Post by: Elliott on October 08, 2011, 10:36:13 AM
My question is, how many of you have had a dog that has had a seizure once in his or her life and then never had one again? How safe is it to hunt with a dog that has had a seizure? Is there any hope that my dog will still live 10-15 happy years?
Prayers and positive thoughts are welcome
Post by: bucklucky on October 08, 2011, 10:42:02 AM
Post by: Kola16 on October 08, 2011, 10:42:38 AM
Post by: BigD on October 08, 2011, 11:00:38 AM
About the same age as your dog he started to have seizures. His were much less severe. He would lay down and start breathing very heavy and seemend unable to move and they lasted only 3-5 minutes. This happened about 5 or so times over the course of the summer, we actually thought he was allergic to the yellow jackets that he was trying to eat all that summer. took him to the Vet, they ran a blood panel or what ever they do and told us he was having epeleptic seizures. They gave him some medication in a pill form that we gave him once a day for about a year. Further tests showed he no longer needed the medication and he nerver had another seizure the rest of his life.
If your lab is anything like our boxer he should be fine, we never saw any side effects what so ever, he spent a good part of the rest of his life at full throttle.
Post by: Glockster on October 08, 2011, 11:13:01 AM
He was a great dog, but he just couldn't bear the risk of watching him have a seizure during an icy retrieve and drowning.
It maybe ok IMHO to keep a dog like that, but I'd never ever hunt ducks with it.
Post by: Elliott on October 31, 2011, 09:11:48 AM
Post by: vandeman17 on October 31, 2011, 09:21:35 AM
Post by: quadrafire on October 31, 2011, 10:01:49 AM
Well, he just had another seizure. This is happening far too often for my liking, one was enough in fact. He had the seizure in my bed so I woke up right away from it. It sucks to think about but it was less traumatic for me this time compared to the first one, and it seemed like a much shorter seizure as well, only about a minute and a half of seizing and about 5 minutes to regain his head and legs back to mostly normal functionality.
Most epileptic seizures occur at periods of rest, not activity, so I wouldn't hesitate to hunt. If you find he is having more than a couple per month, or if they get more severe, he may need some treatment. Talk to your vet about medication if they get worse or more frequent. :twocents:
Post by: YellowDog on October 31, 2011, 10:22:41 AM
Post by: Happy Gilmore on October 31, 2011, 10:34:34 AM
Well, he just had another seizure. This is happening far too often for my liking, one was enough in fact. He had the seizure in my bed so I woke up right away from it. It sucks to think about but it was less traumatic for me this time compared to the first one, and it seemed like a much shorter seizure as well, only about a minute and a half of seizing and about 5 minutes to regain his head and legs back to mostly normal functionality.
Most epileptic seizures occur at periods of rest, not activity, so I wouldn't hesitate to hunt. If you find he is having more than a couple per month, or if they get more severe, he may need some treatment. Talk to your vet about medication if they get worse or more frequent. :twocents:
If he has one while swimming he's dead. They don't occur on any prescribed time line. They can happen anytime. They are not any less likely to occur because a dog is exercising or resting.
Post by: PointNLab on October 31, 2011, 11:22:52 AM
There are several differnt reasons your pup may be having siezures. If your a breeder or are involved in the labrador breed you will know that the big concerns today are Centronuclear Myopathy and Excersize Induced Collapse. It's not a dirty secret as mentioned above; but; it's not something the typical hunter will know about even though htere have been articles in DU magazine. The good thing is in the past three years there have been gentic test availible to the breeder to make sure that pups are not affected by these inflictions. The are other causes for seizures that you may want to discuss with a vet. You can google search EIC or CNM to find out how to test your own dog for these and they cost is failry cheap for the kit to do you own swabing. When buying a lab pup now days a buyer should ask for health clearnces for at least Hips, Elbows, Eyes (CERF and PRA) and EIC and CNM. A pup whose parents have all their health clearnces will be more expensive at first but save a lot of heart ache later. I hope you find out what the cause is.
Post by: wildweeds on November 01, 2011, 08:19:01 PM
P.S. THE ONLY WAY to diagnose epilepsy properly for SURE is to pull blood sample from the dog WHILE the SEIZURE is happening.
Post by: Jason on November 02, 2011, 09:01:37 AM
Post by: Helix on November 02, 2011, 09:44:46 AM
There are also lots of toxic things around that can give a dog seizures too, anit freeze, wild mushrooms, rat poison... to name just a couple. Check around your yard for mushrooms and keep a close eye out and dispose of any growing that you find. I'm not sure if these would show up in the dogs bloodwork or not. Anti-freeze probably would show up in tests they ran. My wife had a pup that got into a small mushroom patch a few years ago they knew what casued it due to the dog vomiting it up. It went blind and had seizures for about a week on and off then recovered fully including it's eyesight. You just never know.
Post by: kckrawler on November 02, 2011, 09:44:55 AM
One thing he told me to do was to gently rub a wet rag on his forehead during the seizure. Also, he told me that if you close their eye lids and gently apply pressure to the eye balls during the seizure that often times it'll bring them out quickly. The next seizure, I gave it a shot, and it lasted about 2 minutes, much shorter than the others...you should try it next time.
On a side note, witnessing seizures really suck, I couldn't imagine watching a child or a loved one go through it. The only thing that you can do is remember that he has no idea what's going on, his brain is rebooting (in a sense)....telling myself that usually helps keep me calm. :tup:
Post by: Happy Gilmore on November 02, 2011, 10:04:51 AM
Post by: Buckhunter24 on November 02, 2011, 06:31:32 PM
Post by: Caseyd on November 02, 2011, 06:38:01 PM
Post by: wildweeds on November 03, 2011, 05:10:46 PM
You really should get the dog to the vet........preferably one that won't puh shaw the problem off as " It happens". You need some phenobaribitol to administer when the dog is having the seizure, if the seizure lasts more than 7 minutes brain damage is occuring,and if it goes on long enough it will cook their brain.I've had 3 dogs out of 25 so far that have had seizures,two of those dogs seized once and only once is what it took to kill them,one at age 7 the other this year at almost 9.The remaining dog has hypoglycemic grand mal seizures that when he awoke was nastier than a rattlesnake.
P.S. THE ONLY WAY to diagnose epilepsy properly for SURE is to pull blood sample from the dog WHILE the SEIZURE is happening.
Definitely find a vet that takes this problem seriously.
The advice Wildweeds is giving is for a specific type of seizure. How long a dog, or human for that matter, has a seizure does not determine brain damage. It is how high the body temperature gets and how violent the seizure is (how low glucose levels reach and how high acid levels reach). Phenobarbital medication in dogs can cause its own health problems. If your dog is having the type of seizure described above where brain damage will occur then phenobarbital is better than not doing anything. That is NOT the proper treatment for all seizures. Labs can be prone to have the type of seizure that Wilweeds had to deal with.
Epilepsy is a general medical term that is a diagnosis once 2 or more seizures have occurred. The blood work helps determine what type of seizure is occurring.
Post by: L8NITE on November 03, 2011, 07:22:13 PM
Post by: Elliott on February 04, 2012, 08:43:53 PM
Post by: Bigluke1981 on February 05, 2012, 12:56:16 AM