My Catahoula just had a fit. This is the 3rd one I've seen. She was resting from 3 mile hike/walk. Suddenly she goes rigid, heavy frothing at the mouth, gasping for air and much accelerated heart rate. After I get her calmed down she is still breathing hard and just starts pacing like crazy. Is this epilepsy? What can be done and how serious is it? Thanks for all replies and help.

We had a dog that did that and it was epilepsy. The vet prescribed medication and it went away. I believe it was Prozac. Take your dog to the vet.

Correction it was Phenobarbital.

I had a Vizsla that started having seizures years ago. It turned out he had a tumor on his pancreas which was causing an abundance of insulin which was causing the seizures due to low blood sugar. It wasn't a good situation & I hope your Catahoula fares batter.

My 65lb doodle has stress-induced seizures. It got to the point that we couldn't take him to vet or groomer without a full blown seizure. On the ground, out of his mind, kicking, crapping, foaming at the mouth, etc. would take quite a while to recover and would same out of it for hours and sometimes days afterwards.

Ultimately we just started grooming him ourselves (PITA!) and doing an at home vet.

Not medical advice for your pet OP, this is general info about seizures in dogs.

There are a number of causes of seizures in dogs, idiopathic (no structural or metabolic cause) epilepsy is one of those. Most patients need a general work-up to evaluate for metabolic (glucose, electrolyte) abnormalities that could precipitate seizure-like activity, as a poster above mentioned with hypoglycemia.

The decision to begin medication for seizure activity (assuming general metabolic profile is normal) is made on a case-by-case basis, involving the client, the attending veterinarian, and the discussion of frequency and severity of episodes. Additionally, the definitive work-up that many clients request and pursue (some clients decline this) involves a CT scan with contrast or an MRI of the brain to screen for structural problems (masses, tumors, other fluid movement abnormalities) that could be causing the seizures. If those are detected, they are addressed (if possible) in conjunction with medicating the seizures.

Seizure pathways do become ingrained in the brain and, as such, if you are going to begin medication, it's good to start meds sooner (within a few months) than later (allowing a dog to have this seizure pattern established for years and then begin treatment - those are harder to get under control once well established). If your pet has one event a year and it's mild, you will likely not want to begin medication. If he/she is seizing several times a week or if they are infrequent but becoming severe (duration and intensity) you will likely want to start treatment. And there is a sliding scale in between those two extremes that each client and DVM have to agree upon.

Anti-convulsant treatment has come a long way. We used to treat with KBr and/or phenobarbital and had to monitor drug levels and check liver and kidney values regularly as those meds had side effects. Modern anti-epileptics are much safer and effective, but realize that they will not likely eliminate seizures from occurring completely. If that is the perceived effect of treatment, a mis-diagnosis was possibly made. The goal of the medications is to drastically reduce frequency and severity of events. Single dosages of medications can also be given to the pet-owner to stop the seizure event itself. Epilepsy in dogs is a life-long disease that can be successfully managed and allow the pet and pet owner to have a good quality of life, but working with a primary DVM or neurologist with experience or expertise in this area is necessary.

Hope that general info helps, best of luck!

We had a German Shepherd many years ago that started having seizures at about 2.5 years of age. He started having them after a vet prescribed a drug named Magace to "calm" him down because our neighbors dogs were in heat.
We had just started him on the meds in the afternoon and at 3:00 am we woke up with him having a grand mal seizure.
We called the vet and he told us to stop the medication. We did that but he continued having them every 8-10 hours.
After test they said he had epilepsy. They prescribed a medication to control it. However he kept having seizures from time to time for about 5 years.
The seizures eventually affected him neurologically and his hearing and eyesight till we finally had to put him down.
This was in the early 80's, so as Dr. Boogs says hopefully they have made advancements in controlling it.

Prayers for you and your buddy my friend. We've been through that with a dog. It's horrible for you and the dog.

Sounds like the seizures my first lab Gus used to have. Started around age 2. Ended up dying from one at the age of 5. He was not on medication.

Sounds like a seizure. If you're using an all-in-one heartworm/flea & tick medication I suggest you stop immediately (ex. Simperica Trio). This particular product is known to cause seizures in some dogs but it's not common.

