Hi Everyone. Last week i posted that my Female Akita had to be put to sleep due to Cancer of the uretha, well we have been trying to keep our other dog happy as he started to pine and refused to eat etc. Thankfully he seems to have recovered and has ajusted to life without his old pal. He has bad aurthritis in his shoulder so has been put on PLT tablets- he has responded to these drugs so well he is back to his peky self with hardly any lameness....GREAT!

Today when the children came home from school he was excited to see them(as is normal) shortly afterwards he went all stiff and seemed to loose co-ordination and balance, he fell over and lay on the floor crying for about 1 minute. He was very hot during the fit i could feel the heat coming off his body. I talked to him and calmed him down and after about 4 minutes he stood up wagged his tale and had a drink of water!
Has anybody any ideas what kind of a fit/seizure this could be? A while ago (2 months ago b4 taking PLT'S) he had a similar fit but not as agresive and that was due to the fact he got all excited that he was going for a walk.
Any thoughts welcomed

Sarah & Tao

Oh no, what a worry :(
I'm sorry, I have no advice other than get him checked by a vet.

Best of luck.
xxx

sazzlemint,

I'm sorry to hear that your boy has had a seizure. It could be the result of a variety of things. I would suggest getting him to your vet- I wouldn't wait.

Take care.

Sorry to hear you are having more upset.

My only experience of a very similar situation was my 7 year old rottie girl, her first episode was exactly how you described, only she wet herself a little too.

This happened again 2 weeks later and was followed by 2 in 2 days, all of them happened when she was active....xrays revealed an enlarged heart and sadly she went into heart failure and 2 weeks later we had to let her go.

Fits can be caused by so many things so it needs checking out by a vet, i havent posted this to scare you but to let you know so you can ask your vet to check the heart. I hope it is a one off incident and that he is feeling better soon.

Absolutely get him to the vet.  If he has another before you get there the best time to take him is within an hour as then the blood test will be far more useful.

I fully understand your stress. Let us know what they say.

Get him to the vet. They can be caused by so many things and are a common symptoms in so many health issuses that it could be a large worry or a minor one. My first ever dog, a standard-sized yorkie, had epilepsy and eventually an enlarged heart. From our experiences with him and speaking to our vet, it seems that they would be brought on by either A.) Heat or B.) Over-activeness/Excitement. It was as if he would go in 'overdrive' and therefore we tried to play calming games with him and let him let off energy on gentle walks rather than letting him get off and running around like a nutter, playing with other dogs and getting overexciting as they'd often occur after this.

He had medication for his epilepsy which took about 6 months to get the dosage right. It was horrible at first but eventually he was his normal self just without the fits which would occur about once every month.

When he began a fit we would make sure he was safe from whacking his head on anything and then turn the lights off and leave the room. Calming him down, by speaking to him stroking him, or leaving the radio on would prolong the fit as he would be over-stimulated. Offer lots of water straight after as he was often left dehydrated after his fits from all the panting. It is a horrible experience to see and it will get easier but just make sure you offer water and we found it helped to shut him in the back room rather than at the front of the house if we ever had to leave him for a number of hours in the day. He was a good guard dog and if there were any builders or workmen in the road when we were out the house,he'd get so stressed at trying to get them that he'd sometimes have a fit from being so worked up.

I do not remember the name of the tablets he was on, but they DO help, despite the temptation to take the dog off them when the dosage isn't quite right at first. For a few weeks expect your dog to be drowsy until you have the dosage right.

Josh

Having had a bitch recently diagnosed with epilepsy, I say see your vet and get bloods taken NOW.

Don't wait for another before doing something.  My girl has epiphen liquid or phenobarb tablets.  Contrary to what others have said, it only ever happens when she is at rest, definitely not exercise related.

The recommendation is to just keep them quiet and in a darkened room while they come out of it.  Talking to them does stimulate, and make the seizures last longer.

Thank you to everyone for your advise and well wishes for Tao.
I spoke to the vet who advised me to keep him calm and to not let him get over excited- easier said than done!
Tao has undergone various surgerys/Anisthetics in the last 12 months so we have MRI scans already showing his Heart etc are normal and in good working order so to speak, epilepsy has been ruled out too! App the vets had checked him for this and bloods came back fine.
The seem to think it's a normal seizure that when he gets over excited or too stressed out the lack of oxegen in his blood effects the brain hence the seizure. He is 10 years old and has been through some stressful time's of late aswell as it being very warm yesturday.
He did drink alot after the seizure and he ate well too, which is something he has not been doing.

Hopefully, by keeping him calm this will not happen again (fingers crossed) but if it does i know what to do.
thank you all again

Srah & Tao

What's a normal seizure?  THey are usually caused by something. When did you last have all the tests as of course a lot can happen in a short period.

Hope he improves soon and doesn't have any more seizures.  Give him a big hug from me.

Could be low blood sugar. 

How is he fed one or more meals a day.  If once this could be the reason as kids coming home would be close to 24 hours since last food assuming he gets fed teatime.

I have a rugby playing Friend who tells me that as you age your bodies ability to rally it's energy reserves declines and you can end up with temporary colly wobbles (hypoglycemia) during exertion.

He takes an energy drink at half time.

Edited to add:

I see he has not been eating well so definitely a possibility.  Blood tests would show up low blood sugar if done as someone suggested within a short time after the episode (without feeding first of course).

Did he have the blood test for normal kidney/liver function as sometimes these can cause seizures

Under active thyroid is a major cause of fits too.

I had a Boxer that was attacked by 2 GSDs and had quite a few bite marks that needed treatment ( it could have been worse but was bad enough ) That evening he had his first fit as you described. he went on over the next few days to have 2 more. I took him back to the vet after the first one and he told me that it could be stress related and if this was the case it would improve with no treatment and that we should give it 1 week. After the third fit he had no more and never needed any kind of medication for this problem. However as said before by others there are many reasons for fits and a vets visit is needed asap.
Lets hope it passes but expert advice is really needed just in case it is an on going problem