I had a beautiful golden retriever, Oliver, who had his first seizure days before his second birthday. It scared the hell out of me. He was diagnosed with epilepsy and had seizures every month, for 1 to 3 days, for a period of 5 years. He was experiencing cluster seizures, and it was heartbreaking to watch him. I went through so many meds to help him. Finally a different vet did a consult with the vets at OSU vet school. They said to put him on Keppra. His seizures stopped for almost 5 years.

My elderly dog (14) suddenly had a seizure in the evening. It went on for a long time. The only thing we could do was letting her ride it out while keeping a flat hand under her head so she wouldnt injure her head on the floor. We got her comfortable for the night and my dad slept on the couch near her. Next day we made a vet appointment for euthanesia and later in the day she had another seizure were afterwards she kept wandering disoriented. When she got the shot another seizure was about to start. We didnt put her to sleep because of the seizures, it was just the sign that we shouldnt hold on anymore just to let her suffer. She was blind, deaf, unstable, barely ate and we hadnt seen her wag her tail for many months. If you are debating if its time to let your dog go then consider when the last time was that you saw them wagging their tail.

@caitlinhs9670

Ай бұрын

I previously had a cat who hid the signs of her kidneys shutting down very well for a while. I knew when she stopped purring that it was time to let her go.

Can I please just add… when you get to the vet hospital and the staff asks if they can put in a catheter, please say yes! No it is not a urinary catheter… it’s a vein catheter, so that they can easily give medications if they have another seizure.

Seizures are very scary things

Very helpful info. Thank you! I've seen friend's pets have seizures before. Now instead of being scared and useless, I can be scared, but helpful.

I had this happen once with a healthy kitten. I had used flea meds meant for a kitten his age and he started having a seizure a few mins after I put them on. Since that was what had changed I quickly wash him off with dish soap. Vet said I probably save his life and it was likely a reaction to the meds. Apparently that drug had a rare but deadly reaction in some cats I wasn't aware of. I was very carful with meds after that, he had skin reactions vomiting to few other meds but never seized again. One of the scariest days of my life, even more so being my first pet as an adult and first cat ever.

But if it's not a one time thing wouldn't you advice to get them a helmet? I had a puppy who started having bad seizures and he hit his head against a staircase and went blind and deaf. We had to put him down :(

Is the Siamese cat making biscuits in the tub? I have had two cats have seizures. The first cat had been in a fight and the vet said it was the stress of the fight and that cat has never had another seizure. The other one though, he's on medication for his focal seizures. They're alarming to witness, but I've learned to be calm during them.

Can animals get status epilepticus like humans can? Are there medicines which can stop that for animals like we have?

@caitlinhs9670

Ай бұрын

yeah, there are a couple different meds that are used in cats/dogs but phenobarbital is the main one. Comes in a liquid suspension and in tablets. Tablets can be bought at a retail pharmacy, liquid is bought from a compounding pharmacy. Not even that expensive ether. It's dosed mainly by body weight and it's very important to dispense the proper dosage. I mix my cat's liquid phenobarbital into wet food every 12 hrs, or at least as close as humanly possible to every 12 H. It needs to remain a consistent level in her blood stream to be most effective, provide the best coverage and be the safest in terms of side effects and body reactions. It does have side effects like decreased coordination, constipation, and nausea but as long as it's dosed right side effects can be minimal. Like, my cat is a tad wobbly and occasionally stumbles but her stress anxiety and other things like brain damage, physical damage, lower life span and such is greatly reduced. It does cause a bit of a drowsy effect as well, but considering it's a barbiturate it makes sense. The drowsy in my cat has just generally calmed her down and reduced her overall anxiety. Which is great. But yeah, you can find videos of cats having seizures on the internet and it's fking heartbreaking to watch a pet have a seizure. Seizures in animals do have a range of severity, frequency and length of time. They have an aura, both post and pre, just like humans. Sometimes my cat's pre aura is like 2 weeks and she gets super needy and won't leave my side unless I leave for work. Other times it's less than a day. Post recovery varies just like in humans. Sometimes my cat has recovered in an hr ish. Sometimes it can be a week until the full strength and coordination of her left side fully comes back. Just like humans, a cat's seizures could be the result of an injury, birth defect, or is just idopathic(unknown). I have no idea why my cat has seizures as she used to be a stray. But with meds and a calmer environment I can greatly lessen the impact and severity that seizures have on her and her life. She went from a couple seizures a week to one in a 2-3 month period. Which is huge, like beyond a huge improvement. I can't give her enough meds to completely knock her episodes out because of the potential toxicity and increased side effects of the phenobarbital. But she's a happy kitty, plays and sleeps on the other pillow in the bed at night, so I think I'm doing good.