Unfortunately, that little detail was left out by our vet when prescribing it. My golden retriever Hank is now prone to seizures, which started at around 18 months old and is now almost 5. At the time of his first seizure, he was on Simperica Trio. We started with Keppra slow release at 3,000 MG a day (2 750 MG tabs in the AM & PM) as well as 600 MG of Gabapentin and this did not help.

We have now started phenobarbital as of 3/11 and he seems to be doing much better. This was decided after we had a seizure on 3/5 @ 1 am lasting 2 minutes gave him a 750 MG Keppra & 300 MG of Gabapentin then went back to bed. He then had another one at 7:15 am that same day that lasted 1 minute.

I would immediately get him in to see the vet & get bloodwork done.

This is an excellent post. OP should read it again, and take the dog to the vet to rule out metabolic issues.

Posting on behalf of my dad (she's really my dog, but he treats her like she's his haha).

The Catahoula was taken to the vet after the first seizure a number of months ago. Blood work all came back normal. Vet was very thorough and told us to monitor the dog and let her know about any additional seizures. She's had two more in the last three months or so, including the one today. The interesting thing is that the seizures have all occurred while she's napping after a long walk. They are not often yet, so the hope is that with proper treatment she'll live a long, healthy, happy life.

The vet did tell me when I took her in a few months ago that epilepsy tends to show up in dogs around two to three years of age (the dog is three). She wasn't really concerned about a tumor or anything at this point, but we will see what she says when I take her back in week after next (unfortunately, she's out of town next week).

As far as medications, the Catahoula is only on Bravecto. She receives her annual shots (including one for heartworm). I see that Bravecto can also cause seizures in some dogs. I have another dog on Simprica. He's fine, but I think I will inquire about going the topical route.

Thank you everyone for the comments and suggestions.

Just had this pop up with our little (inside at night) Aussie/Poodle mix and I have seen her do it 3 times in 3 months or so. Fortunately they are much more mild as she loses her footing and seems to panic trying to get back on her feet. After 5-10 seconds she jumps up and acts like nothing ever happened. She's about 2 yrs old. I will definitely take her in soon as she's due for stuff anyway along with the rest of them.

She's on the monthly flea/tick chewable but I do those every 3-4 months with never any bugs. (We're out in the country so no neighbor dogs etc)

If a vet has any more info, thanks in advance.

Referencing the above post, what's your professional take on seizures and Simperica?

OnlyForNow said:

---

Referencing the above post, what's your professional take on seizures and Simperica?

---

That class of drug can lower the seizure threshold, but has not been shown to cause seizures after cessation of use, to my knowledge. And the incidence of seizures attributable to those drugs is very low.

FishrCoAg said:

---

OnlyForNow said:

---

Referencing the above post, what's your professional take on seizures and Simperica?

---

That class of drug can lower the seizure threshold, but has not been shown to cause seizures after cessation of use, to my knowledge. And the incidence of seizures attributable to those drugs is very low.

---

But that can be an issue in dogs that are more prone to seizures (like labs and goldens) and unfortunately the company is not very open about that. I understand your professional opinion but as an owner who's going through this I can tell you that i tell everyone I can to get off that medicine.

I'm sorry for what you are experiencing with your dog. It's not the only drug in that class with the same potential. In most areas risk of parasites caused anemia and tick borne diseases is exponentially worse than the risk of seizures.

I have a 10 year old blue healer that has been diagnosed with idiopathic seizures and has been on meds for three years now. I also had a pyrenees/gsp mix that has seizures. The pyramid passed last spring from one and his were never as well controlled as my healers. My healer has not had one since October on a camping trip where I think it was more related to hypoglycemia than anything else. But he was having a couple a week before meds and the meds knocked them down to 1 or 2 a month for a while then went up in frequency and so changed meds. He is on leviteracetam, zonisamide, and gabapentin though we are weaning the gabapentin since the last one was in October. As someone said above, if it occurred after a good hike it very well could be hypoglycemia, especially if your pup did not eat anything after you got back. Anytime we get out now with my healer I make sure he gets a snack if his next meal is more than an hour or so away. He gets fed 2xday.