Dog seizures are more common than you’d like to believe. The following article will deal with some symptoms and the treatment that needs to be administered for these seizures.
Watching one’s pet dog succumb to a seizure is not a pretty sight at all. Especially so if you do not know what seizures are like. In such a case, you are prevented from being in control and handling the situation well because you don’t know that the dog is experiencing seizure symptoms. It is important to know about these because seizures are quite common in dogs, and therefore, learning to identify what they are will enable you to administer the appropriate treatment and care. The following article will help you in that respect.
Signs and Symptoms
Pre-Ictal Phase
- Unresponsive ~ Before the onset of a seizure, the dog behavior becomes unresponsive and he stops responding to the owner’s commands.
- Biting ~ The dog may begin to bite people or objects around him. He may even bite himself.
- Restless Twitching ~ The dog will become restless and overactive. He might twitch his limbs, run in circles, and generally seem all over the place.
- He might even seem a little schizophrenic.
Ictal Phase
- Thrashing ~ The dog will go into frantic thrashing and twitching of limbs. He will begin to have convulsions as well.
- Paralysis ~ A dog might have a mild paralysis attack in which he will most often fall to the ground. These may last for a few minutes or a considerable amount of time as well.
- Ablutions ~ Many dogs will lose control over their bladder, salivary glands, and bowels when they have a seizure. As a result of which, they might urinate, salivate, and defecate as well.
- Teeth and Head Actions ~ During a seizure, most dogs will pull their head back and extend their neck outwards. They might even gnash their teeth.
Post-Ictal Phase
- Hearing and Vision Loss ~ This is a temporary effect that a seizure might have on the dog. He may lose either or both of these senses for sometime.
- Increase in Thirst ~ The dog will experience excessive thirst and an increase in appetite as well.
- Excessive Salivation ~ This is one of the most common dog seizure symptoms and is especially present if the dog had been salivating during or before the seizure.
- Confusion ~ A dog will seem disoriented after he has experienced a seizure. He might have no control over what he’s doing and might run into objects as well. This could last for several hours.
Treatment
Here are some methods that you can employ for proper and effective treatment:
- During a seizure, make sure you stay out of the way and do not touch the dog. He might attack.
- Get all the other pets out of the way for the same reason.
- Put out a thick mattress so that he does not fall to the floor and hit his head during thrashing.
- After the seizure, give him plenty of water and food.
- Many types of medication can be used for the treatment which include Phenobarbital, Levetiracetam, Felbamate, and Chlorazepate. But make sure that you’ve consulted your vet before administering the same.
- Find the source of the problem, like was the seizure brought about due to some health problem like distemper? Then it is important to treat that first so that it does not go into a relapse.
- Surgery is used when the dog has frequent seizures. But this is not a highly proffered choice and so the vet will usually eliminate all other methods before getting into this one.
- Regular check ups and follow ups need to be done in order to determine whether the medication is taking proper effect and is not causing any potentially harmful side effects. For this, blood tests might have to be conducted.
- Make sure that you keep the dog’s diet rich and his environment safe.
- There are also vaccinations that have become available. These will lower the seizures and help in controlling the factors that lead the same.
It is very important to know what the dog seizures symptoms are like so that you can administer proper pet care. Make sure that you’re always aware of what your pet is going through.
Disclaimer – This article is for informative purposes only and does not in any way attempt to replace the advice offered by an expert on the subject.
