does any have a dog with epilepsy? very long sorry

we had a rough weekend, last week. my, will be three next month, rottie started having seizures a couple months ago. it would be when we went to feed her, like she got to excited. i would put her in the kitchen, make up her bowl in the dog room, then let her out there to eat, and that seem to help alot. almost like she was not so excited, like when she would sit there and wait for it to be set down for her. anyway i am scared of them, because i can't watch them. it kills me to see it. i also didn't know how many was a lot.

well last weekend, she started having them just laying next to me on the floor. she would sit up and start banging her head on the wall. fall over and start shaking, then she would start the paddling. you could see the fear in her eyes, it is horrible. when she did come to again she would run around the house. she ran to the dog room and went poop. when she came back into the family room the foam was about six inches long hanging out of her mouth and bloody, so i knew she must have bit something. it was one of the worst ones she had. she wouldn't settle down for about six or seven minutes. then she laid next to my husband on the floor of the living room. i went to the ceillar to check on my hatch and i could hear her having another one. this time i was down stairs and she was above me on the hard wood floor. it was so hard to listen to it. i came up stairs just as she came to and started running around the house. we have to move all the other animals, when this happens, because she will attack them, because she is scared and doesn't know who they are. heck she doesn't know who she is at that point.

anyway she had them one after the other that weekend. i called my vet, which is an hour away, and i couldn't get in until monday. they said if she many more to take her to the er. has anyone ever been to one, what a rip off. (i took a stray cat there, all my animals are rescues or homeless, that got hit by a car. i walked in and said my cat has a broken leg. $600 later they came back and said the cat has a broken leg. it will be $2400 to do surgery and but one of those halo things on it. i said cast it and i am leaving. long story short took her to the same vet i got the appt for monday and $300 later we are good to go. you wouldn't know that cat got hurt.) i thought about it all weekend. i couldn't spend thousands of dollars to have all these test run and i couldn't live watching have them all the time. i was prepared to put her to sleep on monday when i got there. i thoght for sure it was tumor, or cancer, or bacterial infection.

they said it was epilepsy because of her age. my vet wasn't worried it was anything else. she said can usaully be caused my a head trauma. well she was kicked my big gelding, both hoofs to the face. she said, yep that could do it. she put her on meds and said she will have as little as one or two a yr. the meds are $10 a month, which i can do. she did say that she may seem out of it for the next couple weeks while she gets used to them. well, i think the meds make her stupid. litterally! she doesn't listen or behave. it has been five days and she is very naughty. when we go in the ceillar she eats out of the cat box. not just walks by. we have a little privacy gate around it. she will knock it over and digs like mad throwing out all the litter to get a snack. i can stand right there and tell her to stop. it is like she can't hear me. i try to pull on her to get her out and she pulls harder to get her snack. she will eat out of the cat dish. i could say leave it to a steak on the floor. not anymore, she is crazy. she whines constantly. if we put her in the dog room with a baby gate, she would go lay on her bed for hours, no problem. you put her there now, we have to shut the door, because she will sit there and cry.

thanks for listening. does anyone else have a dog being treated for this? and does it ruin your dog?
i would love to have my dog back that i have spent a long time to get her to behave. i got her at nine months old and she was locked in someone garage for six months. the wife said it was too big. as you can guess, she was a little crazy. she has became a pretty good dog, but now she is almost as bad as when we got her.

My mom has a cockapoo that has seisures....thank God I am good under pressure, mom was flipping out. THe best thing to do is just HOLD them while they are having one so they don't hurt themselves. Maggie would loose all control of her back end and legs and could not walk straight.

Maggie is not on meds because she has like 1 episode a year. Usually she has one bout then later that day another ,....then it is over for a year.

In my honest opinion, I would say the meds are too strong for your rott. Tell the vet what she has been up to since the meds start. Meds for seisures are sensitive...The vet will probably suggest you break the pills in half and give her half for a while and see if that helps......(DONT do that till you talk to your vet! I am not a vet!)

I just know my DD has ADHD and it always has to be monitored and we change the dosage a couple times a year till they got it stabilized..

Don't freak out, and don't feel like you are asking a stupid question. The vet cannot help if you don't give him/her all the info on how the meds are affecting your rott...every dog is different.

Good luck!

thanks for your advice.
but one thing i don't agree with is holding them. my SIL tried that and they had to put her thumb back on. it may be ok with your little one but not with these big ones. she spent $7000 in a week trying to find out what was wrong with her dog. at the end of the week, they had to put the dog down and she was badly injured. the vet says what they will do to themselves is nothing compared to what they can do to you.

