Maddie had a grand mal seizure tonight
Scariest 2 minutes ever. I was out on the deck, relaxing after getting back yesterday from vacation, when I heard my husband yelling that Maddie was choking. Actually, she was having a very dramatic grand mal seizure. Thankfully I recognized it and from some dim corner of my frantic brain I remembered that we should let her alone til she came out of it.
Jack was barking frantically so I crated him til she was done. She probably seized about 30 seconds or so, then spent another minute trying to drag herself to her feet, and then another minute or two bumping into things and nudging our legs. She then shook herself off and went and got a drink and spent another 45 minutes pacing and panting a bit more than usual (though she came for cuddles and played a bit and had another drink in there; and the fact that there was a huge fireworks display nearby probably didn't help). She seems ok now.
I called the emergency vet and they said we could bring her in for 24 hour observation, or keep her here but bring her in if she seizes again. They said either would be fine. Since the observation would be in a vet cage (I asked), I made the decision to keep her home, but I am not 100% comfortable with that decision. We have work tomorrow and we can come home a couple times and my mom will stop over once or twice, but she will be alone for chunks of the day. We will baby gate her away from Jack just in case.
She is 8 years old which seems too old for epilepsy. I looked online and the causes of seizures are widely varied. I don't think she could have gotten into poison (plus I think there would be other symptoms). She ate fine, hasn't been ill in other ways, and has been bright and alert since we picked her up last night from the boarding kennel.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated. :-( I am worried and a bit sad.
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08/12/13 update: Maddie seems to be her normal self today. Our regular vet was able to see us today. She did a bunch of posturing tests to check that all her neurological functions were normal. Also checked that her eyes had a normal response to light and that she had a normal flinch reflex. Her temp and vitals were ok.
They drew a bunch of tubes of blood to check liver, kidney, thyroid, and who knows what else. She says the test is mailed out and they should have the results within a day or so. IF the tests are all ok, then we just watch and wait. She says they don't usually medicate unless the seizures are more frequent than about one a month, or last ten minutes or so (the seizing, not the recovery which can be an hour or more).
Epilepsy this late in life is rare but not impossible. She says it's also possible she's had seizures before that were either very mild and went unnoticed, or happened when we were not home. I had already thought of that.
They don't suggest brain scans unless things get much worse; she said brain tumors are not all that common (and I get the idea the test is expensive). Since our neighbor recently lost their golden to a brain tumor that caused seizures, this is one of my biggest fears. However, the golden's tumor metastasized from a mammary tumor.
She also said it's ok to leave the dogs loose together when we are not home, since Jack is unlikely to attack her; he wants us to fix things when she acts weird.
I e-mailed her breeder last night, who got right back to me early this morning. She confirmed she is not aware of any of her dogs or pups she's sold having seizure issues. She has Maddie's litter brother at her house and he's fine. So I doubt it's something genetic.
I will update when we hear about the blood work. Thanks for all your concern.
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Update 2 08/13/13:
All Maddie's blood work came back normal--- thyroid, sugar, ammonia, kidney, liver, red and white counts. So all we can do is just wait and see if anything else happens. I am keeping notes of the seizure and if there are any more (and I hope there aren't) I will document them as well.
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Updated 9/14/13
Maddie had another seizure last night. Funny thing is, it was almost the exact time of day as the first one. No triggers I can possibly think of; she had a perfectly typical day.
We knew what to expect so it was not so scary for us, but it seems to greatly alarm the other animals in the house. I put in a call to the vet this morning. She was not in, and will get back to me on Monday. Last time, she said they usually don't medicate unless the seizures are more frequent than about once a month or so. This one was two days shy of five weeks from the last one.
It made me a bit sad, since I was really hoping the first one was just a fluke. The poor thing somehow backed herself behind a sofa (the sofa is diagonally across the corner of the room, so there is a fair amount of space back there). When she came too, she could not seem to see for a few minutes (this happened last time too), but instead of panicking and walking into walls, she wagged her back end like crazy and kept climbing up to get close to our faces, her nose going the whole time. It seemed to give her such joy to be by our faces that we got right down on the floor with her, but this made Jack bark and bark since it was such strange behavior for us. Poor girl.
