You'll probably see that I've posted on the topic below about seizures in labs as well, My dog is a border collie (yes we have 5 dogs in the family if you've read the westie posting as well, but collie lives with me!)  Meg 8 years old this year.  We inherited her as her previous owner passed away, her sister was taken straight away but she was left for 14 weeks on her own in the house. So it took a good year for her to settle with us and know that she is staying put now.  It is obvious that she is a very well trained dog, extremely well natured, brilliant with kids, cats, bunnies whatever, very loyal. but she had never been walked off the lead so took a while to destroy some of her training and let her run chasing sticks and balls and swimming (she wouldn't put foot in a puddle before she now swims!)  the first week we had her she had a fit - too much running around we think.   We can go and have gone for 6 months without seizures/fits, but the last 6 weeks we've seen about 5.  last one on sunday night v bad lasting for approx 9 minutes.  She knows she is going to have one and jumps up and trys to get as close as possible to you.  her eyes glaze over, pupils dilate and every muscle cramps up.  I've been trying to rub the muscles for her and keep her still with her head on my lap and checking she's not swallowing her tongue etc, but this last fit she appeared to have stopped breathing for about 10 seconds at a time for a about a minute, which obviously panicked me.  It appears to be too much activity and fussy eating - but more the heat recently that is affecting her so badly.  She has a very delicate tummy and is not food orientated at all, we have found a kibble for active dogs that she usually wolfs down but before 'episodes' tends to starve herself. We have been told she can go on drugs but will be on them then for the rest of her life.  So I was wondering if anyone else had collies with a similar problem, or whether anyone has experience of using drugs to control it, the vet has called it idiopathic epiepsy (or epilepsy they don't know the cause of) but are there worse side effects of the drugs, herbal remedies that maybe will help? she has had blood tests before for liver, kidney function, diabetes, - don't think i've tried the thyroid test though mentioned on the labs posting.  But would just like general ideas etc so i can take her fully armed with questions, requests, concerns etc when i take her to the vets.  Also, this may sound like a morbid question but has anyone ever lost a dog to an epileptic fit? Any help would be greatly appreciated as she is such a loving happy thing I couldn't stand to lose her for trying too hard or not doing enough.

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/

maybe this site will be of help?

regards

This is very interesting, my friend's 7 year old border collie recently started fitting, in the manner you describe. The vet made the same diagnosis, and put her on ephiphen (sp.) but after a couple of days she was still having fits and was very lethargic (Which the vet had said would happen) and the drugs upset her balance, she was walking lop sided all the time. The owners decided that as she was still fitting they would stop the drugs as she was miserable on it and her quality of life was less than without the drug. This was a couple of weeks ago now and she is a bit better, the fits are less frequent, although the weather is affecting her a little. It is interesting to note that her fits are also brought on by exercise, which is unusual in epilepsy.