Hello! My Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Charlie, is nearly 7 years old. He's generally fit and well (touch wood!), but last night he did something weird which really scared me :(

I heard his claws kind of skittering on the floor (laminate not carpet so I could hear easily), so I went to see what was up. His bottom half and his legs were shaking, and his legs were a bit weak. Also his tail was twitching a bit and veering to one side. He was just staring ahead. No facial twitching or anything else.

The whole episode lasted about 7 minutes, then he was fine, and reay to play again like normal!

Can anyone help? This has really scared me :(

Thanks!

Katie

Katie,

What you described could well be a seizure and IMO you should take Charlie to the vet ASAP.  Seizures can be caused by many, many different things and your vet can do blood tests to rule in or out some possible causes. 

Vet visit is definitely the best option Katie :)

Teri

Thanks Cairnmania and Teri :) I'll definitely get him along to the vet! it was horrible! I felt so helpless! All I could do was cuddle him and hope he'd be ok - It really makes you realise how much you love your dog when you think you might lose him :( I'll never get cross with him again!!! ;)

Did he react when spoken to? Is his heart okay? My cavalier (14) has a really bad heart and because of that blood doesn't get pumped to his brain efficiently enough so he has episodes similar to what you described roughly every 3 minutes of the day, always -unless he is asleep or out for a walk. However they only last a few seconds and if you speak to him he comes out of it even quicker. With epilepsy on the other hand normally the dog is so unaware it doesn't recognise being spoken to. Then there is Cavalier Episodic falling which you can read about here:
http://www.cavalierepisodicfalling.com/
Whatever it is, I hope Charlie will be okay. Definitely see the vet for a check up but be prepared for the fact that if it was an epileptic seizure then tests won't show anything. If it happens again, try filming it for the vet as that will help diagnosis a lot.