The cat was very frightened and ran upstairs. Then she sat on the steps for some time and hissed whenever a dog came near. In the past few weeks, she has hissed a lot more than normal at the dogs; I think the seizures make her think the dogs are unpredictable and violent.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Nickel on
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Good morning Beth,
My Cardigan Corgi, Maggie experienced a seizure in April 2012 at the age of 5 years old.....it was the first seizure that we witnessed.
Just over two weeks later she had 2 seizures, one right after the other.
We had taken her to the vet after the first seizure; he ran bloodwork, did all the tests and could determine nothing out of the ordinary....we were told just to watch her, that meds are not usually prescribed after having just one seizure.
We took her back after she had the 2 seizures and he prescribed phenobarbitol......Maggie takes 1/2 tablet in the a.m. & 1/2 tablet in the p.m. Since she has been on the medication we have not witnessed any more seizures. When she started the meds there were just a few side effect which diminished in time. She has been her sassy, energetic self since!
Just one comment in regards to other dogs being around her when she is having a seizure. That was a major concern of mine because I have 4 dogs.....the other three (Brittany, English Setter & a Setter/Pointer Mix) are much bigger than Maggie. My vet did tell me that the only time it might be an issue is if the dog having the seizure is the alpha dog......and another dog in the pack wants to be alpha......that is not the situation in my pack. My Brittany is the alpha dog & he is especially attached to Maggie.....he would protect her with his life if necessary.
Best of luck!
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Thank you for sharing your experience. Update 2 above: all blood work normal.
We will have to buy her a life vest so she can still go swimming. Otherwise we won't change anything and will just keep an eye on her. The not knowing is the hardest part.
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Permalink Reply by Linda on
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I am so glad that all bloodwork is normal. Tho it does leave you with not knowing when or if she will have another. I agree...just treat everything as normal and keep an eye on her. That's all we could do with Duffy.
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Thanks for telling me about Duffy. I can't even imagine dealing with seizures in a dog that big. :-(
I talked to Maddie and massaged her when her tremors weren't too bad (stayed back at the worst of it) and then kept talking and fussing over her in the post-seizure state when she was confused and anxious. So heart-breaking to see them so distraught.... They say it's likely not painful, but they must wonder what the heck is going on.
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Beth,
I was told that after the seizures their blood sugar is extremely low......to give them some honey or Karo syrup to boost the blood sugar levels..........this helps thems recover a little easier.
-Cheryl
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Permalink Reply by Tracy & Sir Bentley on
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Glad to hear blood work came back normal.
I know what a scary thing you went thru.
Unfortunately, I lost my first corgi after he suffered two seizures, one seizure per day.
Comet never recovered completely after the second seizure.
Thinking of you. Keep us posted. :)
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Thank you. So sorry to hear about Comet. :-( My dad lost a much-loved pointer many years ago who had seizures. Since he was a field-trial dog from valuable lines they did a necropsy and as it turned out, he had many internal problems, including misplaced organs. He was a young dog, too. And my neighbors had a dog they lost who had seizures; she had a brain tumor that had spread from the original mammary tumor.
There are so many causes of seizures, and some of the tests that are routine in people are just not done in dogs, probably due to cost and limited availability of equipment.
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Tracy....I am so very sorry to hear about Comet.
Beth....I had to sit on the floor with Duffy, standing wouldn't work...he could have pulled or knocked me over to easy. What amazed me was that somehow he knew it was coming and he would search me out.
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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Maddie's the on who looks like Al, right? We had a cat who had spectacular seizures, gripping the bedcovers in the middle of sleep and shake the bed like a malfunctioning sewing machine, bring the human to full emergency alert in an instant.
He'd do it about as often as epileptic Windows would crash, it just happened and we got used to it. He died an old cat with no medical intervention. I hope Maddie's situation is similarly inconsequential.
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Permalink Reply by SJK on
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How scary! I hope Maddie pulls through and this doesn't happen again. I've known some dogs with seizures and medication was able to manage it; they never seized again while on their meds and led normal lives.
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Permalink Reply by Suzanne on
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Hi Beth,
Sorry to hear about Maddie and the seizure. That sounds very scary. I will keep you guys in our thoughts and prayers. Hopefully she will be just fine from here on out.
Take care
Suzanne
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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How is Maddie doing?
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