on the heart and they could have a heart attack and die.

Medication To Treat Epilepsy

Marley was started on his medication. I was referred back to my vet who would decide on the dosages of each medication.

I was told that, to begin with, the medication would be hit and miss.

And Marley may still continue to seizure until we got the dosages correct.

After a couple of weeks, we settled on a regular medicine pattern.

Marley now had half a potassium bromide tablet with each meal (once in the morning, once in the evening).

And 2 Phenobarbitone tablets with each meal. Marley has now been having this medicine since May.

Marley also has rectal diazepam which is a strong sedative. This will use to control his cluster seizures.

For example, if Marley starts to have cluster seizures which he does not come out of.

We can administer the diazepam which will sedate him and stop him from fitting.

Side Effects Of The Tablets

The Phenobarbitone tablets make Marley extremely hungry. And we have to constantly watch him around food.

He will literally eat anything and as a result of this, he has put on weight.

The same tablets also make him sleepy after having them.

We noticed how sleepy he was when he began the medication as literally half an hour after having the tablets, he would zonk out.

The vet explained that once the medicines regulate in his body, the side effects would lessen, which they have done.

Other Factors Which I Believe Help To Control Epilepsy

There is absolutely no scientific proof to back up what I am about to say.

This is all that I learned from my own 1st hand experience of dealing with a dog with epilepsy.

For anyone who read my Burns review will know, after doing research, we found that changing Marley’s food might help to lessen his fits.

18 weeks ago, we changed his food to the Burns Natural range. As he has put on weight.

We choose the low fat option. Since we have changed his food, Marley has not had a single seizure.

We can in no way be sure of this is down to the food or not but I do believe that it has helped.

I also inclined to think that the hot weather makes Marley fit more.

His cluster seizures occurred on hot days and since winter has kicked in. His seizures have lessened considerably.

Although this could also be down to that change in his food as mentioned above.

Cost

In total, Marley’s vet bill came to over £3, 000. I was sensible in the fact that I have pet insurance.

And this was my savior. I am covered for up to £4, 000 or for a 12 month period so my insurance company basically paid this bill for me.

I just paid the £50 excess. Marley’s medication costs me about £20 a month which I think is quite reasonable.

The Situation As It Is Now

Since Marley has been on medication, he has still had seizures but has only had one more set of cluster seizures. The rest have all been one off seizures.

The medication does not cure epilepsy, it just helps to control the seizures and this is the best we can do.

Are Others Animals Affected By The Seizures?

I have another dog Dax and he gets very upset by Marley’s seizures.

On one occasion he actually became aggressive towards Marley – Marley was wondering around disorientated after a seizure.

And every time he went near to Dax, he would snarl at him. I asked my vet about this and he explained that basically Dax was freaked out because he can’t understand why Marley begins to act strangely.

Another time, I was woken up by Dax barking, I went to see what the problem was and found Marley having a seizure.

I think that Dax was barking to alert us to the fact that there was something wrong with Marley.

Whenever we left Marley alone, which doesn’t happen very often as when I am at work.

He goes to my parents’ house, Marley will leave in a separate room from the other dogs.

As it is possible that if he has a seizure in the presence of the other dogs. They could become freaked out by it and attack him.