My mom used to have a beagle who had epilepsy. Mom got her meds for a long time. Missy (the dog) would have a seizure once or twice a month. Yeah, the meds make her kooky for a while. Missy started having more seizures I think and Mom got tired of paying for meds, so she gave Missy to the vet. Our family was MAD! Mom's really not a pet person anyway, but she was going to have Missy put to sleep. All she needed was more medicine. We would have taken her, but we already had 2 dogs and 3 cats. We couldn't afford her. As someone who has epilepsy too, I know how rough seizure meds can be on a body. Some of them take a LONG time to adjust to. I can only assume the same for an animal. Good luck!

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WOW, never knew that!!! I will tell mom to be careful with Maggs!

I rescued a cat years ago that I came across some young boys trying to through the cat on top of a store building. I got out of my car walked over to the boy holding the cat and just took it from him. I said to him this is my cat now and left. Anyway the cat a year or so later developed a spinal cord injury and the vet said put him down there is no way he will recover but I took the cat home and worked with him and after awhile the cat became fine. I love rubbing that one in the vets face but anyway about 8 or 10 years later the cat started having seizures. I took him back to the vet and he had developed epilepsy. We kept him on meds and the cat ended up living another two years maybe. I hated losing him and still miss him. I don't know what to tell you about the dog, maybe the meds are to strong. Good luck with your dog, I know how hard it is.

One treatment used on humans for epilepsy is a type of low carbohydrate diet called a keotogenic diet. http://www.examiner.com/x-798-Denver-LowCarb-Examiner~y2008m10d24-Low-Carb-Diet-Help-Epileptics It might work for a dog.

The only concern is some people say that cooked fat is bad for dogs because it can trigger pancreatitis. You might just want to try a high protein, low carbohydrate dog food. Wellness makes a line called CORE that is low carb. My cats love the kitty version. There is another brand called INNOVA. Their EVO line is low carb. Again...my cats like the kitty version. I imagine the dog version is just as good.

Other possibilities include feeding your dog raw according to the BARF (biologically appropriate raw feeding) protocol. Several of my low carb buddies feed their rotties according to this plan. Give it a google.

When I was 5 years old my mom brought me home from school for a suprise! There in my kitchen was a craite with a little brown terrier mix puppy. I named him Buster Brown and for years that dog was my best friend.
When he was 6 and I was 11 he started having seizures. It was the scarriest thing ever, at first it only happened when we where all awake and we would wait and watch and talk calmly to him. When it happened more then once in a week my mom took him to the vet. They said he had Epilepsy and put him on phenobarbatol a half a pill every night. I always made sure he got the meds he took them so good. At first he was a little drowsy but nothing like your dog is acting. They worked at first though he went almost a year with no seizure. Then he started having them again at least a couple a month, then at least one a week and then sometimes more then one a week.
He would do all the things your dog is doing while having them except he would also pee. At this point I could no longer let him sleep with me and for the first time in his life he was banashed to a crait at night. Every night I would read him a book and sing him a song before I put him in there I felt so bad.
Then one night mom yelled up the stairs to me ( I was watching tv in my room) that Buster had started having a seizure outside. I still regret it to this day but I said its okay he will get over it, He always had before. When My program was done 20 min later I went down to get him and he was laying outside still in the seizure. I tried everything that had worked before, talking to him, softly petting his side. Finially he calmed down and stopped, but with in minutes he started again. We called the vet and rushed him in. I never saw him alive again. Three days later We berried him under the evergreens where we always played.
Stick with your dog hopefully it will get better, and you will get at least another year or two with her.
To this day I blame myself, I will never know if maybe if I had gone out there he would of been okay.Or If I would have stayed at the vet with him.
Sorry this is so long just got typing and couldn't stop Buster was a great dog and I havn't talked about him in a very long time.

Good luck with your dog
Melissa

sorry about your buster. it is very hard to loose your dog. i was really to loose her monday.
she does pee every once in a while. she does seem to "leak" a little now just laying around. i am waiting to see how long that carries on for.
bella can't sleep on my bed either any more. when she thought it was time for bed she would go get on the bed and wait for me. no she stays downstairs too. this sucks!

I am so sorry for you and your dog that this is happening. Talk to your vet and hopefully the meds can be adjusted. Good luck and best wishes.