My Bassett just had a seizure! What could have caused it?

[lemurchaser]

When I worked at an emergency vet, the some of most common poisonings we saw were:

Slug bait, compost, rat poison, and marijuana. I'm in the pacific NW, so we also saw a lot of salmon poisoning in dogs (out here do not let your dog eat raw fish). Slug bait was really really common, compost less so. And pot happened fairly commonly.

Slug bait, compost, and pot all cause tremors, and the tremors cause their body temp to rise, which can be fatal. They need heavy sedation and/or muscle relaxers to prevent brain damage. With treatment, most dogs did okay. The compost can be a bit worse, because the toxins act slightly differently, you can also get GI signs and some pretty sick dogs.

 

[chickensioux]

I hope you pinpoint the problem. My 14 yr. old mix has epilepsy and has siezured for most of her life. She had her 1st one at around 6 mos. She would have a seizure about every 6 mos or so. The vet said no problem until it becomes more frequent and she remained unmedicated for most of her life. Slowly over the years the seizures did come more often, but it took a real long time. It wasn't until she started to have them once a month that we (the vet and I) decided it was time to control them. She has been on anti-seziure meds for about 3 years now. It doesn't completely stop them but they are few and far between and very mild.
Her seizures are exactly as you describe your dogs. Good luck. And even if it does continue it can be controlled.

 

[tothemoon]

lemurchaser, the link that you posted said the toxins could be out of thier system in 48 hours....is this true? There have been no other symptoms since the one seizure from George and the salavation from Chip. Both dogs are fine now. Thanks to everyone else for your postings. I will keep a watchful eye on Georgie (just in case it wasnt the compost pile) and if he ever has another seizure, I will discuss our options with the vet. I do feel that it was the compost pile that caused these symptoms though, I had mixed it up and took some to put on the flower garden getting ready for spring blooms yesterday. My hubby said he saw the dogs digging around in the garden, which they never do but I guess the nasty compost was tasty to them. Praise the Lord that it seems to have been a mild poisening and they are recovering well.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
Yes it is

 

[lemurchaser]

Quote:
Generally if they are improving, it is a good sign. They do clear it on their own. Also watch for diarrhea as it passes through them and any other signs like the ones listed.

I'm glad to hear they are doing well.

 

[thebritt]

We have a border collie that has full-on grand mal siezures, and is on medication to help reduce the frequency/severity. It is absolutely brutal to watch. All you can do during a siezure is get stuff out of the way, or pull the dog away from table legs, or whatever he might bruise himself on during the violent shaking. Some recommend "Rescue Remedy" to assist in recovery. We've used it, but there's no way of knowing if recovery would've taken longer w/out it. Imagine every muscle in your body being pushed to the limit - painful later on. The dog may even act blind anfter a siezure, and disoriented.
What bummer.
Hope things are OK.

 

[Barnyard]

My Rat terrier has seizures. According to my vet there are many things that could cause this, and if you have thousands of dollars to run many, many test, then you can possibly find out the cause. Sometimes simple blood work can give you the answer. It could be a problem with the liver, or the brain. He said most of the time the problem is either, in the head area, or the stomach area. My lilly is now on Phenobarb 15 mg once a day. Since I have started her on it, she has not had anymore seizures.

I hope things are ok with the Bassett

 

[SillyChicken]

Glad you found out what the problem was, and the dogs are getting better.


It's not fun having a dog that suffers grand mals as you found out!

I have a mastiff that did for her first 4 years, she's been seizure free for the last 4. She would have seizures almost every day, it was horrible. I'd hold her in the kennel or where she was to keep her from hurting herself... she'd come out and get aggressive to anyone else. We had her on valium and Phenobarbitol and it helped for a while until one night she seized several times in a row and not coming out fully before the next hit. ..., an emergency trip to the vet had her putting the dog under slowly, so she didn't kill her, but to the point of darn near. When a dog seizes they stop breathing, the last one she had caused brain damage. We debated putting her down that night, and decided to give her another chance, we switched her over to Potassium Bromide, it worked great! Seizures stopped and we slowly backed her off all her meds and she's been seizure free. We had to retrain her, rehouse train her (she still has issues)...she's a silly sweet 8 yr old 100lbs puppy for the most part.

Delta running at me full speed! The little green thing on her collar was a pet id that listed her medical condition - like a medi alert.